1963 - Enrique Paralta Azurdia
President Ydigoras was finally overthrown when it appeared that he intended to preside over fair elections. scheduled for December 1963, that would probably have been won by ex-president Arévalo. The coup was staged by the minister of national defense, Colonel Enrique Paralta Azurdia. when Arévalo's return to the country in March 1963 resulted in enthusiastic popular demonstrations.
Colonel Peralta, a former military attaché in the United States, operated a government distinguished for its authoritarian approach. The frustration of the electoral process and the hopes for democratic change embodied in the candidacy of Arévalo induced some young people to join two insurgent movements led by junior army officers who had failed in a military uprising against the Ydigoras government in 1960 — those led by Luis Augusto Turcios Lima and Marco Antonio Yon Sosa. The guerrillas turned to urban terrorism in October 1965, kidnapping wealthy Guatemalans for ransom to finance their activities. The Peralta government responded to the left-wing threat by counterterrorist activities, including the countenancing of death squads, some sponsored by members of the MLN, which had come to be known as “ the party of organized violence. ” One of the most active groups was the Organized National Anticommunist Movement (Movimiento Anticomunista Nacional Organizado - MANO, but better known as Mano Blanca, or White Hand). which assassinated. usually after brutal torture, figures of the left, moderate left, and center left; peasants thought to sympathize with the guerrillas were also killed.
A new constitution was adopted in 1965, drafted by a constituent assembly handpicked by the Peralta government. On the whole, this was a more conservative document than the constitutions of 1945 and 1956. making no provision for labor courts and making more difficult the formation of legal political parties and the implementation of an agrarian reform. The new constitution extended the suffrage, however, to everyone, literate or illiterate, over the age of 18. The presidential term was shortened to four years, and reelection was forbidden. The regime also founded its own party, the Institutional Democratic Party (Partido Institucional Democrático—PID). designed to be somewhat less extreme than the MLN.
The Peralta government had a mixed record in its economic policy. The economy expanded, and foreign investment came into the country, especially to develop nickel deposits in the department of Izabal. Exports to other Central American states grew. Nevertheless. the industrial sector did not expand fast enough to absorb rural migrants to the cities. and unemployment and underemployment in creased as urban areas grew. A regional development program was drawn up for the department of Izabal, which was where the forces of the Maoist guerrilla commander Yon Sosa operated. The income tax began to bring in appreciable amounts of revenue. although city dwellers complained because they were subject to tax on incomes above US $ 2,000, whereas landowners were taxed only on incomes above US $ 10,000.
The Peralta government dragged its feet in restoring constitutional normality, but elections were finally scheduled for March 1966. Three parties participated in the presidential elections : the government party, the PID; the MLN; and the Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario — PR ). The PGT had been outlawed in 1964, and other parties were unable to attain the number of signatures required for registration as a legal party, raised under Peralta from 10,000 to 50,000. The new constitution had also raised the minimum age for presidential candidates to 40, a provision reputedly designed to exclude the most popular figure on the left, Francisco Villagrán Kramer, who had narrowly missed being elected mayor of Guatemala City in 1962 and who remained in exile, having been refused permission by the Peralta regime to reenter the country.
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