History and Politics

, History

By Christopher Minster

The Maya and Other Indigenous Groups

The first settlers of present-day Guatemala arrived thousands of years ago, and a number of early civilizations developed in the area. Most notable was the Maya, whose empire peaked around 700-1100 A.D. They built great palaces and cities and left behind several fascinating ruin complexes such as Tikal in Guatemala and Palenque in Mexico.

The Maya were great astronomers, builders, warriors and traders. Today, opinions vary as to the reason for their decline. Some believe that a series of natural disasters such as earthquakes and famines was responsible, while others say that the Maya warred amongst themselves too heavily. In any event, by the time the Spanish arrived in Maya lands in 1523 following the successful conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Maya had disintegrated into small, weak ethnic groups that continued to war amongst themselves even as the Spanish picked them off one by one.

The Spanish Conquest of Guatemala

There was little in the Maya region to interest the Spanish. They found very little gold and silver, and the natives were difficult to govern. Nevertheless, the Spanish established a colony in the area, and put an encomienda system in place. Under the encomienda system, vast tracts of land were given (along with any natives living on them) to Spanish conquistadores and bureaucrats who were, in turn, to make them productive and give the crown a percentage of the profits. Needless to say, this system led to a number of abuses and horrors.

One man who denounced the horrors of the conquest and the encomienda system was the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas. He eventually became Bishop of Chiapas, and worked tirelessly his whole life to stop the abuses of the colonial system. He in known in Guatemala for the Vera Paz experiment, in which he sent missionaries into a troubled area of northern Guatemala to see if the natives there could be peacefully brought into the Spanish fold. It worked, and the region is still known as Verapaz.

Spanish rule in Guatemala came to an end in 1821 when Mexico declared independence and took Guatemala with it. In 1823, Guatemala and other Central American nations seceded from Mexico and established the Central American Federation. The new republic was unwieldy, as communication between Central American countries was very difficult. By 1839 the republic had disintegrated, and Guatemala was an independent nation.

Independence and the United Fruit Company

Guatemala muddled along for the next few decades, going through a succession of leaders but always remaining a poor nation of wealthy landowners and repressed peasants. Around the turn of the century, Guatemala attracted the attention of the United Fruit Company, a powerful American firm dedicated to raising and importing fruit – primarily bananas – from Central America and the Caribbean.

The legacy of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala is mixed. The company provided jobs, infrastructure, schools and electricity to many regions that never would have had those things. But it also supported corrupt, repressive governments and shared little of its profits.

In 1944, the repressive tyrant José Ubico was overthrown and in the elections that followed, the people elected the socialist Dr. Juan José Arévalo Bermej. Another free election followed, and the people elected Jacobo Arbenz, who continued his predecessor’s social programs.

But Arbenz went too far. He believed in land redistribution, to allow the poorest Guatemalans to own land. When he announced his plans to nationalize and redistribute some of the United Fruit Company’s vast land holdings, the company went to the United States government to ask for help. As early as 1952, the CIA was working on plans to overthrow Arbenz and replace him with someone more agreeable to American big business.

US Intervention

In 1954, the CIA was ready. They found a dissident Colonel, Carlos Castillo Armas, living in Honduras and enlisted him to lead the uprising. Castillo Armas entered Guatemala with only 150 men and marched on Guatemala City. Meanwhile the CIA arranged for American pilots to bomb strategic targets in the capital and began a misinformation campaign that made the people believe a much larger force was coming. Arbenz and his government fled, and the coup was complete. The CIA considered it a rousing success, a textbook example of how to defeat communism in the post-war world.

In the long run, however, the plan backfired. The people of Guatemala, fed up with imperialism and the United Fruit Company, took up arms in rebellion not long after Arbenz’ ouster. By the early 1960's, there was a full-scale guerilla war taking place. In the 1970's, the war escalated and tens of thousands were massacred, mostly rural peasants. By 1977, the Guatemalan government had become so repressive and violent that the United States ceased military support.

Civil War and more Corruption

In 1982, General Efraín Rios Montt took power in a coup. Although Rios Montt was only in power for about a year before he, too, was deposed by a military coup, his administration is considered to be the most violent and repressive period in the whole civil war. Entire towns and villages were burned to the ground, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and thousands were murdered and buried in unmarked mass graves.

In 1983, a most remarkable book was published. I, Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatemala is the life story of Rigoberta Menchu, a young woman from the Quiché region and a minor figure in the rebellion. Menchu’s story is quite gripping and tragic. Born into rural poverty, she struggled with her family to scrape a living from the small parcel of land they had acquired by squatting. Once it was productive, however, local land barons kicked them off of it and took it for themselves. Most of Menchu’s immediate family was killed in one way or another: her father died with a group of rebels that had captured the Spanish embassy, her mother was killed by government forces, and one brother was captured and burned alive while she and her mother were forced to watch.

The book was an instant international success, and Menchu was converted into an heroine of repressed people everywhere. It catapulted her to fame as a spokeswoman for indigenous groups all over the world, and she was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize on the 500 year anniversary of Columbus’ voyage of discovery. Even recent revelations that some of the “facts” in Menchu’s book are untrue have done little to tarnish her reputation.

Menchu’s book raised world awareness of the situation in Guatemala. With its dirty laundry aired for the world to see, the peace process hastened and in 1996 a major accord was signed between the government and the rebels, ending more than 30 years of conflict. Some estimate that as many as 200,000 people were killed during the civil war.

Politics Today

Guatemala’s recent political history gives cause for limited optimism. In the last fifteen or twenty years, most of the presidents have been democratically elected, although charges of corruption are common. Although traditional industries are weak – coffee, one of Guatemala’s most important exports, is down 80% since the mid 1990's – new industries such as flowers and tourism are growing. 

Guatemala still has problems to solve: most of the land and capital is in the hands of a very small percentage of the population, crime is rampant in the countryside and cities and the politicians are among the most corrupt in the world. But while these problems are being fixed, the Guatemalan people will persevere through hardship as they always have.