History of Guatemala

Hunting and foraging groups spread into the area that is now Guatemala prior to 2500 B.C.E., and some settled into farming villages whose subsistence was based on crops such as corn, beans, squash and chili peppers, in addition to hunting and foraging. The basic institutions of Mayan civilization developed between about 2500 B.C.E. and 250 C.E., and the society flourished from approximately 300 and 900 C.E., concentrating around a network of cultural centers such as Tikal, Yazchilan and Palenque. The complex society incorporated artisans, architects, merchants, warriors, priest astronomers, experts of medicine, mathematicians and farmers who engaged in labor-intensive irrigation systems and slash and burn agriculture, all of whom contributed to a cycle of seasonal rituals and ceremonies. For unknown reasons, the major cities were abandoned around 900 C.E., and the Mayan people dispersed into around 30 warring groups, scattered throughout Guatemala, Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula.

Spanish explorers arrived in the Americas in the late 15th century. After conquering Mexico, conquistador Hernan Cortes commissioned Pedro de Alvarado to explore the areas to the south, and in 1523 and 1524, Alvarado defeated and subjugated the Mayan groups of Guatemala. Within a decade of the Spaniards? arrival, approximately 750,000 indigenous people died due to brutal violence and diseases such as smallpox, malaria, measles, typhus, influenza and the common cold, to which they had no immunity.

During Spanish colonial rule, most of Central America came under the control of the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Floods and an earthquake destroyed the first colonial capital, Ciudad Vieja, in 1542, and survivors founded the second capital of Antigua in 1543. In the 17th century, Antigua became one of the richest capitals in the New World. Always vulnerable to volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes, Antigua was largely destroyed by two earthquakes in 1773, but the remnants of its Spanish colonial architecture have been preserved as a national monument. Guatemala?s third capital, Guatemala City, was founded in 1776, after Antigua was abandoned.

During the colonial period, the Spanish instituted a system of land distribution called the ?encomienda,? through which colonists and priests received royal grants of land to be tended by the labor of indentured indigenous serfs. A racial hierarchy was established in Guatemala that held direct ?criollos? (European descendents) on top, those of ?ladinos? (mixed blood) somewhere in the middle, and the indigenous majority at the bottom.

Guatemala gained independence from Spain on Sept. 15, 1821. It briefly became part of the Mexican Empire and then, for a period, it belonged to the federation called the United Provinces of Central America. From the mid-19th century until the mid-1980s, the country passed through a series of dictatorships, insurgencies (particularly beginning in the 1960s), coups and stretches of military rule, with only occasional periods of representative government.

1871 to 1898 marked the era of Gen. Justo Rufino Barrios? liberal regime, under which widespread land expropriations were made. Manual Estrada Cabrera then governed from 1898 to 1930. Extremely significant in Guatemala?s history, the U.S. owned United Fruit Company (UFCO) was established in the country in 1902. The Cabrera government soon granted the UFCO ownership of a railroad and 40 percent of the country?s most fertile land, in addition to control of the port facilities in Puerto Barrios. From 1930 to 1944 Gen. Jorge Ubico governed Guatemala in a repressive, authoritarian manner. Ubico created a secret police unit and re-instituted the vagrancy laws under which all peasants possessing fewer than 10 acres of land were forced to work 90 days each year, unpaid.

In 1944, the ?October Revolutionaries,? a group of dissident military officers, students and liberal professionals, overthrew Gen. Ubico?s dictatorship. A civilian president, Juan Jose Arevalo, was elected in 1945, and he held the presidency until 1951. Social reforms initiated by Arevalo, including the dissolution of the secret police and the vagrancy laws and the creation of national literacy programs, farm cooperatives and voter registration drives, were continued by his successor, Col. Jacobo Arbenz. Arbenz permitted the communist Guatemalan Labor Party to gain legal status in 1952. By the mid-point of Arbenz?s term, communists controlled key peasant organizations, labor unions and the governing political party, holding some key government positions.

During his presidency, Arbenz enacted land redistribution measures that severely angered the United Fruit Company. By this time, the UFCO exercised significant influence within the U.S. government and had grown to be the most important corporation in Guatemala. In addition to its land, railroad and port facilities in Puerto Barrios, the UFCO had a monopoly on Guatemala?s electricity production. When President Arbenz expropriated 400,000 of the UFCO?s 500,000 acres, the company turned to its connections in the U.S. government, and in 1954 a group sponsored by the CIA and led by Col. Carlos Castillo Armas invaded the country from Honduras. Receiving little domestic support to combat the invaders, Arbenz resigned and fled the country, and Col. Castillo Armas assumed the presidency with U.S. backing.

As president, Castillo Armas re-instituted mechanisms of repression, including a committee against communism that compiled lists of thousands of union members and Arbenz supporters who were suspected subversives. Castillo Armas was assassinated by military rivals in 1957, and in 1958, Gen. Ydigoras Fuentes took power. In response to Fuentes? increasingly autocratic rule, a group of junior military officers revolted in 1960. When they failed, several of them went into hiding and established close ties with Cuba. This group became the nucleus of the forces that were in armed insurrection against the government for the next 36 years.

Three principal left-wing rural guerrilla groups, the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Revolutionary Organization of Armed People (ORPA), and the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), conducted economic sabotage and targeted government installations and members of government security forces in armed attacks. These three organizations, plus a fourth, the outlawed communist party, known as the PGT, combined to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in 1982.

In response to the guerrilla groups, the United States engaged in counter-insurgency training for the Guatemalan armed forces. Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro assumed the presidency in 1966, and shortly thereafter, the army launched a major counterinsurgency campaign that largely broke up the guerrilla movement in the countryside. Methods used by the counter-insurgency included napalm and death squads and resulted in some 30,000 deaths, most of them civilian, at this time. The guerrillas then concentrated their attacks in Guatemala City, where they assassinated many leading figures, including U.S. Ambassador John Gordon Mein in 1968.

Between 1966 and 1982, there were a series of military or military-dominated governments, during which tens of thousands of Guatemalans were killed. Following Montenegro?s presidency, Col. Carlos Arana Osorio took office from 1970 to 1974. He initiated another counterinsurgency wave, and as a result, roughly 15,000 people were killed or deemed missing.

In March 1982, army troops commanded by junior officers staged a coup to prevent the assumption of power by former Defense Minister Gen. Anibal Guevara, whose electoral victory was marred by fraud. The coup leaders asked Brigadier Gen. Efrain Jose Rios Montt to negotiate the departure of presidential incumbent Gen. Lucas Garcia. Rios Montt had been the candidate of the Christian Democratic Party in the 1974 presidential elections and was also widely believed to have lost by fraud. Rios Montt formed a three-member junta that annulled the 1965 constitution, dissolved the Congress, suspended political parties and canceled the election law. Shortly thereafter, Rios Montt assumed the title of president of the republic.

Responding to a wave of violence, the Rios Montt government imposed a state of siege, while at the same time forming an advisory Council of State to guide a return to democracy. In 1983, electoral laws were promulgated, the state of siege was lifted, political activity was once again allowed and constituent assembly elections were scheduled. At that point, guerrilla forces and their leftist allies denounced the new government for its repressive practices and stepped up attacks. Rios Montt sought to combat the threat with military actions and economic reforms, a strategy which he called ?rifles and beans.? The government formed civilian defense forces that, along with the army, successfully contained the insurgency. Repression reached its peak and the death toll averaged 1,000 per month during the presidencies of Col. Romeo Lucas Garcia, from 1978 to 1982, and Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, from 1982-1983.

On Aug. 8, 1983, the Guatemalan army deposed Rios Montt, and Minister of Defense Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores was proclaimed head of state. Gen. Mejia claimed that certain ?religious fanatics? were abusing their positions in the government and that corruption had to be weeded out. Constituent assembly elections were held on July 1, 1984.

On May 30, 1985, after nine months of debate, the constituent assembly finished drafting a new constitution, which took immediate effect. Mejia called general elections. The Christian Democratic Party (DCG) candidate, Vinicio Cerezo, won the presidency with almost 70 percent of the vote and took office in January 1986.

Upon its inauguration in January 1986, President Cerezo?s civilian government announced that its top priorities would be to end political violence and establish the rule of law. Reforms included new laws of habeas corpus and ?amparo? (court-ordered protection), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman. The Supreme Court also embarked on a series of reforms to fight corruption and improve legal system efficiency.

With Cerezo?s election, the military returned to its more traditional role of fighting against the insurgents. A stable economy and a marked decrease in political violence characterized the first two years of Cerezo?s administration. Dissatisfied military personnel made two coup attempts in May 1988 and May 1989, but military leadership supported the constitutional order. The government was heavily criticized for its unwillingness to investigate or prosecute cases of human rights violations.

A failing economy, strikes, protest marches, and allegations of widespread corruption marked the final two years of Cerezo?s government. The government?s inability to deal with many of the nation?s problems such as infant mortality, illiteracy, deficient health and social services, and rising levels of violence contributed to popular discontent.

Sources: U.S. State Department Background Notes. A Human Rights History of Guatemala, URL: www.west.net/~tmiller/gh