Republic of Guatemala

Republic of Guatemala República de Guatemala
Capital and largest city	Guatemala City
Official languages	Spanish
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Area
• Total	108,889 km²
Population
• 2018 estimate	17,263,239

Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America.

History

In 1954, the United States overthrew elected president Jacobo Árbenz and General Ydigoras Fuentes took power in 1958. In 1960, the CIA crushed progressive elements of the Guatemalan military, and a guerrilla movement began in the countryside, led by former military officers who had attempted the uprising of 1960.

In 1962, thousands of people protested against the government of Ydigoras Fuentes and began a general strike. The police and military eventually ended the protest. The United States established a military base in the northeast to teach counter-insurgency tactics to the Guatemalan military. Fuentes lost U.S. support when he allowed former progressive leader Juan José Arévalo to return to the country, and he planned to step down in 1964 and allow an election. In March 1963 the United States organized another coup, and Colonel Enrique Peralta overthrew Fuentes.

Peralta executed eight trade union leaders by driving trucks over them. He did not allow the U.S. to supply troops to fight the guerrillas and preferred to use his own soldiers. In March 1966, Julio César Méndez won an election and took power as a U.S.-backed civilian leader. A few days after he took office, Colonel John D. Webber, Jr. arrived in Guatemala to take control of the U.S. military mission. Between October 1966 and March 1968, the police and military killed between 3,000 and 8,000 Guatemalans. Most of the people killed were not actual guerrillas. In January 1968, guerrillas assassinated Webber as revenge for his imperialist actions.

Colonel Carlos Arana Osorio took power in 1970 and killed over 7,000 people in each year of his rule. Diplomats in Guatemala City believed that right-wing forces killed 15 times as many people as the guerrillas and revolutionaries.

By 1976, the police, military, and death squads had killed over 20,000 people. Many bodies were thrown into rivers or the Pacific Ocean. In the Gualán area, people stopped fishing because they found so many corpses in the rivers. Suspected guerrillas were tortured with insecticide or electric shocks. Many people were found with their eyes gouged out or there tongues and hands removed. The U.S. used F-51 planes to drop napalm over suspected guerrilla areas, similar to the Vietnam War.

The Guatemalan Army of the Poor was formed in 1976.