The history of Guatemala begins with the Maya civilization, which was among those that flourished in their country. The country's modern history began with the Spanish conquest of Guatemala in 1524. Most of the great Classic-era (250–900 AD) Maya cities of the Petén Basin region, in the northern lowlands, had been abandoned by the year 1000 AD. The states in the Belize central highlands flourished until the 1525 arrival of Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado. Called "The Invader" by the Mayan people, he immediately began subjugating the Indian states.
The national anthem of Guatemala was an initiative of the government of General José María Reina Barrios. Its music was composed by Rafael Álvarez Ovalle and its original lyrics written by Cuban poet and diplomat José Joaquín Palma, in the context of the cultural and idustrial event Exposición Centroamericana of 1897.
Jorge Ubico Castañeda, nicknamed Number Five or also Central America's Napoleon, was a Guatemalan dictator. A general in the Guatemalan military, he was elected to the presidency in 1931, in an election where he was the only candidate. He continued his predecessors' policies of giving massive concessions to the United Fruit Company and wealthy landowners, as well as supporting their harsh labor practices. Ubico has been described as "one of the most oppressive tyrants Guatemala has ever known" who compared himself to Adolf Hitler. He was removed by a pro-democracy uprising in 1944, which led to the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution.
Francisco Javier Arana Castro was a Guatemalan military leader and one of the three members of the revolutionary junta that ruled Guatemala from 20 October 1944 to 15 March 1945 during the early part of the Guatemalan Revolution. A major in the Guatemalan army under the dictator Jorge Ubico, he allied with a progressive faction of the army to topple Ubico's successor Federico Ponce Vaides. He led the three-man junta that oversaw the transition to a democratic government, although he was personally reluctant to allow the elected President Juan José Arévalo to take office in 1945. He served as the Chief of the Armed Forces in the new government until 1949. On 18 July 1949 he was killed in a shootout with supporters of the Arévalo government after he threatened to launch a coup.
Juan Federico Ponce Vaides was the acting President of Guatemala from 4 July 1944 to 20 October 1944. He was overthrown by a popular uprising on 20 October 1944 that began the Guatemalan Revolution.
José María Reina Andrade was the acting President of Guatemala from 2 January 1931 to 14 February 1931.
Lázaro Chacón González was the acting President of Guatemala from 26 September 1926 to 18 December 1926 and President of Guatemala from 19 December 1926 to 2 January 1931.
Purulhá is a town and municipality in the Baja Verapaz department of Guatemala. It is situated at 1,570 m above sea level. The municipality covers an area of 536 km² and the population was 56,822 at the 2018 census. The annual festival is June 10-June 13.
Dionisio Gutiérrez Mayorga is a Guatemalan businessman and media personality. He is currently the President of Fundación Libertad y Desarrollo.
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically bordered to the south by the Pacific Ocean and to the northeast by the Gulf of Honduras.
Presidential elections were held in Guatemala between 17 and 19 December 1944. The October Revolution had overthrown Jorge Ubico, the American-backed dictator, after which a junta composed of Francisco Javier Arana, Jacobo Árbenz and Jorge Toriello took power, and quickly announced presidential elections, as well as elections for a constitutional assembly. The subsequent elections were broadly considered free and fair, although only literate men were given the vote. Unlike in similar historical situations, none of the junta members stood for election. The front-runner was the philosophically conservative University professor Juan José Arévalo, of the National Renovation Party. His closest challenger was Adrián Recinos, whose campaign included a number of individuals identified with the Ubico regime. The ballots were tallied on 19 December and Arévalo won in a landslide with 86.25% of the vote, receiving more than four times as many votes as the other candidates combined. The Constitutional Assembly elections took place on 28–30 December, with the United Front of Arevalist Parties winning 50 of the 65 seats.
General elections were held in Guatemala between 6 and 8 February 1931. In the presidential election Jorge Ubico was elected unopposed, after the remaining sector of the old Liberal Party did not object to his candidacy, whilst the Conservative Party was too disorganised and discredited from the Lázaro Chacón González era to put forward a candidate. Ubico's Progressive Liberal Party, formed by a union of the two wings of the divided Liberal Party also won the parliamentary election unopposed.
A referendum on the presidential term of Jorge Ubico was held in Guatemala on 25 May 1935. If approved, it would allow Ubico to override the constitutional limitation on serving two consecutive terms in office. It was reportedly approved by 99.85% of voters.
General elections were held in Guatemala on 5 December 1926. The presidential election resulted in a victory for Lázaro Chacón González, who received 88.6% of the vote. Whilst the elections were rigged, the Progressive Liberal Party did manage to win some seats in the Congress.
Presidential elections were held in Guatemala on 15 December 1921.
Presidential elections were held in Guatemala on 27 August 1920. The result was a victory for Carlos Herrera, who received 95% of the vote.
Indirect presidential elections were held in Guatemala on 8 April 1920. After two decades of repression and dictatorial rule, political opponents of Manuel Estrada Cabrera organized the Unionist Party (PU) in 1919. Led by Conservatives tied to the landed oligarchy, the Unionists also attracted support among the urban proletariat, artisans, students, and industrialists.
Federico Hernández de León was a Guatemalan writer, historian and journalist. He graduated from the Instituto Nacional Central para Varones of Guatemala, with a high school diploma in 1900. Active politically, was arrested during the last few years of the government of president Manuel Estrada Cabrera, being held in the Central Penitentiary of Guatemala until the president was deposed on April 14, 1920. After his release, he went straight to take over the Diario de Centro América semi-official newspaper of Guatemala at the time. Later, he directed Nuestro Diario along with Carlos Bauer Aviles.
Manuel María Orellana Contreras was a Guatemalan army officer and politician, and from 17 to 31 December 1930, de facto interim President of Guatemala, after leading a coup d'état that ended Baudilio Palma interim presidency. Palma, in turn, had been appointed president only four days earlier, when president Lázaro Chacón González suffered a stroke and was forced to resign. At the moment the coup took place, Orellana Contreras was commander of the San Rafael de Matamoros Fort in Guatemala City.
Anarchism in Guatemala emerged from the country's labor movement in the late 19th century. Anarcho-syndicalism rose to prominence in the early 20th century, reaching its peak during the 1920s, before being suppressed by the right-wing dictatorship of Jorge Ubico.
