Constitutional Limits on Government: Country Studies - Guatemala
Rankings in Freedom in the World 2010: 3 Political Rights, 4 Civil Liberties (Partly Free)
Summary
Guatemala is a small country in Central America—ranked 106th in the
world by area at 109,000 square kilometers—located immediately south of
Mexico. Its population of about 13 million, like Bolivia's (see Country Study of Bolivia),
includes a large, rural Amerindian contingent, but the indigenous
population is not well integrated into the political and economic
elite. Economically, the country ranks in the world's upper half in
overall nominal GDP, at 69th with $35 billion in 2006. But it remains
in the lower half in nominal per capita GNI, at 122nd with $2,640 per
year. By PPP measurements, that figure rises to $4,800, but the world
ranking drops to 135th. Guatemala's PPP GDP in 2006 was ranked 69th at
$62 billion.
Guatemala |
Guatemala was home to some of the most ancient civilizations in the
Americas, but the Spanish conquest was particularly severe and
complete, enslaving most of the subdivided Mayan nations. From the time
it established itself as an independent republic in 1839, Guatemala was
ruled mostly by dictators who often allowed foreign companies to
dominate the economy and agriculture. A popular revolution in 1944
introduced universal suffrage and land reform, but a U.S.-coordinated
coup in 1954 overthrew the elected government and began 30 years of
right-wing military rule, during which counterinsurgency campaigns
killed tens of thousands of people and dispossessed many communities of
indigenous farmers. After a coup in 1984, a constituent assembly
drafted a new constitution, initiating a period of more democratic
governance.
 From
the time it established itself as an independent republic in 1839,
Guatemala was ruled mostly by dictators who often allowed foreign
companies to dominate the economy and
agriculture. |
History
Guatemala was a central part of the Mayan civilization, and its
territory contains some of the richest archaeological sites in the
world. Originally inhabited between 18,000 and 10,000 BC, Guatemala saw
the beginnings of the Mayan and nearby Olmec civilizations around 1500
BC. The Mayan civilization flourished between AD 300 and 900, though
one of Guatemala's most significant archaeological sites, El Mirador,
reached its peak several centuries earlier. The complex is thought to
have formed the largest city in the ancient Americas, and its pyramid
structures rival those of Egypt in overall size. The Mayan civilization
declined after the 10th century, with the large city-states and
population centers dissipating into smaller settlements, but many
aspects of Mayan language and culture remained dominant among the
Amerindian nations that inhabited the region in the succeeding
centuries.
Spanish Conquest: The General Captaincy of Guatemala
The Spanish conquest of Guatemala beginning in 1523 was led by Pedro
de Alvarado, a lieutenant sent by the conqueror of Mexico, Hernan
Cortes. Alvarado, with a small force of Spanish troops supported by
many Amerindian allies, defeated or co-opted the divided polities and
peoples of Central America and initiated the destruction of remnants of
Mayan civilization. The entire region between southeastern Mexico and
Panama was placed under the captaincy general of Guatemala for nearly
three centuries. The current capital, Guatemala City, was founded in
1776 after earlier capitals were destroyed by earthquakes.
Spanish conquest meant the introduction of a dominant class of
Spanish settlers, who were given control of the land and authority to
subjugate all rural inhabitants, and the exploitation of natural
resources through slave labor (see also the Country Study of Bolivia, and the Country Study of Venezuela).
Roman Catholicism was imposed as the dominant religion. Nevertheless,
Mayan culture survived in clandestine practice over centuries and
remains an important part of Guatemalan society.
Independence, Unity, and Strongman Rule
After independence from Spain in 1821, the captaincy general of
Guatemala became part of the short-lived Mexican Empire under Agustin
de Iturbide. It then separated to form the United Provinces of Central
America, including present-day Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and
Nicaragua. But the federation dissolved in a civil war, and Guatemala
was effectively an independent republic by 1839, under the dictatorship
of General Rafael Carrera. He ruled with the support of the most
important colonial power brokers, landowners and the Catholic Church,
until his death in 1865.
Carrera set the pattern for strongman rule in Guatemala, although
some change came after the liberal revolution of 1871. One of the
leaders of the movement, Justo Rufino Barrios, assumed the presidency
in 1873 and took steps to curb the power of the old landowning class
and the church. He introduced a new constitution and secular education,
and sought to modernize the economy, partly through coffee cultivation.
However, Barrios's attempts to reconstitute a Central American
federation by force led to his death in a battle in El Salvador in 1885.
The long presidencies of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920) and
General Jorge Ubico (1931–44) dominated Guatemalan politics in the
first half of the 20th century. They followed previous rulers in
institutionalizing authoritarian rule and attracting extensive foreign
agricultural investment to develop the Guatemalan economy. During this
period, particularly under Ubico, the country's fiscal situation
improved even as individual liberties were increasingly suppressed.
The 1944 Revolution
A general strike in June 1944 forced Ubico's resignation, and a
further popular revolt supported by dissident army officers ousted his
chosen successor in October. The interim military leaders, Jacobo
Arbenz Guzman and Francisco Javier Arana, ceded power in 1945 to a
civilian president, Juan Jose Arevalo, who had won a largely
uncontested election. Arevalo introduced universal suffrage, initial
land reform efforts, and labor reforms that benefited workers and trade
unions. Arevalo's challenge to the old order resulted in fierce
conservative opposition and accusations that he was a Communist.
Nevertheless, he served until the end of his term in 1951.
The Arbenz Presidency and the 1954 Coup
Arbenz won what was arguably the first free election in Guatemala's
history and succeeded Arevalo in 1951. Influenced by socialist ideas,
he oversaw the passage of a major agrarian reform law, allowing the
seizure and redistribution of large estates that were not being
cultivated. The move was welcomed by the country's many impoverished
peasants, but it represented a serious threat to the U.S.-based United
Fruit Company, which had built up huge landholdings since the turn of
the century. Arbenz's cooperation with local Communists also fed U.S.
fears that Guatemala could eventually ally itself with the Soviet
Union. In 1954, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency sponsored an
invasion by right-wing exiles, compelling Arbenz to resign and leave
the country (see the Country Study of Cuba, and the Country Study of Chile). The leader of the U.S.-backed force, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, was installed as the new president.
The Coup's Bloody Aftermath
Although Castillo Armas was assassinated in 1957, the coup in which
he took power marked the beginning of a 30-year period of strongman
rule, military dictatorship, and a brutal civil war that broke out in
1960. Counterinsurgency campaigns designed to crush the guerrilla
movements that arose at that time are estimated to have caused at least
200,000 deaths. The leftist insurgency also carried out mass executions
and forced recruitment of youths, keeping parts of the country in a
state of terror. The terrible excesses of government forces led U.S.
President Jimmy Carter to cut off military aid in 1977, but it was
resumed under President Ronald Reagan.
From Coup to Democracy
A 1982 coup by junior officers and army troops brought the
religiously charismatic General Efrain Rios Montt to power. He assumed
dictatorial authority and used it to carry out an especially bloody
counterinsurgency campaign. But General Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores
overthrew Rios Montt in August 1983, pledging to restore democratic
rule. Constituent assembly elections were held in 1984, and the
constitution drafted by the body was approved the following year. Marco
Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, the candidate of the reformist Christian
Democratic Party, won a presidential election in December 1985 and took
office in January with strong popular expectations and backing from the
United States and other democratic countries.
Constitutional Limits
Since independence, Guatemala has had a history of weak
constitutional controls and strong presidential rule. The 1985
constitution, designed to correct those problems, limits the president
to one four-year term and requires a runoff election if no presidential
candidate obtains a majority in the first round, instead of allowing
Congress to determine the winner. The 158-member unicameral Congress
also has a four-year mandate. A human rights ombudsman is empowered to
investigate violations of the constitution's guaranteed freedoms, and a
Constitutional Court serves as the final arbiter of disputes involving
the charter. Still, the rule of law remains weak in Guatemala, and the
country's legacy of violence continues to undermine public security.
The Constitution Is Tested
The first president to be elected under the new constitution,
Cerezo, fell short of expectations as the economy declined, his peace
efforts failed, and human rights investigations of the military
stalled. Jorge Serrano Elias, a businessman running as the candidate of
the right-wing Movement of Solidarity Action (MAS), received a strong
majority in the second round of presidential elections in 1991.
However, Serrano became unpopular due to his economic austerity
measures, and he suddenly tested Guatemala's new democracy by
dissolving Congress and assuming dictatorial powers in 1993. But this
time, the military sided with the citizenry and the Constitutional
Court, and Serrano was obliged to resign and leave the country. The
human rights ombudsman, Ramiro de Leon Carpio, was elected by Congress
to complete the presidential term, in keeping with the constitution.
| ...the rule of law remains weak in Guatemala, and the country's legacy of violence continues to undermine public security. |
De Leon Carpio immediately set out on a mission to end corruption,
asking all members of the Congress and Supreme Court to resign and
pushing through a number of reforms. A new Congress was elected in 1994
to complete the old body's term. With United Nations assistance, de
Leon Carpio also reinitiated peace talks with the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Union (URNG), which had kept up a weakened guerrilla
insurgency despite the introduction of democracy. De Leon Carpio's
successor, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen of the center-right National
Advancement Party (PAN), finalized the peace accord with the URNG in
1996. It agreed to reconstitute itself as a political party but failed
to win substantial voter support.
A Second Test
In 2003, Rios Montt, bolstered by his party's majority position in
Congress, instigated violent street demonstrations in Guatemala City
and successfully pressured the Constitutional Court to allow him to run
for president, despite a constitutional ban on anyone who had
participated in a coup. The court's decision was widely criticized by
the public. In the end, though, he garnered only a fraction of the vote
in that year's election and failed to advance to the runoff. The winner
was Oscar Berger Perdomo of the Great National Alliance (GANA). In the
same elections, GANA edged out Rios Montt's Guatemalan Republican Front
(FRG) as the leading party in Congress.
Conclusion
After a difficult history of coups, military dictatorship, and
insurgency, Guatemala has emerged as a democracy in which
constitutional limits have prevented the arrogation of power by
would-be dictators. The 1985 constitution has proven to be more stable
than previous charters. Nevertheless, Guatemala continues to grapple
with serious challenges. While the country's democratic institutions
have successfully fended off a major coup attempt and the return of a
military ruler, persistent problems including corruption, impunity for
rights abuses, criminal violence, and incompetent governance threaten
Guatemala's political stability.
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Introduction
General Resources
