1954 - Carlos Castillo Armas
The counterrevolution led by Castillo Armas was thoroughgoing. He abrogated the 1945 constitution ; a constituent assembly eventually drew up a new one that went into effect in March 1956. Castillo was “ elected” president in a sort of plebiscite in which the voter had to declare orally to the election officials whether he was for or against Castillo's candidacy. The new constitution disenfranchised illiterates. which meant almost all Indians. Left-wing parties were outlawed, and a wide variety of political crimes were made punishable by death. In fact, many people were executed without benefit of trial. especially officials of the peasant unions and members of the local agrarian committees. The major thrust of the counterrevolution was to demobilize the Indian population and reestablish ladino hegemony.
The restrictions placed on foreign investment by the Arévalo and Arbenz governments were also removed. The land reform laws were annulled, and the expropriated land was returned to its former owners. In a public relations gesture. the United Fruit Company returned to the government 40,000 hectares of the expropriated land that had been given back to it. A new land law was enacted, and the new constitution gave various social guarantees, including the right to organize labor unions. The tensions in Guatemalan society had not been relieved, however. Their manifestations had merely been temporarily suppressed, only to reveal themselves even more strongly in the future, while the pattern estab lished by the 1954 counterrevolution of attempting to hold back the tide of social change was to have drastic and far-reaching consequences in the years to come.
The victory for the right was also a victory for the pro-clerical position. and the Catholic church was rewarded for its support of the “Liberation ” movement of Castillo Armas. Its right to own property, taken away by the Liberals in 1871. was restored, and it was exempted from property taxes. Religion was to be taught in the public schools, and the Catholic University was granted autonomy. For its part, the church resumed emphasizing those portions of Christian doctrine that counsel the poor to accept their lot meekly and account themselves more blessed than the rich and powerful. Archbishop Mariano Rossell y Arellano of Guatemala City instructed his parishioners that “ where there is poverty, there is happiness.”
In 1957 President Castillo Armas was assassinated by a member of his own guard in an incident never satisfactorily explained. The assassination led to several months of turmoil under two provisional presidents. Elections were first held in October and resulted in the announced victory of the candidate of the government party. the National Democratic Movement (Movimiento Democrático Nacional—MDN). Massive protest demonstrations organized by supporters of another candidate, Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes. who claimed that the elections were fraudulent, led to major rioting and the resignation of the provisional president, Luis Arturo González López, his replacement by Guillermo Flores Avendaño, and the holding of new elections in January 1958. Although Ydígoras received the most votes in a three candidate election, described by observers as generally fair, he did not receive a majority of all votes cast, so the decision went to Congress, which confirmed the election of Ydigoras. Most of the representatives of the MDN voted for Ydigoras, rather than the MDN's own candidate, reportedly after extensive bribery. This led to the secession of many hard-core supporters of the late Castillo Arms (castillistas), led by Mario Sandoval Alarcón, who founded a new party, the National Liberation Movement (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional — MLN ).
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