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Resurgent Democracy and the Guatemalan Military

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Jim Handy
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Extract

During 1984 and 1985 there was much discussion of an apparent ‘resurgence’ of democracy in many countries in Latin America. As the military handed over the reins of government to elected civilian rulers in Honduras, El Salvador and Argentina, and steps toward the same end were taken in Uruguay and Brazil, the American media and the Reagan administration – conveniently forgetting its earlier support for military dictatorship – began to speak glowingly of a new ‘Latin spring’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , November 1986 , pp. 383 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 See e.g., Riding, A., ‘A Latin Spring: Democracy in Flower’, New York Times, 11 11. 1984.Google Scholar

2 Excelsior (Mexico City), 21 and 22 Jan. 1986; and Unomásuno (Mexico City), 22 06. 1986.Google Scholar

3 See e.g. Knox, Paul in The Globe and Mail (Toronto), 2 11. 1985.Google Scholar This general argument has been applied to other countries in Latin America as well. See Petras, James and Herman, Edward S., ‘Resurgent Democracy: Rhetoric and Reality’, New Left Review, 154 (11./12. 1985), pp. 83–98.Google Scholar

4 Cited in Black, George, ‘El Señor Presidente’, NACLA, no. 19 (11./12. 1985), p. 25Google Scholar. Also see Council on Hemispheric Affairs, News and Analysis, 30 10. 1985.Google Scholar

5 Ronfeldt, D., ‘Patterns of Civil-Military Rule’ in Einaudi, L. (ed.), Beyond Cuba: Latin America Takes Charge of its Future (New York, 1974), pp. 107–28.Google Scholar

6 Chargé of the U.S. Legation in Guatemala to State Department, 21 Oct. 1926, General Records of the Department of State, National Archives (hereinafter Rec. of State), 814 series and Minister of Legation to State, 29 Apr. 1929, 814, Rec. of State.

7 For a fuller discussion of the Guatemalan military during the revolution see Handy, J., ‘Revolution and Reaction: National Policy and Rural Politics in Guatemala, 1944–1954’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 1985), pp. 359–415.Google Scholar

8 For a fuller discussion of the Revolutionary Party administration see Handy, J., Gift of the Devil: A History of Guatemala (Toronto: Boston, 1985), pp. 160–4.Google Scholar Also see Jamail, M., ‘Guatemala 1944–1972: the Politics of Aborted Revolution’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Arizona, 1972).Google Scholar

9 See Handy, , Gift, pp. 165–83Google Scholar. Also, see Peralta, G. Aguilera, ‘The Process of Militarization in the Guatemalan State’, Latin American Research Unit Studies (Sept. 1982), and his Dialecta del terror en Guatemala (San José, Costa Rica, 1981).Google Scholar

10 There has not yet been a thorough study of the Estrada Cabrera government. For comments on his administration from American diplomats, see Stabler, chargé at legation, to State, 30 Jan. 1917, 814; W. F. Ganis, Minister at legation, to State, 30 May 1910, 814. Hugh Wilson, minister at legation, to State, undated but 1914, 814. On Estrada's relations with the military see P. Knox, Sec. of State to legation, 25 Jan. 1913, 814; Walter Thurston, minister, to State, 7 Apr. 1917, 814; and William Deverall, Special Assistant to the Department of State, enclosed in Thurston to State, 1 Apr. 1917, 814. On the influence of the head of secret police and chauffeur, see memorandum of conversation Stabler and Knox, 31 May 1912, 814; Sands to State, 17 Sept. 1910, 714; and letter from an American resident in Guatemala to consul-general, 13 Mar. 1920, 814; all in Rec. of State. Also see Dinwoodie, D. H., ‘Expedient Diplomacy: The United States and Guatemala, 1898–1920’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1966)Google Scholar and Miguel Angel Asturias’ Nobel Prize-winning novel on the Estrada government, El Señor Presidente.

11 The most complete work on political alignments in the 1920s is Pitti, J., ‘General Jorge Ubico and Guatemalan Politics in the 1920s’ (Ph.D. diss., University of New Mexico, 1975)Google Scholar. The American minister in Guatemala from 1922 to 1930, Arthur Geissler, was especially close to both Presidents Orellana and Chacón. His reports give extensive coverage of the various political intrigues that surround the military officers involved in politics. See especially Geissler to State, 29 Apr. 1929, 814; 11 July 1929, 814; 19 July 1923, 814 and 26 June 1923, 814 all in Rec. of State.

12 For a discussion of the Ubico administration and his rise to power see Grieb, K., Guatemalan Caudillo: The Regime of Jorge Ubico, Guatemala, 1931–1944 (Athens, Ohio, 1979)Google Scholar and his ‘American Involvement in the Rise of Jorge Ubico’, Caribbean Studies, no. 10 (04 1970), pp. 5–21Google Scholar. Also see Krehm, W., Democracia y tiranías en el Caribe (Mexico City, 1949).Google Scholar

13 See Carmack, R., ‘Spanish-Indian Relations in Highland Guatemala, 1800–1944’, pp. 215–53Google Scholar in MacLeod, M. and Wasserstrom, R. (eds.), Spaniards and Indians in South-eastern Mesoamerica (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1983)Google Scholar for a discussion of the militia in one highland town.

14 Handy, , ‘Revolution and Reaction’, pp. 84–92Google Scholar. See also Imparcial (Guatemala City), 21 Oct. 1944; Diario de Centro-América (Guatemala City), 27 Oct. 1944Google Scholar; Arévalo, J. José, ‘20 de Octubre de 1944’, in his Escritos Político; (Guatemala City, 1945), p. 132Google Scholar; ‘Por qué actuó el ejército’, Revista Militar (Feb. 1945); Grieb, K., ‘The Guatemalan Military and the Revolution of 1944’, Americas, no. 52 (04 1976), pp. 524–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Quote from Schneider, R., Communism in Guatemala: 1944–1954 (New York, 1958), p. 24Google Scholar. Also see M. K. Wells, chargé in U.S. embassy in Guatemala, to State, 12 Nov. 1948, 714 series, Rec. of State. For army reaction to rural unrest in the 1940s see N. Stines, attaché to U.S. embassy to State, 6 Dec. 1946 and 27 Jan. 1947, series 814, Rec. of State. Also see Imparcial, 2 Aug. 1946, 2, 3, 4 Jan. 1947.

16 Tejada, Colonel Paz in ‘Un militar honesto’, pp. 36–51Google Scholar in Cáceres, Carlos, Aproximación a Guatemala (Sinaloa, Mexico, 1980).Google Scholar

17 The killing of Arana is still a controversial event with no clear picture emerging of the various events leading up to it. This account is taken primarily from Arbenz' own testimony in Cehelsky, M., ‘Habla Arbenz, su juicio histórico retrospectivo’, Alero, 3a época (1975), pp. 118–25Google Scholar and that of Paz Tejada in ‘Un militar honesto’.

18 For a description of the revolt see Arévalo, J. José, Informé al congreso…1950, pp. 30–2Google Scholar and Toledo, M. Monteforte, Una democracia a prueba de fuego (Guatemala City, 1949)Google Scholar, both of which attempt to follow the government line that Arana was killed by the rebels but none the less provide a good description of the fighting itself.

19 M. Wells to State, 1 Aug. 1949, 714 series, Rec. of State. For a fuller discussion of Arbenz' election see Handy, J., ‘The Guatemalan Revolution and Civil Rights: Presidential Elections and the Judicial Process under Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmáan’, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, vol. 10 (1985), pp. 3–21.Google Scholar

20 Shoenfeld, U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, to State, 14 Aug. and 11 Sept. 1953, 714, Rec. of State. Also see Imparcial 6 July 1951.

21 The best-known of these works are Kinzer, S. and Schlesinger, S., Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (New York, 1983)Google Scholar; Bodenheimer, Susanne Jonas, Plan piloto para el continente (San José, Costa Rica, 1981Google Scholar) and de Soto, José Aybar, Dependecy and Intervention (Boulder, Colorado, 1975)Google Scholar. Other works that deal with the U.S. intervention but place less stress on the economic aspects of the dispute are Immerman, R., The CIA in Guatemala: the Foreign Policy of Intervention (Austin, Texas, 1982Google Scholar) and Cook, B. Weissen, Declassified Eisenhower: A Divided Legacy (New York, 1981).Google Scholar

22 For a fuller discussion of the military reaction to the Agrarian Reform Law see Handy, , ‘Revolution and Reaction’, pp. 396–405Google Scholar. For Arbenz' discussion of the military commissioners see Cehelsky, , ‘Habla Arbenz’, p. 119.Google Scholar The number printed in the article is 70,000. This is either a misprint or an exaggeration on Arbenz' part. Either figure illustrates a substantial expansion of military commissioners' presence in the countryside. For examples of the peasant league having military commissioners removed, see Colonel Diaz to Castillo Flores, head of the peasant league, 25 Jan. 1951, reel 50 of Guatemala Documents in Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress; Castillo Flores to Díaz, 13 June 1952, box 1, Guatemalan Documents; C. Torres Moss, secretary of organization of the peasant league to Major Arreaga, 15 Apr. 1953, box 1, Guatemalan Documents; Castillo Flores to peasant union, San Martín Jilotepéque, 13 June 1952, box 1, Guatemalan Documents; and Otilio Marroquín R., head of peasant federation in Department of Guatemala, to all unions in the Department, 16 June 1954, Guatemalan Documents, reel 50. For the military commission's report see plan presented by Consejo Superior de la Defensa Nacional, 19 May 1954, Guatemala Documents, box 1. The most complete account of the military's demands about the communists was in lmpacto (Guatemala City), 30 June and 2; July 1954. See also Scoenfeld to State, 21 Aug. 1953, 714, Rec. of State; ‘Current Intelligence Digest’, 15 and 17 June 1954, in CIA Research Reports, reel 5; Cehelsky, , ‘Habla Arbenz’, pp. 122–3.Google Scholar

23 On purging of officers following the Liberation see W. Krieg to State, 17 Aug. 1954, 714, Rec. of State and Cehelsky, M., ‘Guatemala's Frustrated Revolution, the Liberation of 1954’ (Master's thesis, Columbia, 1967)Google Scholar, esp. p. 101. On the cadet revolt see Krieg to State, 18 Aug. 1954, 714, Rec. of State. The cadet revolt was prompted to some extent by the speeches made at a celebration meant to help foster army unity; see Discursos del vocal de la junta de gobierno de Coronel Elfego H. Monzón en la celebración del día de ‘La unidad nacional del ejército’ (Guatemala City, 1954).Google Scholar

24 For a fuller discussion of the Ydígoras government see Handy, , Gift, pp. 152–4Google Scholar. Also see Weaver, J., ‘Administration and Development in Guatemala’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1968Google Scholar) and Sloan, J., ‘The Electoral Game in Guatemala’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1969).Google Scholar

25 Bodenheimer, S. Jonas, plan piloto, p. 295Google Scholar; also see Fuentes, M. Ydígoras, My War with Communism (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963)Google Scholar, both of which argue that there was significant American involvement in the overthrow.

26 Sloan, J., ‘Electoral Fraud and Social Change’, Science and Society (Spring 1970), p. 87Google Scholar; and James, R., ‘Guatemala: the March Coup and the Civil War’, Canadian Forum (08. 1982), p. 12.Google Scholar

27 Toledo, M. Monteforte, Centra América: Subdesarrollo y dependencia, vol. 2 (Mexico City, 1972), p. 193.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 33. Also see Johnson, K., ‘The 1966 and 1970 Elections in Guatemala: A Comparative Analysis’, World Affairs (Summer 1972), p. 42Google Scholar; and the New York Times, 9 Mar. 1966 for a discussion of vote results.

29 Jenkins, B. and Sereseres, C. D., ‘United States Military Assistance and the Guatemalan Armed Forces’, Armed Forces and Society (Winter 1977), p. 576Google Scholar; Peralta, G. Aguilera, ‘Terror and Violence as Weapons of Counter-Insurgency’, Latin American Perspectives (Spring and Summer 1980), p. 106Google Scholar; New York Times, 15 July 1967.

30 Gall, Norman, ‘Slaughter in Guatemala’, New York Times Review of Books, 20 05 1971Google Scholar; New York Times, 2 and 3 Mar. 1970, 8 May 1971; and Johnson, K., ‘The 1966 and 1970 Elections’, p. 42.Google Scholar

31 For a fuller discussion of this period see Handy, , Gift, pp. 165–83.Google Scholar

32 Consul, U.S. embassy in Guatemala, to State, 21 Oct. 1926, and memorandum of conversation between J. Pruyn, IRCA director and Morgan of State Department, 20 Oct. 1926, both in 814 series, Rec. of State.

33 Ubico left behind a three-man junta composed of Ponce Vaides, Buenaventura Pineda, and Eduardo Villagrán Ariza, but Ponce was soon able to push the other two generals aside. Ponce also made enemies by having his troops brush aside cadets from the academy who were acting as an honour guard for the Assembly at one point when he wanted to use a show of force to intimidate the Assembly members. See Handy, , ‘Revolution and Reaction’, pp. 85–7Google Scholar. See also Imparcial, 4, 5 and 6 July 1944.

34 CIA Research Report, 27 July 1950, p. 29. See also Alerta!, 24 Dec. 1944, p. 310 for a discussion of the reorganization of the military after the overthrow. The division of the military into older line officers, who to a great extent opposed the revolution, and younger cadets who supported it was first identified by Schneider, R., in Communism in Guatemala, p. 31Google Scholar. It has been accepted by many other scholars, for example Baker, R., A Study of Military Status and Status Deprivation in Three Latin American Armies (Washington, D.C., 1967), p. 41Google Scholar. Arbenz himself has played down the differences between young and old officers (Cehelsky, , ‘Habla Arbenz’, p. 121Google Scholar), and based on a survey of officers and their attitude to various public policy issues done by M. Monteforte Toledo during the revolution and published in his Guatemala: Monografía sociológica (Mexico City, 1965), pp. 364–74Google Scholar, other scholars have rejected this argument. See for example Adams, R., Crucifixion by Power (Austin, Texas, 1970), p. 257Google Scholar. However, a careful reading of Monteforte's survey does not appear to suggest serious questions about there being a fundamental difference between the views of officers based primarily on their age or whether they were graduates of the academy or not, and Colonel Paz Tejada, the commander of the cadet company until 1949, has described the various conflicts between officers during the Arévalo administration in this fashion; see ‘un militar honesto’, in Cáceres, , Aproximación, pp. 41–3.Google Scholar

35 For background on Arbenz see ‘Curriculum del Coronel Jacobo Arbenz’, 1952, in Guatemalan Documents, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Anales de la Escuela Politécnica, 1941–1947; and Samayoa, F.C., , La Escuela Politécnica a través de su historia (Guatemala City, 1964)Google Scholar. For a discussion of the importance of promotión and centenario see Adams, , Crucifixion, pp. 246–53.Google Scholar

36 The importance of these connections through promociones is easy to appreciate by surveying the list of officers and their graduating classes in Anales de la Escuela Politécnica, 1947, pp. 177–204 and matching them with those officers who held positions of authority in both the government and the military during the revolution. See Handy, , ‘Revolution and Reaction’, pp. 393–6Google Scholar for a fuller discussion.

37 Sereseres, C. D., ‘Military Development and the United States Military Assistance Program for Latin America: the Case of Guatemala’ (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Riverside, 1971), p. 50Google Scholar; Hispanic American Report, no. 13 (1960), pp. 867–9Google Scholar; Sosa, Marco Antonia Yon, ‘Breves apuntes sobre el Movimiento Revolucionario 13 de Noviembre’, cited in NACLA, Guatemala (Berkeley, 1970), p. 178Google Scholar; Gilly, Adolfo, ‘The Guerrilla Movement in Guatemala’, Monthly Reveiw (05 and 06 1965Google Scholar); and Howard, Alan, ‘With the Guerrillas in Guatemala’, New York Times Magazine (26 06 1966).Google Scholar

38 This argument is made by Sereseres, p. 71 of ‘Military Development’. See also Powell, John D., ‘Military Assistance and Militarism in Latin America’, Western Political Quarterly (06 1965), pp. 382–92Google Scholar and Barber, W. F. and Ronning, C. N., Internal Security and Military Power, Counter Insurgency and Civic Action in Latin America (Ohio, 1966Google Scholar) for an analysis of the effects of the Military Assistance Program on the Latin American militaries in general. A perceptive discussion of this period in Guatemalan history is Rivas, E. Torres, El crisis del poder en Centroamérica (San José, Costa Rica, 1981).Google Scholar

39 New York Times, 21 Mar. 1968; Latin America, 22, 29 Mar., 5 Apr. 1968.

40 New York Times, 5, 6, and 8 Mar. 1974. Barillas, D., Democracia cristiana y su positión ante el ejército de Guatemala boy (Guatemala, 1974)Google Scholar, unpaginated.

41 Barillas, Democracia.

42 Latin America, 10 May, 5 July, 13 Dec. 1974; 24 Jan. 1975; and 11 June 1976.

43 For a fuller discussion of this process see Handy, , Gift, pp. 174–83Google Scholar. See also Black, G., Garrison Guatemala (London, 1984)Google Scholar. The best source for information on military involvement in the death squads and the various targets of these squads is Amnesty International, Guatemalan Campaign Circulars, numbers 1 through 9 (1979) and its Guatemala: A Government Program of Political Murder (London, 1981).Google Scholar

44 For repression in rural Guatemala see Davis, S. and Hodson, J., Witness to Political Violence in Guatemala: The Suppression of a Rural Development Movement (Oxfam America Impact Audit 2, 1982)Google Scholar; Peralta, G. Aguilera, ‘The Massacre at Panzos’, Monthly Review (12. 1979Google Scholar); and James, R., ‘Guatemala: The Terror Continues’, Ontario Indian (05 1982)Google Scholar.

45 Latin American Weekly Report, 6 Feb., 24 July 1981; 2; June 1982; 2 July 1983; Economist Intelligence Unit supplement 1982, and Third Quarter Report, 1982. See also R. James, ‘The March 1982 Coup’.

46 Unomásuno, 31 July 1981.

47 Black, G., ‘Under the Gun’, NACLA, 19 (11./12. 1985).Google Scholar

48 New York Times, 26 and 27 Mar. 1982; Latin American Weekly Report, 19, 22 and 26 Mar. 1982.

49 For background on Ríos Montt see New York Times, 25 Mar. 1982; Latin American Weekly Report, 2 Apr. 1982. Ríos Montt first indicated that the coup occurred because of the continued electoral fraud. See his speech cited in Latin American Weekly Report, 26 Mar. 1982. But he soon dashed the hopes some politicians had for quick elections by declaring that the junta could rule without ‘cheap politicians’. See Handy, , Gift, p. 266.Google Scholar

50 The Mexican government officially recognized only 35,000 refugees, but others have suggested there were closer to 100,000 in 60 camps. See Ignacio Ramírez, ‘Tropas Mexicanos forman un cordón de seguridad tras el ataque Guatemalteco’, Proceso (Mexico City), 7 Feb. 1983. The archbishop of Guatemala estimated that there were in addition 500,000 internal refugees in the country in late 1983 (see Enfoprensa, , Guatemala Faces 1984, p. 34Google Scholar) while the Human Rights Commission of Guatemala suggested the number was closer to 1,000,000; cited in Noticias de Guatemala, 12 Oct. 1982, p. 10.

51 Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 1983.

52 Davis and Hodson, Witness.

53 Comité pro paz, justicia y, Human Rights in Guatemala (02. 1984, pp. 10–11Google Scholar). There has been some argument that community development projects had been so successful in the 1970s that the flow of migrant labour to the coastal plantations was disrupted. According to this argument the army engaged in the campaign to destroy local community organizations in order to induce sizeable numbers of them once again to journey to work in the harvest on coffee, cotton and sugar plantations. This argument lacks any substantial verification, however. See Pansini, J.J., ‘Indian Seasonal Plantation Work in Guatemala’, Cultural Survival Quarterly, no. 7 (1983)Google Scholar; Smith, Carol, ‘Local History in Global Perspective: Social and Economic Transitions in Western Guatemala’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 26 (1984), pp. 193–228CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 219.

54 Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, 10 June 1983; Guatenoticias, 15 Jan. 1983; Prensa Libre, 3 and 25 Mar. 1983.

55 New York Times, 11 Sept. 1983; Latin American Regional Reports, 15 July 1983; Prensa Libre, 21, 24 and 26 Mar. 1983; and El Gráfico, 18 Feb. 1983.

56 Cited in Latin American Regional Reports, 26 Oct. 1982.

57 Pisani, Francis, ‘L'éviction du Général Ríos Montt fuite en avant Guatémala’, Le Monde Diplomatique, 30 09. 1983.Google Scholar

58 Cited in Latin American Regional Reports, 19 Aug. 1983.

59 Ibid., 13 Jan. 1984.

60 Gráfico, 5 Feb. 1966, cited in Sloan, ‘Electoral Game’, p. 159.

61 Quoted in New York Times, 2 Nov. 1985.

62 Mejía's speech cited in Excelsior, 21 Jan. 1986.