Seven Days that Shook Guatemala

...Waiting outside the meeting room in the Palace was much like awaiting the returns in a trade-union election, with now one officer and now another emerging with an enigmatic smile or a sly word to indicate that this candidate or that was ahead...

...This pretty well summed up the feelings of the conservative business people of Guatemala City...

...on Wednesday, October 23, the day after Gonzalez Lopez fell, General Ydigoras addressed a crowd of some 15,000 and told them that he planned to sit in front of the National Palace until the doors were opened to admit him as President...

...If someone like Cruz Salazar became the candidate of the moderate, centrist forces, which are probably preponderant but not united, Guatemala could look forward to six...

...He was keeping his pledge...

...Nearly 10,000 more were voided for various reasons...

...What can or should it do...

...He is now completing book on the assassination of Castillo Armas last summer...

...This may be called "intervention," but we can scarcely be expected to pour money into a country which prefers permanent crisis to progress and stability...

...Ydigoras has often called himself an anti-Communist and even a supporter of the Liberation...

...It was 100 per cent effective...

...Flores Avendano, who was Second Vice President, was thus named Provisional President by Congress...

...The Government eventually wearied of the whole thing before the crowd did, and toward the end of the evening the demonstrators were tearing limbs off the young trees and generally making a shambles of the beautiful plaza...

...The long lines were much like those in the United States, except that young people seemed to predominate...

...Canvassing the stores on Sixth Avenue, the capital's main street, I found all but the drug stores closed...

...The other candidates immediately took this to confirm what they had suspected all along: that the Government was brazenly stealing the election...

...They lacked the finesse to bring the fraud off...

...At 8 p.m...

...The ydigorista mob openly flouted the siege by massing in growing numbers before the National Palace until as late as midnight...

...By Saturday, the crowd had its way again...

...Even had the MDN won rural Guatemala honestly, however, it is doubtful that it could have governed effectively without the support of the country's most enlightened, politically aware citizens...

...This left it no choice but to throw its support to Ydigoras, thus swelling his vote to the extent that he could successfully claim he had been robbed...

...The general consensus is that the MDN could have won the election honestly...

...The Government took a long time before deciding to break up the demonstration, which was technically illegal since the ydigoristas had not applied for a permit...

...By contrast, Ydigoras lost the remote Indian regions, where it was impossible to watch the polls and the Government controlled all the instruments of power and intimidation: jobs, vehicles, supply of funds, electoral committees, etc...

...Finally, it sent a fire-truck around the square squirting a red aniline fluid at the crowd, which infuriated it without dispersing it...

...Crowds jammed the entire area and overflowed virtually into the house itself...

...That is a lie put out by the Government...

...According to the MDN's own figures, Ydigoras took Quezaltenango, Guatemala's second city, by 4,007 votes to 2,494...

...The following morning, Ortiz compounded his error by calling a press conference to discuss what he intended to do when—not if —he was inaugurated as President...

...Instead, Congress followed Constitutional procedure by designating the First Vice President as Provisional President...

...Sunday night, the Government candidate proclaimed himself the Victor although the polls were not vet closed...

...Crowds milled in front of the National Palace day after day, shouting a single slogan: "Ydigoras for President...

...The anticipated runner-up was General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes...

...General Ydigoras, the President of t"he people...

...The ydigorista demonstrators went beyond condemning the MDN for election fraud and attacked the Liberation itself, i.e., the anti-Communist movement headed by Castillo Armas...

...Thus, four-fifths of the capital's voters were opposed to the Government —more than enough to seize power in any Latin American republic, where the capital really rules the country...

...They have also opened up a new leftist period which, like the last one, may well be dominated by the Communists...

...It would have been in constant danger of overthrow, as were the Arevalo and Arbenz regimes from 1945 to 1954, which never held a majority in the capital and were therefore constantly plotted against...

...The strike remained effective all week...

...The crowd, noisy and defiant, did everything possible to provoke the police, from firing sparklers under their noses to calling them names, but the police showed admirable restraint...

...He did not venture a percentage guess, but this writer, on the basis of observation, would estimate that the Communists number at least 10 per cent...

...Actually, little could have been done about the situation, and the Ambassador was merely being made a scapegoat...

...But it was afraid to trust the people and resorted to chicanery instead...

...After the conference, I decided to see what the opposition was up to and headed for General Ydigoras's home with two colleagues...

...Election Day was a balmy, peaceful Sunday...

...While the Communists did not create the popular movement behind Ydigoras, they played a major role in organizing and leading it...

...who never had a chance, was Miguel Asturias Quinonez leader of the newly formed Christian Democratic party...

...The result: overwhelming national resentment against the MDN which carried over into a reaction against the Liberation and anti-Communism in general...

...The crowd howled its approval, chanted "El General...

...Who are you for...

...I'm going to organize a demonstration muda"—a silent demonstration...

...Ambassador Edward Sparks could have stopped it all by taking "a strong hand...

...In another Indian department, Suchitepequez, he trailed 15,832 to 7,796...

...Barred from the ballot was Mario Mendez Montenegro, leader of the outlawed leftist Revolutionary patty...

...Anything else would have brought immediate charges of "intervention...

...Indeed, the outstanding feature of the post-election week of lawlessness was the emergence into the open, for the first time since its defeat by Castillo Armas in July 1954, of the Guatemalan Communist party...

...El General...

...The junta resigned and made way for the man who is now Guatemala's Provisional President, retired Colonel Guillermo Flores Avendano...

...For it was the Communists who initiated the events which have brought this unhappy Central American Republic to its present uncertain state...

...All week, too, gangs of young riffraff roamed the streets on bicycles and motorcycles, incessantly sounding their bells and horns...

...What set off the popular explosion was the glaring contrasts between the election returns from Guatemala City and other urban centers and those from the rural areas...

...He was not, as it turned out, strong enough...

...What do you intend to do...

...The Government's answer was to impose a state of siege...

...The Army was forced to dissolve its junta...

...What the United States should now do is exert influence on Guatemalan leaders to unite and elect a truly representative government, so that the public works and economic projects initiated by Castillo Armas can be completed and the country restored to normalcy...

...Having had no experience in government before their accession to power under Castillo Armas, they apparently learned little during their three years of responsibility...

...Could he have "ordered" the Guatemalan Army or police to put down the rioters or called out the U.S...

...Together with other correspondents, I had to obtain an Army safe-conduct pass in order to appear in the streets after 9 p.m., but I was never once asked to show this pass by soldiers or police...

...Nor did it emerge under an assumed name, or as a front organization, hut under the name it officially adopted back in 1952: Partido Guatemalieco de Trabajadores (PGT), the Guatemalan Workers party...

...No...

...An idealistic young lawyer who seemed more than anything else a product of the 1944 revolution against dictator Ubico, Villagran also estimated frankly that 8 to 10 per cent of his own party were Communists...

...And if the new government is headed by Ydigoras, who seems most likely to win the next election, the Communist party can feel assured of having many friends in the National Palace...

...That evening, the demonstration was held before the Metropolitan Cathedral, a very old structure which occupies one side of the city's main square at right angles from the more modern, pastel-green National Palace...

...It was about the most "democratic" junta I have ever seen, for it was "elected" by some 300 Army officers who met for several hours for that purpose...

...The MDN and Gonzalez Lopez had smeared the Revolutionary party as wholly Communist and barred it from the election...

...not once during the post-election week of organized chaos did he repudiate his Communist supporters, condemn Communism, or proclaim his belief in the ideals and goals of Castillo Annas...

...I was ready to file a story saying that Guatemala had at last matured politically and had held the best-attended, most peaceful election in her history...

...this writer asked him...

...Figures which I obtained at MDN headquarters showed Ydigoras capturing the capital by 43,232 votes to 15,193...

...Finally, the irresolute Gonzalez Lopez Government resigned en masse...

...In the ensuing crisis, Guatemala miraculously avoided falling under the rule of a military junta...

...Francisco Villagran, right-hand man of the Revolutionary party's Presidential candidate, told me that he thought at least 20 per cent of the participants in the ydigorista demonstrations were Communists or Communist sympathizers...

...Perhaps Guatemala's last hope of achieving stability is to elect, in the Presidential vote scheduled for January 19, a man who is both staunchly anti-Communist and progressive, who rejects both leftist and rightist extremes, and who represents the ideals of the Liberation but does not suffer from the immaturity and negativism characteristic of many Liberation leaders...

...she declared indignantly...

...For three months, the latter, a lawyer named Luis Arturo Gonzalez Lopez, remained chief of state—but only in name...

...He produced a telegram from the manager of one of the fincas nacionales (Government-owned coffee farms) which he had intercepted...

...Thus, in the aftermath of the October 20 election, the rightist Ydigoras proved the entering wedge for .1 Communist comeback in Guatemala...

...I visited half-a-dozen polling places in different parts of Guatemala City and saw not the slightest evidence of intimidation or violence...

...Faced with the crucial test of their ability to win an election without a national hero at their head, they resorted to the time-honored Guatemalan practice of stealing votes...

...The third candidate...

...the vital Caribbean port of Barrios by 3,305 to 1,275 (here Revolutionary party votes were decisive) : the United Fruit stronghold of Tiquisate by 4,661 to 2,657 (with the Revolutionaries again providing the majority) ; and the old capital of Antigua by 2,079 to 744...

...If necessary, we should withhold further economic aid until we have evidence that such a regime will be established and can maintain itself in power...

...All he could do was keep in close touch with events and hope for the best...

...years of domestic social and economic progress and a maximum of economic and political support from abroad...

...As it is, the crisis has not produced any anti-American outbursts (except, of course, by the Communist party...

...Stage a golpe to win power...

...49-year-old former Chief Justice and candidate of the Government party, the National Democratic Movement (MDN...

...In other urban centers, the story was the same...

...Redemption [Ydigoras's party], the Christian Democrats and the PGT," he replied matter-of-factly...

...On October 20, Guatemala held an election to choose a President for the next six years...

...An eye-witness account of the demonstrations that opened a new era Seven Days that Shook Guatemala By Daniel James Guatemala City Five days of street demonstrations, shootings and a general strike have finally put an end to Guatemala's "Liberation era" and the anti-Communist regimes it produced...

...The next day, Ydigoras and his supporters—who included the rival Christian Democrats as well as the Revolutionaries, who had surreptitiously voted for Ydigoras and helped organize his demonstration— declared a general strike...

...We entered the house just as the old general was mounting a rail fence to address his huge audience...

...El General...

...On Tuesday and Wednesday, the mob demanded the resignation of the entire Gonzalez Lopez Government, especially Defense Minister Oliva and his brother, Enrique Trinidad Oliva, chief of the national police...

...Responsibility for the collapse of the Liberation movement and the threatened revival of Communism lies, above all, with the heirs of Castillo Armas...

...The workers felt much the same and, moreover, were not concerned about the Red label...

...More important, the ydigorista literature, the demonstrations and the general strike all bore a clear Communist imprint...

...Such a man might well be the Guatemalan Ambassador to the United States, Colonel Jose Luis Cruz Salazar...

...When I asked a middle-aged woman why she was closing her stationery store, she replied: "We are against the Government —it is a government of thieves...

...According to Villagran...

...But aren't the Communists behind him...

...It all began last July 26 with the assassination of President Carlos Castillo Armas by a fanatical Communist who had somehow wormed his way into the Presidential Guard...

...No sooner had its members been presented from the balcony of the Palace than the ydigoristas began shouting for their removal—especially the chairman, Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Mendoza Asturias, a close associate of the late Castillo Armas...

...and settled down for a long vigil...

...Early Thursday morning—it was 2:30 when the official announcement was made—an Army junta made up of three colonels took power...

...Actual power was wielded by the Minister of Defense, Colonel Juan Francisco Oliva, who more than once resisted the temptation to stage a golpe de estado but remained the strong man...

...What about the United States...

...Nevertheless, the junta failed to please the mob...

...Marines to keep the Gonzalez Lopez Government in power...

...It turned out that I was very premature...

...The General shook his head...

...the ydigorista party itself is—or was at the time of the demonstrations—Communist-infiltrated...

...Soon there was a strong demand to permit exiled supporters of the Arbenz regime, including outright Communists, to return, and to amnesty all those jailed for Communist activities under Castillo Armas...

...many of these were probably Communist votes...

...Returning to the scene shortly before midnight, after three hours' absence, I found the old general huddled at the Palace steps, a battered hunting cap pulled down over his ears—it was chilly at that hour—surrounded by a handful of loyal lieutenants and a dwindling crowd...

...An additional 10,909 were cast for the Christian Democratic candidate and may be considered anti-MDN votes...

...During the chaotic week of October 20, some critics contended that U.S...

...One afternoon as a demonstration was getting under way, I approached a plainly dressed worker in Central Park and asked: "Who is organizing this demonstration...

...Addressed to MDN headquarters, it asked for 3,000 ballots—but the farm, General Ydigoras assured us, had only 300 laborers on it...

...Afterward, the General told us substantially what he had told his followers: that the Government was trying to steal the election and that he was the rightful winner...

...Picked to win was Miguel Ortiz Passarelli...

...Daniel James, who has visited Guatemala some dozen times in the last four years, is author of Red Design for the Americas, an analytic study of the pro-Communist Arbenz, regime which ruled Guatemala until 1954...

...Paradoxically, Flores Avendano owed his selection to General Ydigoras, who suddenly insisted that constitutionality be preserved...

...The inevitable conclusion is that Ydigoras captured the more enlightened, politically conscious, democratic population of the cities, while the Government took rural Guatemala, with its illiterate, apolitical, submissive Indian population, by simply herding voters to the polls or even voting them more than once...

...Thus, in the department of Huehuetenango the vote ran against Ydigoras by 17,219 to 5,483...

...Guatemalans went to the polls in bright-hued sport shirts or skirts, consumed much ice cream and soda pop, and generally behaved as though they were at a fiesta...

...I have experienced several states of siege in Guatemala, but never have I seen one less effective...

...Unfortunately for Guatemalan anti-Communism, the MDN was led chiefly by immature and sometimes arrogant young men in their late twenties and early thirties...

...Many of them were pulled out of the factories by flying squads of leftists, but many—for example, the railway workers—went on strike voluntarily...

...a 65-year-old relic from the regime of wartime dictator Jorge Ubico...

...On the night of the first demonstration, for example, I was handed a leaflet issued by the "Ydigorista Student Youth" which attacked the "foreign companies," just as in the old days under Arbenz, and declared that "the worker will be liberated from [the companies'] exploitation...

...A sign carried before the National Palace on October 24 boldly proclaimed: "Down with the 'Liberation...

...The return to Guatemala of thousands of Communists and fellow-travelers would undoubtedly create problems for whatever government succeeds the present provisional regime...

...Ydigorista orators were brought out one after the other, the Guatemalan national anthem was sung interminably, and the cyclists roared by periodically jangling their bells...