Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity

The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG-MAIZ) is a political party in Guatemala. It was founded as a guerrilla group on February 7, 1982 after the coordination of the four most important guerrilla groups in Guatemala. These guerrillas were: the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Organization of the People in Arms (ORPA), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT).

The URNG presented an advance in the revolutionary struggle at the beginning of 1980, having a greater presence in populations characterized by poverty and marginalization, especially in the western zone of the country in Quiché, Huehuetenango and San Marcos.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal declared in October 2018 that they are analyzing the cancellation of the party for possible electoral crimes.

History

After the US PBSUCESS intervention that prepared the 1954 coup that overthrew Jacobo Arbenz, the second government of the democratic revolution in Guatemala, and the establishment of the military dictatorship of Castillo Armas, a series of frictions arose between popular movements and the government that was at the service of the political-economic elites of the country, the main reason for conflict being land tenure.

When the government of Colonel Arbenz was interrupted, the agrarian reform program that mostly benefited peasants in rural areas was also interrupted. For this reason, in 1960 a group of Army officers who were supporters of Arbenz and peasant leaders led an unsuccessful coup. After that they went into hiding and, inspired by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, founded the first guerrilla groups. which would later give rise to the FAR of Marxist-Leninist ideology, which was one of the oldest guerrilla movements in Latin America, from which the EGP would later emerge.

In 1966, the government of Julio César Méndez Montenegro, who calls himself "The Third Government of the Revolution" with which a brief truce with the insurgency is achieved, but this truce lasts for a short time, due to the strong counter-insurgent offensive launched by the Army, seconded by the birth of far-right paramilitary bands that begin the practice of forced disappearance of leftist opponents. Some of its member organizations were linked to the kidnappings and murders of US Ambassador John Gordon Mein; and the German ambassador Karl von Spreti.

It is during the government of General Efraín Ríos Montt in 1982, shortly after the union of the four guerrilla groups in URNG, a strong government program began, called "Rifles and Beans" where the government takes away from the insurgents the support they received from the population, being at this time in which state repression against the civilian population intensifies, mainly in the rural area of the country.

The period between 1978 and 1982 is known in Guatemala as the era of violence. Disappearances and selective assassinations of the main political leaders opposed to the government take place, and in rural areas the army implements the Scorched Earth policy, which, according to the Commission for Historical Clarification, would account for more than 600 massacres against the civilian population, in its indigenous majority.

Peace Accords

Following a peace process sponsored by the United Nations, the guerrillas laid down their arms in 1996. On December 29, 1996, the firm and lasting peace agreement was signed between the Government of Guatemala and the URNG in the presence of the United Nations Secretary General Boutros-Ghali, ending 36 years of civil war. In 1997, the conversion of the URNG into a legal political party began, a process that culminated in 1998. For the 1999 elections, it ran in a coalition of left-wing parties. They got third place. In 2003 the left was divided, with the URNG being the one that obtained the worst result, obtaining only 7 deputies out of a total of 114 parliamentarians that make up the national congress. win two seats out of 158 that were up for grabs.

The Secretary General of the URNG, Commander Rolando Morán, and the President of Guatemala, Álvaro Arzú, were awarded the UNESCO Peace Prize. In 1997 they were awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, together with the Government of Guatemala.

Candidates for the Presidency of Guatemala