1945 - Juan José Arévalo
The provisional revolutionary junta was composed of a civilian. Jorge Toriello, and two military officers who were to remain significant figures for some years in Guatemalan politics - Major Francisco Javier Arana and Captain Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Army officers senior to Arbenz and Arana — some 80 generals — who had been supporters of Ubico at once left the country, and elections were scheduled for a constituent assembly and a president. A new constitution. which went into effect on March 13, 1945, reflected the progressivism of the era.
The new constitution extended the suffrage to illiterate males and literate females; previously only literate males had voted. (At the time an estimated 76 percent of Guatemalan women were illiterate.) The president was to be elected for a single six-year term. The new president, Juan José Arévalo, took office two days after the constitution went into effect. Winning 85 percent of the vote in a free election, Arévalo was to be only the second president in Guatemalan history to be freely elected. serve out a constitutional term. and turn over power to a freely elected successor (the other one had been Barillas). Arévalo's social democratic philosophy was in keeping with the spirit of the new constitution. A professor specializing in the philosophy of education. he had spent the exile imposed by Ubico teaching in universities in Argentina. His political doctrine was “ spiritual socialism." as opposed to the materialist socialism of Marx.
The early years of Arévalo's term saw the implementation of long overdue structural reforms. A social security system was established, and an economic development institute was founded. The new constitution had already abolished the vagrancy laws and other forms of forced labor. In 1947 a labor code was adopted that gave workers the right to strike and organize unions. stipulated equal pay for equal work, authorized the passing of minimum wage laws, and set up a system of labor courts to arbitrate grievances. The administration reoriented government spending so that one-third of the budget went to social welfare expenditures, including school and hospital construction, education. immunization and other health programs, and a national literacy campaign. The state had assumed ownership of numerous coffee plantations when those owned by Germans had been expropriated during the war.
This provided some opportunity for experimentation with cooperatives, while legislation prohibited the eviction of renters of agricultural land who continued to make the stipulated payments. In addition, the government attempted to limit rates charged by the electricity monopoly and brought pressure on large foreign corporations to abide by the new labor legislation. Arévalo did not run an anti-business or anti-land owner administration, however. No attempt was made to expropriate private property or nationalize foreign-owned businesses, and the development institute and the newly created state Bank of Guatemala concentrated on lending to private businesses to promote diversification. A 1947 industrial promotion law gave incentives for private investment, and foreign investors were to be welcomed on the same terms as nationals.
Arévalo's general attitude was developmentalist, ” similar to that of previous Liberal presidents. That is. he created incentives for the development of industry and the expansion of agricultural production without threatening the existing distribution of property. Arévalo did not attempt an agrarian reform. His program in agriculture stressed the provision of credit and technical assistance and the promotion of cooperatives. He also attempted a colonization program in the Petén.
Arévalo's last two years in power were spent primarily in attempting to complete his constitutional term without being overthrown. One coup attempt was led by a rightist military officer, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, and came in response to the assassination of Colonel Arana in July 1949.
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