1931 - Jorge Ubico
Carlos Herrera was elected provisional president and then organized his election to a six-year term. He was overthrown two months after his inauguration, however, and the ensuing election gave the presidency to General José María Orellana. During the presidencies of Orellana (1921-26) and his successor, Lázaro Chacón (1926-30). Guatemala enjoyed a rare respite of prosperity, democracy and government competence. The currency was stabilized, and Guatemalan products enjoyed good markets abroad. Labor unions were organized. The educational system was expanded, and libraries were built. The prison system was reformed to stress rehabilitation. and improvements in public health followed hospital construction and the establishment of a school for nurses. But this period of peace and prosperity proved to be an atypical interlude.
Orellana died of a heart attack before completing his term. Chacón had to resign in 1930 after suffering a brain hemorrhage, dying soon after. But in any case. world prosperity came to an end at about the same time as the life of Chacón and, like many other countries, Guatemala was to find that dictatorships flourished in times of depression.
After several months of turmoil a presidential election held in January 1931 was won by Jorge Ubico, who had been defeated by Chacón in 1926. Ubico was a career military officer of upper class origin who had distinguished himself not only in border skirmishes but also as a governor, first of Alta Verapaz and then of Retalhuleu. where his administration was noted for its honesty, energy, and progressivism. especially in public health matters. Ubico was credited with wiping out yellow fever, at some personal danger to himself, and was awarded a gold medal by the Rockefeller Foundation for his efforts on behalf of public health. Although he had served under Estrada Cabrera, he had been appointed to the cabinet by Orellana.
Serving as president until 1944, Ubico combined an emphasis on honesty and fiscal orthodoxy with developmentalism of a traditional sort - based on exploitation of Indian labor and generous concessions to foreign investors — and with a ruthless repression of opposition. His methods consisted of the use of informers and censorship and the execution for sedition, at various times, of over 100 opponents of the regime, including civilian politicians. dissident army officers, students. and labor organizers. One comment that summarized the different aspects of the regime's policies was that Ubico ran a model jail.
The Ubico regime coincided with the world depression of the 1930s and World War II. Adopting classic pre-Keynesian financial policies, Ubico restricted credit, reduced public expenditures drastically, and cut bureaucratic salaries by 40 percent. As an attempt to secure honesty in the public service, Ubico introduced the so-called law of probity, which required public officials to make a declaration of their assets and liabilities before taking public office and again on leaving office. As orthodox financial theory required, the Guatemalan treasury showed a surplus for every year of Ubico's term. In the meantime, Ubico became one of the largest landowners in the country.
Development under Ubico consisted of the maintenance of infrastructure. such as roads and bridges; the provision of loans to land owners on easy terms ; and the granting of extravagant concessions to foreign businesses. The United Fruit Company was granted exemption from import duties on raw materials (including food served in its commissaries) and from local property taxes. There was no limit on the remittance of profits; IRCA. part of a United Fruit empire that also included a port, a shipping line, and a radio and telegraph company, received an annual government subsidy.
Ubico abolished the notorious system of debt peonage, but in 1934 he introduced a vagrancy law that required all Indians, on pain of a jail sentence, to carry a passbook showing the number of days they had worked, which had to total 100 to 150 days a year. Ominously, the same year that the vagrancy law was passed, the Department of Labor was placed under the authority of the National Police.
It was not only American businesses that Ubico favored. As a result of his early days as military governor of Alta Verapaz, he was also close to the German coffee growers and received their strong support. Before the United States entered the war, Ubico allowed German submarines to refuel at Puerto Barrios. This closeness to German interests. as well as the dictatorial style of his government, might have put Ubico in a difficult position during World War II. but he soon assumed a strongly pro-United States posture. The United States was granted military bases and stationed troops in Guatemala during the war. German property was expropriated, and the dictator actually permitted the removal of some Germans, even Germans possessing Guatemalan citizenship, to internment camps in Texas. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation was active in Guatemala in an attempt to prevent the use of Guatemalan territory by enemy agents. The Guatemalan treasury and central bank bought United States war bonds.
Despite this extraordinary display of loyalty to the Allied cause, it was clear that the principles on which the Ubico regime was based were diametrically opposed to those championed by the Allies. The Atlantic Charter, preparations for the founding of the United Nations (UN). and Allied pro-democratic propaganda had their effect in Guatemala, and discontent with the regime rose. It was further stimulated by the overthrow of the dictatorship in neighboring El Salvador in April 1944. The downfall of Ubico came about in classical fashion when the dictator escalated a conflict growing out of a student demonstration until most of the urban population turned against him. Students gathering to demand university autonomy were brutally repressed; a general sit-down strike ensued (the so-called huelga de losbrazos caídos, the strike of the limp arms), and continued antiregime demonstrations forced Ubico to resign on July 1. 1944.
The dictator transferred power to an associate, Juan Federico Ponce Vaides. who attempted to rule in the same style as Ubico, but intensified popular resistance led to open fighting in October. Ponce was forced to resign and was replaced by a joint civil-military junta. Ponce and Ubico both went into exile ; Ubico died in New Orleans in 1946.
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