Juan José Arévalo Bermejo was born on 10 September 1904.
His mother was a teacher, and he was well educated.
He began teaching in 1923 and earned a doctorate in education
from the University of La Plata in Argentina.
He was influenced by German philosophy and psychology especially
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781-1832) and krausistas on education.
Arévalo called his political principles “spiritual socialism,”
and he emphasized human dignity, freedom of spirit, and national independence.
He explained,
Our socialism does not aim
at ingenious distribution of material goods.
Our socialism aims to liberate men psychologically,
to return it to all the psychological and spiritual integrity that
has been denied them by conservatism and liberalism.6
Arévalo returned to Guatemala and became Minister of Public Education in 1934.
He went back to Argentina in 1936, and in 1937 he published his doctoral thesis
La pedagogía de la personalidad and began teaching philosophy at the University of Tucumán.
Then he became secretary of the Humanities Faculty at the University of La Plata
and taught at the University of Buenos Aires.
In 1941 he began directing the Normal School
at the National University of Cuyo in San Luis.
Arévalo wrote essays and books on psychology and social integration.
He published El pensamiento escrito de Yrigoyen and gave his friend
Gabriel del Mazo a copy and said he would govern with that book using ethics.
Arévalo published Revista de Pedagogía and
La filosofia de los valores en la pedagogía in 1939,
La adolescencia como evasión y retorno in 1941,
Escritos pedagógicos y filosóficos on Plato and Kant in 1945,
and Estudio políticos in 1945.
He came back to Guatemala in September 1944 and had to hide from President Ponce.
In the presidential election on 17-19 December 1944 Arévalo was the candidate
of the United Front of Arevalist Parties that included Popular Liberation (PL)
and the National Renovation Party (PRN), and he received 86% of the votes
to 7% for the former ambassador to the US (1928-43),
Adrián Recinos of the National Democratic Front.
In this election only literate men could vote.
Arévalo noted that European fascist leaders were falling,
and he hoped that would happen in Latin America too.
He wanted to develop psychological and moral integrity
that past conservatives and liberals had lacked.
United States politicians considered him a Communist and a threat to the “Free World.”
In February 1945 at the inter-American conference in Chapultepec, Mexico
the Guatemalan delegation urged American republics to “abstain from recognizing
and maintaining relations with anti-democratic regimes.”
Guatemala ended relations with the authoritarian governments
of Somoza in Nicaragua and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.
On February 10 President-elect Arévalo said,
“Once famous for its dictators, guns, and torture, Guatemala is now
an example for all people who struggle for their freedom.”7
On February 26 an unsigned editorial in El Imparcial advised,
The question is not whether the Indian is
inferior or superior to others; what we should ask is:
How long are we going to continue considering the Indian
as an element foreign to our condition as a civilized people,
and to become seriously preoccupied with helping him
to escape his abandoned position
and the virtual vassalage in which he has lived?8
In his inaugural address on March 15 President Arévalo said,
“We shall give civic and legal value to all people who live in this Republic,”
and he promised that schools would “carry not only hygiene and literacy”
but also “the doctrine of revolution.”
One of his first acts was to break off relations with Spain.
He accepted US military advice and appointed a general or a colonel
to command in each of the 22 departments,
and he replaced the 228 subdepartmental commands with seven military zones.
He also appointed a general staff like the United States system.
Arévalo’s opponents Adrián Recinos, Manuel Herrera, and Ovidio Pivaral
did not accept the election results and plotted to overthrow the government in the spring.
They were sent into exile.
Young Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez led the teachers’ union and helped found
the Central Labor Federation (CTG) which became affiliated with the
Confederation of Latin American Workers.
Communists formed the National Vanguard Party in August and met secretly
until 1949
when they formed the Communist Party of Guatemala. (PCG).
Jorge García Granados was a non-Marxist socialist,
and he was chairman of the committee that drafted the Constitution of 1945
increasing the power of the national legislature and municipal governments.
The Arévalo government promoted the Constitution of 1945 based on the
Mexican Constitution of 1917 that the National Assembly ratified in March.
Freedom of speech, press, and assembly included political parties
as long as they were not “foreign or international” like the Communists.
They established a Ministry of Economy and Labor
and the Department of Cooperative Development.
Then they set up the Bank of Guatemala
and the Institute for the Development of Production.
An “Indian Statute” protected Indian individuals and communal lands,
promoted cooperatives, and advised Spanish language instruction.
On April 18 the National Assembly approved an economic emergency law
that allowed the government to regulate prices and profits.
Textile manufacturers had profits up to 75%, and they were limited to 30%.
In May vagrancy laws were abolished as was forced labor.
The growth of latifundios was restricted, and government was authorized
to take private property in order to promote the general welfare.
The confiscated German plantations were to be rented to
individuals, cooperatives, and joint-stock companies.
Large land-owners were required to rent uncultivated land
for less than 5% of the crops’ value.
After the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s many priests came to Guatemala,
and by 1944 a quarter of the 273 parish priests were Spanish.
Maryknoll missionaries expelled by China came to Guatemala in 1943.
The 1945 Constitution continued the anti-clerical liberal policies.
The Catholic newspaper Acción Social Cristiana began in February 1945
and criticized the government and its revolution.
So many Spaniards left Guatemala that by 1949 only 130 priests remained.
Arévalo advocated the Central American Union, and he visited El Salvador
to talk with President Castañeda Castro in May 1845.
They invited other national leaders who declined.
Arévalo and Castro set up a federal council and began working on
economic cooperation to remove customs barriers and immigration restrictions.
Also in May Arévalo’s government abolished the out-dated garrison system
and replaced it with a light division similar to the US Army’s.
Jorge García Granados antagonized elites and officers, and President Arévalo
sent him off in June to be the ambassador to the United States.
The Escuela Politécnica military academy, which had been started
on 1 May 1931, was closed on 17 July 1945.
The US Army Lt. Col. Charles Wiegand began training 72 men in December,
and 26 were dismissed for failing their first examination.
The US military mission provided the library and offered 90-day courses in English for officers.
In 1946 Guatemala supported the Caribbean Legion that
endeavored to end dictatorships, and they would help
to overthrow Teodoro Picado in Costa Rica in 1948.
Workers formed the Confederación de Trabajadores de Guatemala (CTG)
and the Federación Syndical de Guatemala (FSG).
After employers dismissed demands for a 40% wage increase,
about 1,500 textile workers in four plants went on strike on 7 September 1946.
After the FSG planned a sympathy strike,
the employers agreed to the raise and promised no reprisals.
President Arévalo donated part of his salary to support labor unions.
In April 1946 the Municipal Law, decree 226, empowered local governments
with substantial autonomy, and by 1948
in the 45 Indian communities in the highlands 22 had Indian mayors.
Arévalo’s policies appealed to the youths who helped bring about the revolution.
The Constitution extended voting to all men and literate women over the age of 18.
Education was especially promoted to overcome Guatemala’s 75% illiteracy
which had been worse than every Latin American nation except Haiti.
In October 1946 Arévalo’s government initiated
the Guatemalan Social Security Institute which began by covering 75,000 employees
providing workers compensation as well as social security and health care.
Employers were required to fund 50% of the Institute’s expenses.
The Institute for Development of Production was established to promote
small manufacturing and industries by offering credit and technical aid.
Arévalo’s agrarian reforms were moderate
because of the powerful banana and coffee interests.
The Ministry of Public Health and Assistance was reformed.
They built hospitals, and Roosevelt Hospital became the largest one in Central America.
A new Labor Code on 1 May 1947 authorized workers to organize unions
and to strike and use collective bargaining for better wages and benefits.
Employers were made responsible for housing, schooling, medical care for their workers,
and to a pay a month’s salary if a worker was dismissed without a just cause.
The Labor Code supported the principle that
“private interests must yield to the social or collective interests.”
The Ministry of Agriculture surveyed 3,803,974 manzanas in private control
and found that only 449,103 manzanas were cultivated.
On August 24 hundreds of Indians in San Pedro Solomá, Huehuetenango
marched to town to see the property deeds.
As they were turned away, many were injured.
On November 21 the Decree 459 made industrialization a national priority
by granting tax incentives and protective tariffs for manufacturing.
President Arévalo’s policies were supported by Communists;
but he was not a Communist because he disagreed
with Marx’s materialism and class warfare.
He recognized the value of foreign investments and the freedom of all classes.
He worked to help indigenous peasants
because they needed education and better economic opportunities.
Communists managed to take over top positions of the semi-official
Nuestro Diario in 1948 and the government daily Diario de Centroamérica in 1949.
On 6 May 1948 Milton K. Wells in a letter from the embassy in Guatemala wrote
to the US Secretary of State George Marshall,
“Infiltration of indoctrinated communists, fellow-travelers, and Marxist ideas
unquestionably reached dangerous proportions.”9
The estimated number of Communists in Guatemala at that time was about two hundred.
Opposition parties in July organized the Union Nacional Electoral (UNE)
to defend private property and Catholicism.
The Institute for the Promotion of Production was established in July,
and they helped finance the nation’s first paper mill.
The number of books in Guatemala greatly increased.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Guatemala (CCIG)
criticized the Labor Code and complained that
capital flight was over $2 million in early 1948.
In January 1949 the government supported the banana and dock workers
in their struggle with the United Fruit Company
that CCIG said drove away foreign capital.
Arévalo’s government enacted a new rent law and an income tax
and required businesses with more than twenty employees to build houses for workers.
Generals tended to oppose the revolution while younger officers often were supportive.
The military attempted 25 coups during Arévalo’s six-year presidency,
and he stopped the promotions to general.
Col. Francisco Arana was Chief of the Armed Forces,
and he was identifying with right-wing politicians by 1948.
In November the National Assembly censured him
for plotting to interfere with their elections.
In 1949 Arana was running for president against the Defense Minister Jacobo Arbenz,
and Arévalo suspected that Arana was conspiring against his presidency.
On July 16 Arana demanded that Arévalo dismiss his cabinet
and make Arbenz and his army supporters retire.
Arévalo consulted Arbenz and decided to arrest Arana.
When police attempted to do so on July 18, Arana tried to escape and was shot dead.
The next military revolt found that the government
had armed workers who helped stop the coup.
On July 20 a flying squadron of the railroad workers
killed three demonstrators in front of the national palace.
The next day university students demanded that Arévalo
dismiss the Interior Minister they blamed.
On July 23 the police dispersed the crowd with tear gas and gunfire, killing ten people.
President Arévalo gave emergency powers to Col. Paz Tejada,
chief of the armed forces, and he declared a state of siege.
Tejada assured the leaders that Arévalo would be President
until his constitutional term ended, and order was restored.
Communists were able to campaign openly in the 1950 elections,
and 17 withdrew from Arévalo’s Revolutionary Action Party
and published the weekly Octubre.
Many schools were built, and the National Literacy Committee began in 1949.
Spending on education rose 155% between 1945 and 1950.
That year rural unions combined to form the Confederación Nacional Campesina
de Guatemala claiming they had 256,000 members in 345 affiliates.
On 5 November 1950 Arbenz put down an attempted coup
led by the Escuela Politécnica director Lt. Col. Carlos Castillo Armas,
who would lead the CIA-backed coup against Arbenz in 1954.
In the election on November 10 Jacobo Arbenz of the National Renovation Party
was the candidate of a coalition that also included the Revolutionary Action Party,
the National Integrity Party, and the Socialist Party, and he received 65% of the votes.
Miguel Ydigoras of the National Democratic Reconciliation Party got 19%,
and Jorge García Granados of the People’s Party had 7%.
A government order to arrest Ydigoras caused him to go into hiding.
By the end of Arévalo’s presidency in early 1951 agriculture workers were
earning nearly 80 centavos per day compared to 25 or as low as 5 centavos in 1944.