Juan Jose Arevalo

Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (Taxisco, September 10, 1904-Guatemala City, October 8, 1990), was a Guatemalan educator, politician, diplomat and writer, president of Guatemala since the March 15, 1945 to March 15, 1951.

Son of Mariano Arévalo Bonilla and Elena Bermejo de Paz, in 1934 he obtained a doctorate in Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the National University of La Plata in Argentina, later working as a professor at the National University of Tucumán and the University of Buenos Aires. Aires, secretary of the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the University of La Plata, inspector of the National University of Cuyo and organizer of the Normal School of San Luis.

In 1944, he was elected president of Guatemala from 1945 to 1951 after the 1944 Revolution, being the first popularly elected president in that Central American country, during his government there were more than 30 coup attempts; Later, during the government of Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, he was the traveling ambassador of Guatemala. He defined himself as a spiritual socialist, who promoted numerous reforms to integrate the poorest classes of Guatemalan society, based on the New Deal of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt; However, because these reforms are totally new for Guatemala, the right wing of his country branded him a communist. He was also a prolific writer, whose works deal with topics of pedagogy and Guatemalan history. During his exile he was Guatemala's ambassador to France, Chile, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Israel, he returned to Guatemala in 1978, and finally died in the City of Guatemala, October 8, 1990.

He was the father of the current candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Guatemala Bernardo Arévalo.

Biography

Arévalo Bermejo during his adolescence in a family photo.

Arévalo was born in Taxisco, Santa Rosa, on September 10, 1904, the son of Mariano Arévalo Bonilla and Elena Bermejo de Paz. He was born into a lower middle class family. From his childhood he demonstrated leadership and intelligence, he was a classmate of Luis Martínez Mont from the age of seventeen, with whom they were disciples of Professor Miguel Morazán at the Central Normal School for Boys Martínez Mont and Arévalo have been close friends ever since; They studied teaching together and by 1923 they were already exemplary teachers at the Central Normal School for Men. They also embarked on the creation of a literary magazine, which they called Alba and although it only had four issues, it published texts by renowned Guatemalan writers Rafael Arévalo Martínez, Flavio Herrera and Carlos Wyld Ospina. In 1927, As part of its educational project, the government of General Lázaro Chacón had called a contest for teachers, where the best would be awarded scholarships to study pedagogy abroad; both won: Martínez Mont left for Switzerland and Arévalo for Argentina.

The year 1932 was difficult for Arévalo: the government of General Jorge Ubico had decided to cut the pension that he sent them monthly and which allowed them to fully dedicate themselves to studying. At first they received 175 quetzales per month but now only 116 quetzales would be given to them; This reduction was due to the changes in education made by General Ubico, who did not continue the restructuring project that Generals José María Orellana and Lázaro Chacón had started.

Return to Guatemala and government of Jorge Ubico

The situation in Guatemala was complicated for the intellectuals since their projects abroad failed; Luis Martínez Mont, Arévalo and two other friends left and promised to “serve Guatemala from outside, but to serve it clean of guilt, since the country was more and more like a prison every day. The cemeteries were growing at an unusual speed, the teachers were intimidated". Due to the authoritarian government of Jorge Ubico Castañeda, it was not easy to leave the country in those days. In 1932, Luis Martínez Mont was invited to a trip to Washington as part of an official delegation, and they concluded that it was a unique opportunity to leave Guatemala; Martínez thought that from the United States it would be easy to fly to Switzerland and resume his contacts. Arévalo also devised a plan: send a telegram to Ubico to inform him that he was going to visit some friends in Argentina and that he would only be away for a few days. They both promised to write each other some encrypted text to confirm that it was safe to leave; The first to do so was Martínez Mont, who wrote from Washington: «Johnny Walker. Everything is going well. Do not let the month of September pass without showing that you have a big jaw. Salú che». Arévalo understood the message as an invitation to leave Guatemala; but when he was just arriving in Buenos Aires he found out that Martínez did not fly to Switzerland but returned to Guatemala, to join the Ubico cabinet and a few months later they had appointed him director of the Central Normal School for Boys. «That enigmatic letter from Washington suggesting that I take advantage of the month of September to leave the country, now appeared with the appearance of a push so that I would leave the field empty», «I never explained it to myself », Arévalo wrote.

In 1934 he obtained a doctorate in Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the National University of La Platafor the thesis entitled "The pedagogy of personality".

In 1936 he was appointed head of the Chair of Literature in the newly created Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National University of Tucumán in Argentina. He simultaneously he was elected as secretary of the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences at the University of La Plata. At that time he published The philosophy of values in pedagogy , which paved the way for him to be appointed Adjunct Professor of Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires. The prestige gained in Argentina by his innovative ideas in the field of pedagogy led the National University of Cuyo to hire him to reorganize the Normal School of San Luis and project a Pedagogical Institute. In April 1943 he was appointed Inspector General of the educational establishments of the University of Mendoza, but resigned when the coup d'état of 1943 took place. Once again appointed professor at the University of Tucumán, he was surprised by the overthrow of Ubico and the call of the Guatemalan youth, who have proclaimed him a candidate for the presidency.

Rise to power

The Lux Theatre on the sixth Avenue of Zone 1. Here came the episode where the people ovated Arévalo during the presentation of the plan of work of the presidential candidate Adrián Recinos in 1944.

For the vast majority of those who participated in the demonstrations against the authoritarian Ubico government, and for the rest of the Guatemalan people, Dr. Arévalo was virtually unknown. But an internal process of the groups involved in the October Revolution led him to the presidency. As a result of the June 1944 days that led to the resignation of General Jorge Ubico, two revolutionary parties were formed:

1. The “Frente Popular Libertador” (FPL) that was the “student party” formed and led by young people who from student associations consolidated the Association of University Students Among its principal leaders, all students from the National University, were the brothers Mario and Julio César Méndez Montenegro, Manuel Galich, José Manuel Fortuny, and many more, along with some young professionals such as Augusto Charnaud and Alfonso Bauer Paiz. This party grew enormously throughout the country, as many of the student leaders were from the province and had leadership and prestige in their peoples of origin.
2. The other party was called “National Renewal” and was mainly composed of older teachers and professionals, such as Juan José Orozco Posadas, who is said to have mentioned Dr. Shake him as the one for the presidential candidate. This group never had the political thrust or popular roots that the FPL achieved, but was formed by the closest friends to Arévalo and he used them to counterbalance the FPL and then the "Revolutionary Action Party" (PAR)

The lack of a "national figure" among the university students who made up the "Frente Popular Libertador" and the need to find a character who was not committed to one party or another led to the search for a man without He has participated in politics, without ties to authoritarian governments, and with excellent academic training: he decided on Dr. Arévalo Bermejo, who was a distinguished teacher who graduated from the Normal School for Men. With these factors, Arévalo's candidacy was received in such a way that he became a distinguished figure. Other political movements had emerged, such as the "Social Democratic Party," made up of mostly conservative lawyers and led by a military man estranged from General Ubico, Colonel Guillermo Flores Avendaño. The other group was the "Civic Union", headed by Jorge Toriello Garrido.

The popularity of the FPL and RN candidate reached such a degree that his followers shouted "Long live Arévalo!", which was pronounced out loud at rallies, and even at opponents' rallies: for For example, when Mr. Adrián Recinos, another of the presidential candidates, presented his government plan: just at the moment the curtain opened, a weak cry of "Long live Arévalo! », which was enough for the audience that packed the theater to burst into an ovation for Dr. Arévalo. The ovation was of such magnitude that Mr. Recinos and his collaborators had to retire without being able to present any of their points, and under a shower of insults.

1944 Presidential Election

In the 1944 elections, considered by historians to be the first transparent elections in Guatemala, Arévalo obtained more than 85% of the votes cast and achieved the Presidency of the Republic on March 15, 1945.

Government

President Arévalo in your command

During his administration, known as the First Government of the Revolution, social changes of great importance took place in the lives of Guatemalans. From 1901 until the October Revolution, Guatemala had been a classic banana Republic: with authoritarian governments at the service of the United Fruit Company. His philosophy of a "Spiritual Socialism" also known as "Arevalismo" was contrary to this structure of the country, and he was partly the founder of the creation of the Ministry of Labor, the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGSS), and the popular Colonia "The Master".

Spiritual Socialism (Arevalismo)

Spiritual socialism was focused on the moral development of Guatemala, with the intention of "liberating man psychologically." Arevalo, as the intellectual pillar of the revolution, positioned his theoretical doctrine as integral to the construction of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society.

Arevalism emphasized the importance of civil liberties as a foundation for human development, but maintained as a political principle that "individual liberties must be exercised within the limits of the social order". Democracy, according to Arevalo, is a social structure that required the restriction of civil rights in the event that these individual rights are in conflict with national security and the decision of the majority. This limit on civil rights seems contradictory to the notion of a Guatemalan government that respects the free will of citizens, however this ambiguity is associated with the fact that Arevalo did not consider classical Liberalism as a guide applicable to Guatemalan governments.

Arévalo's Spiritual Socialism was mistakenly considered a kind of "communism"^{[citation needed]} due to this break with the political structure dependent on a North American transnational, For this reason, and due to the prevailing McCarthyite environment in the United States during the governments of Harry Truman and General Dwight Eisenhower, his government had internal and international difficulties with the governments of the time. In reality, the Arevalo government was opposed to Marxism, since Arevalo considered that "Communism was contrary to the psychology of man." Despite this, Arevalo was categorized as a communist, and suffered multiple attempts to coup. Responding to attacks on him by anti-communists, and referring to World War II, he said "I fear the West has won the battle, but in its blind attacks on social welfare, it loses the war against fascism".

Arevalismo was considered a popular movement, opposed to the authoritarianism of the region and with the purpose of freeing Guatemala from its dependence on more developed states. In Arevalo's vision, the character of the 1944 revolution was the search for a modern social democracy.

Warning

The polarization that existed among the Guatemalan population around the figures of the October Revolution has led to the spread of various myths about the events described below; some characters have been idealized or demonized depending on who is telling the story.^{[citation required]} In this section we have tried to present only the versions that have the most truthfulness and This foundation, and on some occasions, presents the versions of the two predominant tendencies, liberals and Marxists, obtained from the works of the liberal writer Carlos Sabino and the Guatemalan leftist writers and intellectuals Luis Cardoza y Aragón and Carlos Guzmán-Böckler.

That's how the National Palace looked during the Dr. Shake it.

Internal Policy

On May 13, 1948, the Law for the Emission of Thought in Guatemala was promulgated, which did not censor or coerce free thought in the country, and in 1949, the creation of the Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT) and its subsequent legalization meant deepening the expansion of the political spectrum to include a communist party.

Judicial branch

During the Arévalo government, an attempt was made to change the judicial structures —prior to the Revolution—. The rapid incorporation of new rights, the appearance of a legitimate Parliament and the revolutionary dynamics generated confidence in a judicial system. The creation of the Labor Code was an obvious achievement, but it also showed that the judicial system was having trouble adjusting to the rapidity of change.

Army

Among the reforms that were put in place since the fall of the government of Ponce Vaides and that they tried to consolidate with the Constitution of 1945, the restructuring of the Army had great importance: the suspension of the generalate, decreed from the first moments of the triumph of the revolutionary movement, symbolized this transformation, which was completed with a concern to modernize, professionalize and institutionalize the Army. For the first time in the history of the country, a Constitution granted an entire chapter and 13 articles to the subject of the Army, establishing a model that would be taken up in subsequent Constitutions. The constitutional norm established a reorganization of the Army that turned out to be complex and not always operative: it sought to confirm the functional autonomy that was conferred on it for the first time. He created the Superior Council of National Defense, a consultative and collegiate body, made up of 15 members, some by election and within which the President of the Republic was not included, despite being considered Commander-in-Chief of the Army.

The senior and operational positions of the Army were:

• Chief of Staff of the Army: appointed by the Congress of the Republic on the proposal of the Higher Council of National Defence
• Minister of National Defence: Arbenz served as Minister of Defence during the Arévalo government. He was the prime minister of this portfolio, as the same was formerly called "Ministry of War".

There were many rivalries between the two leaders during the ten years that the 1945 Constitution was in force, such as those that opposed Major Francisco Javier Arana, head of the Army and leader of the right until his assassination in 1949, against Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, Minister of Defense at the time, and a leader of the left. On the other hand, some interpretations have insisted that they were precisely the legal status. In this sense, the votes to integrate the Superior Council of National Defense and the very nature of this body, promoted the discussion for decision-making on the military policy that the Guatemalan Army should adopt and turned it into a deliberative body.

Even though the new regulation could have contributed to the increase of the political weight of the Army in the country, the changes that took place in Guatemalan society and in the international context during those years generated among many officers the sensation of their political weight against to the weakness of the State and the rest of partisan and social organizations.

Economy

The prices of coffee, the main agricultural product that Guatemalans exported, since bananas were the exclusive business of the North Americans, reached the prices they had lost in 1930. And, although the first beneficiary was the coffee elite, there were a sufficient income to open new businesses or expand existing ones in the intermediate social ranks of the capital and some departmental capitals. Likewise, during the government of Arévalo there was a considerable expansion of the urban and ladino middle classes of the country, which even the newly organized unionism favored, since many of the new leaders and worker deputies came out of their different ideals.

Health and Social Assistance

The main achievement of his government management was the creation of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS). When the Constitution of the Republic of that time was promulgated, the people of Guatemala found among the Social Guarantees in Article 63, the following text: "mandatory social security is established". The Law will regulate its scope, extension and the way in which it must be put into force. On October 30, 1946, the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala issues Decree number 295, "The Organic Law of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute " Thus, an autonomous institution is created, under public law with its own legal status and full capacity to acquire rights and incur obligations, whose purpose is to apply for the benefit of the people of Guatemala, a National, Unitary and Mandatory Social Security Regime, in accordance with the minimal protection system. A National, Unitary and Mandatory Regime, this means that it must cover the entire territory of the Republic, it must be unique to avoid duplication of efforts and tax burdens; Employers and workers, in accordance with the Law, must be registered as taxpayers, they cannot evade this obligation, since this would mean incurring a lack of social security; During the Arévalo government, Dr. Julio Bianchi was Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance, in 2012 it was discovered that during his tenure as minister, experiments on syphilis were carried out in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948 by members of North American universities.

Death of Colonel Arana

Background

The death of Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Javier Arana is of critical importance in the history of Guatemala, as it was a pivotal event in the history of the Guatemalan revolution: his death not only opened the doors to the election of Colonel Jacobo Árbenz as president of the republic in 1950, but also caused an acute crisis in the government of Dr. Arévalo Bermejo, who found himself faced with an army that had been loyal to Major Arana, and civilian groups that took advantage of the occasion to strongly protest against his government.

In 1947 Dr. Arévalo, in the company of a friend and two Russian dancers who were visiting Guatemala, had a terrible car accident on the highway to Panajachel: he fell into the ravine and was seriously injured, while all his companions died. The PAR leaders signed a pact with Lieutenant Colonel Arana, in which he promised not to attempt any coup against the convalescent president, in exchange for the fact that the revolutionary parties would support Arana as their official candidate in the following elections. However, the president's recovery was almost miraculous and he was soon able to take over the government again. Arana had accepted this pact because he wanted to be known as a "democratic hero" of the uprising against Ponce and believed that the "Pacto del Barranco" would guarantee his position when the time came for the presidential elections.

Arana was a very influential person in the Arévalo government, and had managed to be nominated as the next candidate for the presidency, ahead of Captain Árbenz, who was told that due to his young age - barely 36 years old at that time time - he would have no problem waiting his turn for the following elections.

According to the Guatemalan constitution in force in 1949, in order for an army officer to be able to participate in the presidential elections, he had to resign from the armed forces in May 1950, that is, six months before the elections. at the crossroads between the legal path and the coup d'état, since he would lose his power over the army when he began his presidential candidacy, which seemed increasingly weak. Arana's successor as head of the Armed Forces was chosen by the Guatemalan Congress from among three nominees nominated by the Superior Defense Council (CSD), an entity made up of twenty-three officers, which included Arana and Árbenz as members because they were the oldest. military hierarchs of the country, but which also included members who were elected every three years. Arana knew that his successor was going to be a non-Aranista officer and decided to influence the CSD elections of 1949; the meetings within the CSD were tense and no agreement was reached, rather than postponing the elections for new members to July 1949. On Friday, July 15, the Aranistas finally gave in and accepted that the vote was free in the military zones and that local commanders did not supervise the voting.

But that same day, Arana dismissed Colonel Francisco Cosenza, head of the Guatemalan Air Force, and the only arbencista among the military commanders; he replaced him with Arturo Altolaguirre Ubico without asking the Defense Ministry for permission. Árbenz knew at that moment that a coup was underway and Arana, who was tired of waiting, went to Arévalo's office to face July 16; there -according to later accounts since there were no eyewitnesses- he gave him an ultimatum: Arévalo had to dismiss his entire cabinet and replace it with military collaborators or he would be overthrown. Arévalo told him to give him a few days to make the changes orderly, to to which Arana agreed, giving a deadline of ten at night on July 18 -the date on which the elections for the CSD were to begin-. Ricardo Barrios Peña reproached Arana for this agreement, since he considered that Arana should have seized power immediately; but Arana was sure of his victory and that he would remain as a constitutional president after winning the elections, instead of a de facto leader.

After Arana left, Arévalo sent for Árbenz and other important collaborators, who upon learning of the ultimatum agreed to kidnap Arana and send him into exile; On July 17, while Arana was in the Quinta Samayoa, certain of his triumph, the permanent committee of the Guatemalan Congress met secretly to remove him as head of the Armed Forces. Cuban President Carlos Prío Socarrás, who was a friend of Arévalo, agreed to grant exile to Colonel Arana, who would be transported to Cuba by Colonel Cosenza. Although the Arévalo government was certain that the capture of the military leader would initiate a series of discontents on the part of Arana's supporters.

Facts

On Monday morning, July 18, Arana appeared at the presidential palace and told Arévalo that he was going to El Morlón, the presidential residence on the shores of Lake Amatitlán, to confiscate a batch of weapons that Arévalo had hidden there after the Mexican authorities confiscated them from a group of Dominican exiles to whom the Guatemalan government had given them to overthrow Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. The weapons had been stolen from the Puerto de San José military base and were now going to confiscate them at the presidential residence. Historian Piero Gleijeses considers that Arana's visit to Arévalo was "that of an impulsive man whose patience was exhausted and who went to the palace to show off his power and to urge the humiliated president to comply with his his ultimatum quickly". Arévalo skilfully suggested that he take Colonel Felipe Antonio Girón - head of the presidential guard - which confirmed to Arana his apparent triumph and that Arévalo and Árbenz would never confront him.

Arévalo called Árbenz to take charge of the situation, and he sent several armed men, who left the capital in two cars and were under the orders of the police chief, lieutenant colonel Enrique Blanco, and by the PAR deputy Alfonso Martínez, a retired officer and friend of Árbenz. When Arana reached the La Gloria bridge, a gray Dodge was parked there, blocking his path. After the short shooting, three died: Arana, his assistant, Major Absalón Peralta, and Lieutenant Colonel Blanco.Eyewitnesses never confirmed what triggered the shots and whether the intention had been to capture Arana as planned.

Consequences

When the news of his death broke, the Honor Guard took up arms and fighting began in the city, which continued for twenty-four hours while the rest of the country awaited the outcome. Although it seemed that the Aranistas were going to triumph that July 18, they did not achieve their objective because they lacked a leader to lead them against the few forces loyal to the president that were led by Árbenz, who demonstrated much acumen and military skill. Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, one of Arana's main collaborators, was in Mazatenango observing the CSD elections and did not dare to return while the commander of the Honor Guard, Colonel Juan Francisco Oliva, was detained at the Ministry of Defense., where Árbenz had called him less than an hour after Arana's death.

By dawn on July 19, the government had the initiative: Colonel Cosenza had arrested Altolaguirre Ubico in the Air Force and numerous civilians had seized weapons from the warehouses of the Matamoros fort and from a small barracks that Árbenz had taken over during the night. Government loyalists besieged the Honor Guard, which was also attacked by the Air Force, with obsolete bombs that often failed to explode; finally, the barracks surrendered and the fight was concluded with a balance of one hundred and fifty dead and more than two hundred wounded. The official version -proposed by Arévalo and imposed by him on his ministers, including Árbenz- was that the members Reactionaries from Guatemalan society had been to blame for the death of Colonel Arana, something that many Guatemalans viewed with disbelief from the beginning, since it was known that Martínez was wounded and that he was a supporter of Árbenz; This gave rise to rumors of a plot to assassinate Colonel Arana, which have persisted to the present day and which directly accuse Árbenz of being responsible for the death of a rival who would have been "stealing prominence from him". According to an interview between Piero Gleijeses and Ricardo Barrios Peña, the latter would have assured that this was done on purpose by Arévalo to transfer all the blame to Árbenz.

The Minister of Education, Carlos Manuel Pellecer, in a demonstration in support of the government, rejected the official version and mentioned the coup that Arana had attempted; Immediately, the Arevalista government rejected Pellecer's statements and dismissed him from his important official position.

After regaining stability

With the increase in the price of coffee in 1947, and the payment of the English Debt that Ubico made just before he resigned, although the beneficiary in the first place was the coffee farmer, a monocultivist and mono-exporter, there were a sufficient income to open new businesses or expand existing ones in the intermediate social ranks of the capital and some departmental capitals. In short, these were some of the years of considerable expansion of the country's urban and ladino middle classes, which even the newly organized trade unionism favored, since many of the new leaders and worker deputies came from its different layers.

Relationship with the press

At the beginning of his government, he tolerated freedom of the press, but when this was taken advantage of by the Guatemalan right-wing and the United Fruit Company to carry out an incessant smear campaign, he had serious altercations with the fourth estate. The writer, lawyer and numismatist Manuel Coronado Aguilar, who personally hated him, wrote the book El Año 2001 (1959) in which he accused President Arévalo of imposing the "gag law" on the press and of violating the rights of the Catholic Church.

Our Diary

The government of Arévalo bought the newspaper Nuestro Diario from Federico Hernández de León to counter the negative press it received; the newspaper was intended to publish partisan articles written by high-ranking public officials as editorials. The director, Pedro Julio García, preferred to resign; and along with him all the collaborators of the newspaper left, those who eventually founded Prensa Libre.

The Time

In January 1948, the Association of Guatemalan Journalists managed to get the Congress of the Republic to annul the decision of the Executive to order the closure of the newspaper La Hora after its director, Clemente Marroquín Rojas, would have questioned the passivity of the Army in claiming the territory of Belize, wasting the situation that the power of England was diminished after World War II.

Education

Many of the changes that the government of General Lázaro Chacón attempted could not be carried out, mainly due to the start of the crisis in 1929.

When Jorge Ubico took office in 1931, he put an end to all innovations in education and seriously hampered the conditions for national teachers since his main focus was to maintain Guatemala's economic stability in the face of the Great Depression. The educational project remained dormant until it was resumed by the Arévalo government, which carried out all the changes that Chacón could only attempt.

Arévalo began the construction of the National Library and the General Government Archive -currently called the General Archive of Central America of the National Conservatory of Music and the reorganization of the Guatemala Ballet, the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Choir.

Popular University

This institution was founded in 1922 and was in charge of popular education. The institution had been closed in 1932 by the government of General Jorge Ubico. The name Universidad was used to make the Guatemalan population see that not only the academic elite could have access to education. In this way, professionals from various areas taught ad honorem classes. The objectives of the Popular University in Guatemala focused on the three fundamental aspects of the educational problem facing the country:

1. Teaching to read and write.
2. To teach the circle of general knowledge to persons who were unable to acquire them by circumstances of fortune.
3. To spread in the people the most important notions of hygiene, civic and moral instruction, to obtain an improvement in the physical and spiritual conditions of the great mass.

Middle education

In the capital, the Normal Institute for “Señoritas Centroamérica” (INCA), the “Rafael Aqueche” Mixed Normal Institute, the Night Mixed Normal Institute, the Alameda Rural Normal School and the Federation Type Schools were founded. number of students increased greatly in existing establishments.

University of San Carlos

In 1945, he founded the Faculty of Humanities, with its department of pedagogy, and began a period of culture: the first pedagogical investigations were carried out and attempts were made to link the faculty with the great national problems.

Foreign Policy

On November 17, 1948, the new United States ambassador Richard Patterson arrived in Guatemala. Arévalo's political enemies were waiting for the new ambassador to save the nation, threatened by the communists that his government allegedly tolerated and even protected. Patterson, co-owner of a fountain pen factory. The appointment of his ambassador had been requested by the United Fruit Company, to modify the Labor Code, since it affected the interests of the fruit company.

An ambassador from a South American country, residing in Honduras, told President Arévalo that he had reliable information that Patterson's mission was to overthrow him. Arévalo then told his Minister of Foreign Relations, Enrique Muñoz Meany, that he would not see the new ambassador in the presidential office because he wanted to avoid expelling him from that office. He preferred, then, to attend him the first time to present his credentials in the Reception Hall and the following times in the Banquet Hall, both in the National Palace. The first meeting between the two occurred on November 18, for the presentation of credentials; Patterson did not speak Spanish, and Arévalo did not want to speak to him in English. Eight days later, Patterson requested the first interview, in which he informed the president that the United Fruit Company opposed the Labor Code being applied to United States citizens who worked for the company and that the law needed to be reformed, to exclude those citizens. Patterson told a translator from Puerto Rico, hired by him: "Tell the President that I am a businessman and that I speak little," to which Arévalo replied: "Please tell the Ambassador that I am a politician and that I talk a lot."

A week later, the ambassador requested a second interview; on this occasion Patterson told the translator: «Tell the President that I am studying Spanish. So soon we will talk without an intermediary”, to which Arévalo replied: “Tell the Ambassador not to take these fatigues. I have been studying the language for forty years, and I still haven't mastered it.» Patterson missed the presidential irony. The interviews continued. In the end, Arévalo chose to see him in the presidential office, but with a translator chosen by the president. In the sixth or seventh interview, the ambassador told the translator: "Tell Mr. President that I have come to offer him a trip to United States, with the route he wishes and for as long as he sees fit; that my government does not grant decorations but that President Arévalo will be decorated in Washington; that he will be splendidly received and that, furthermore, we will give him whatever he asks for; but let him change his policy »; Arévalo replied: "Tell the Ambassador that my wife and I have been very concerned, in recent days, by the news that Mrs. Patterson was suffering from an attack of flu, and that we would like to know that she is out of danger now." The answer was no longer ironic; it was a frank way of telling the American ambassador that his proposal was denied. The ambassador was stunned and could only ask: "Did you communicate my message to the president?", who replied: "Yes, Mr. Ambassador." Arévalo commented in his memoirs: «The battle was won. Guatemala had saved itself from a vile business, from those vile businesses that usually take place on the presidential desk."

Patterson, however, was stubborn, and without first asking for an audience, he asked to speak to the president once more. This time the translator was Raúl Osegueda, Private Secretary of the Presidency. The ambassador said: "Inform the President that I will be eight days in Washington. Tell him that I have been told that he likes women; I want to bring him one but I want to know if he prefers her blonde or black-haired ». Arévalo mentions in his memoirs: «I had never heard from a diplomat such an offer of celestial services that are only justified on a level of intimate friendship. It made me deeply sad to think that this man represented the nation that had just won a world war. With no little contempt I provided the answer, now without irony. The president's response, communicated by the translator, was this: “Indeed, I like women; but I usually look for them myself».

The US ambassador was convinced that it was too difficult to subdue Arévalo, and so he opted for a resource that turned out to be as futile as all his attempts had been until now: conspiring to overthrow him.

Council of Ministers

Last year of government

The last year of Arévalo's government was characterized by broad political freedom of both expression and organization. In the cities, the creation of unions was accompanied by labor laws that greatly favored the middle and lower classes, although these advantages could not be perceived in the agrarian rural areas where their conditions were still harsh. While the government made some efforts to improve peasants' rights, their situation could not be improved except through large-scale land reform. The lack of this reform was a major weakness during his administration, and a problem his successor tried to address. On March 15, 1951, he left the presidency to his successor Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán.

Other of the main achievements of his government management were the creation of the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGSS), the Bank of Guatemala and the Institute for the Promotion of Production (INFOP), in addition to the issuance of the Code of Work in 1947, of the Law of Forced Leasing of Idle Lands and the Law of Industrial Development.

Government of Árbenz and exile

Shortly after handing over power to Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán in 1951, Arévalo was appointed by him as roving ambassador. From this account, for the next three years Arévalo spent time in Europe and Latin America at the expense of the Guatemalan government. He was never asked for his opinion on government affairs nor did he influence any of the events that occurred during the tree planting regime.

Arévalo was in Chile when Árbenz fell and stayed there before moving to Uruguay in 1958 - where he briefly met Árbenz and his family. Uruguay, which had experienced the entire Guatemalan revolutionary process with intensity and optimism, and helplessly attended the end of the Árbenz government, was a hospitable country and knew how to receive and house for a time the two former presidents of the so-called democratic spring. Arévalo arrived in Montevideo on several occasions before, during, and after Árbenz's resignation, establishing himself stably between 1958 and the beginning of the following year, when he accepted a university professorship in Venezuela. He enjoyed a certain freedom and was able to express himself through newspaper articles that the weekly March gladly received.

When Arévalo moved to Venezuela in 1959 he restarted his academic career and wrote three books against US policy in the hemisphere. By 1961 his anti-American tone changed, apart from criticizing President Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles, attacked the communist policies of Fidel Castro in Cuba and praised the new US president, the Catholic Democrat John F. Kennedy.

In 1963, the government of Guatemalan President Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes was in crisis due to extensive corruption and incompetence in his administration. Toward the end of his tenure, Ydígoras was grooming his successor, Roberto Alejos, but he did not go well received by the Guatemalan elite that began to look for other candidates; to counteract this trend, Ydígoras Fuentes then offered that the elections would be free and that he would allow former President Arévalo to participate as a candidate. with the country's army - began to make personal attacks on Árbenz, repeating over and over again that he had always been an anti-communist and that he had never participated in the death of Colonel Francisco Javier Arana. Furthermore, he went so far as to say that "everyone in Guatemala they know who killed Arana, why he was killed, and who benefited from his death." Of course, Arévalo did not retract his criticism of the US Eisenhower regime and said that after Kennedy's election "there was a changing of the guard, that the dinosaurs had been defeated and that the Great Republic was ruled by new men - men who They had studied at Harvard."

While Arévalo spoke from Mexico, the situation in Guatemala turned around. Analysts from the United States embassy in the country reported that if there were indeed free elections, Arévalo was the sure winner, since he would receive the votes of all those who hated the counterrevolutionary governments; but his government would have no basis, since neither the country's elite nor the Guatemalan army would accept the new president, who inherited the communist Árbenz. On March 30, 1963, the newspapers announced that Arévalo had returned to Guatemala, that he had arrived in lead those who supported him, and that he would remain in the country even if it "cost him his life"; but two days later he was in exile again in Mexico, because on March 31 the army carried out a coup against Ydígoras Fuentes, installed to a military junta led by Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia, and canceled the elections.

According to members of the Guatemalan elite at the time, Ydígoras never claimed that the elections were free; he simply wanted the elite to support Alejos and used Arévalo's reputation to blackmail them, but his plan failed.

Definitive return to Guatemala

In the mid-1970s, Dr. Arévalo returned to Guatemala. In December 1985, he met with President Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo a few hours after Cerezo had taken office and said with satisfaction that he had never expected to be alive when a civilian took over Guatemala. He celebrated the occasion by saying: "The October revolution is going to have a second chapter." Unfortunately, Arévalo also saw that the Cerezo regime was accused of human rights abuses, inefficient civil administration, and failure to solve Guatemala's serious economic problems.

Recognitions and distinctions

• The Ministry of Education of Guatemala instituted the Pedagogical Order Juan José Arévalo Bermejo.
• Order of Duarte, Sanchez and Mella, in the rank of Gran Cruz Placa de Oro, of the Dominican Republic on March 27, 1972.
• During the bicentennial of Argentina, Arévalo was included with Jacobo Árbenz at the Gallery of Latin American Patriots of the Bicentennial. Arévalo and Arbenz are the only Guatemalan patriots.

Death

Dr. Arévalo Bermejo died in October 1990 in a hospital in Guatemala City at the age of 86, and was buried in Taxisco, Santa Rosa. He being the only president who received a state funeral.

Posts

• National Reading Method1927
• Traveling is living, 1933
• Elementary Geography of Guatemala, 1936
• Personality pedagogy (Euckenn-Budde-Gaudig-Kesseler), 1937
• The philosophy of values in pedagogy1939
• Adolescence as evasion and return, 1941
• Educational and philosophical writings1945
• The pedagogy of personality1948
• Political writings and speeches, 1953
• Istmania; or, The Revolutionary Unity of Central America1954
• Fables of shark and sardines: Latin America strangled1956
• Antikomunism in Latin America: X-ray of the process towards a new colonization1959
• Guatemala, democracy and the empire1964
• Personality, adolescence, values1974
• The concept of friendship according to schoolchildren1985

Autobiographical Writings

• Village reports1963
• The Normalist Concern1970
• The Argentina I lived1975
• White candidate and hurricane1984
• Presidential office, 1998 (posthumous publication)