Alfredo Enrique Peralta Azurdia

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Alfredo Enrique Peralta Azurdia (born June 17, 1908 in Guatemala City , † February 19, 1997 in Miami , Florida ) was President of Guatemala from March 31, 1963 to June 30, 1966 .

Life

His parents were Ana Azurdia and Juan Peralta. In 1926 he joined the army . He studied at the Escuela Politécnica de Guatemala, as the military academy was called. In 1937 Peralta was deputy director of the Escuela Politécnica de Guatemala . He was a military attaché at the Guatemalan embassies in Mexico City , Santiago de Chile , San José , San Salvador and Washington, DC He was an ambassador to the Guatemalan embassies in Havana , San Salvador and San José.

On the evening of November 17, 1960, troops under the command of Colonel Peralta occupied the base of Puerto Barrios without resistance , ending the uprising of November 13, 1960, which began in Fuerte de Matamoros . In 1960 Peralta was Director del Departamento Agrario (DAN). Due to the uprising of the Fuerte de Mantamoros , Rubén González Siguí (Puñalada) resigned as Minister of Defense and José Miguel Ramón Idígoras Fuentes appointed Peralta as Minister of Defense .

At the end of 1962, at a meeting between John F. Kennedy , Richard Helms and John O. Bell, the end of Idígora's government was decided. In January 1963, Peralta vetoed a candidacy by Juan José Arévalo for president. On March 28, 1963, Idígoras appeared before the Guatemalan press and presented Arévalo as a presidential candidate. On March 31, 1963, Idígoras was overthrown from key positions by Peralta and 15 other colonels.

Mario Méndez Montenegro (Partido Revolucionario PR), Mario Sandoval Alarcón (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, MLN), Salvador Hernández Villalobos (Democracia Cristiana, DC), the Chamber of Commerce ( Cámara de Comercio) , the coffee producers ( Asociación Nacional del Café) and . ANACAFE the sugar producers ( Asociación Nacional de Cañeros ) welcomed the coup.

Peralta ruled under a state of emergency. His government broke the 1956 constitution, dissolved parliament, and deprived Idígoras' party and its allies, the MDN, the legal person . A Decreto 9, Defensa de las Instituciones Democráticas, was issued: Crimes against internal security were tried before military courts. Two years in prison were earmarked for distributing communist literature, five years for producing explosives. Ten for membership in the Communist Party. 15 years for terrorism. Any person who was involved in acts of terrorism that resulted in death or harm should be executed. This law was applied arbitrarily and used to persecute people who exercised their freedom of association as employees.

The government worked against the corruption that existed under Idígora's government and based itself on the development model that was given by the international financial organizations. Guatemala was still the most active participant in the Mercado Común Centro Americano .

Peralta Azurdia advocated the payment of minimum wages , the obligation of employers to pay a Christmas bonus , the establishment of a pension insurance for at least one percent of the population. Guatemala was the last state in Central America to introduce this tax and the employers' associations Asociacion General de Agricultores (AGA) and Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras (CACIF) opposed this measure.

Peralta founded the Partido Institucional Democrática (PID) in 1963 . In 1965 a constituent assembly passed a new constitution, in which the presidential term of office was shortened from six to four years.

Exploraciones y Explotaciones Mineras de Izabal SA

Nickel has been mined by EXMIBAL, a subsidiary of Vale Inco, since 1965 with a concession of 40 years. As in 1956, the military government had an INCO technician edit its mining law in 1965.

Human rights violations

On April 28, 1966, shortly before its dissolution, Parliament passed an amnesty law for all members of the army and police for the period since July 3, 1954.

On March 3rd, 4th and 5th, 1966, over 32 people disappeared after a raid and were extrajudicially executed. The guerrilla organizations Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo , Fuerzas Armadas Revoluciónarias (FAR) and Movimiento Revolucionario 13 de Noviembre reported on 28 deportees. On May 3rd and 4th, 1966, the FAR kidnapped the Vice President of Parliament, the presiding judge of the Supreme Court and the Minister of Information, issued an ultimatum to present the disappeared, named the places from which it believed the abducted were being held: the prisons the Guardia de Hacienda , the Policía Nacional, some barracks and a prison of the Policía Judicial .

In mid-July 1966, two former officers reported that some of the disappeared had been tortured, murdered, packed in plastic bags, and thrown over the Pacific via La Aurora on the orders of Colonel Rafael Arriaga Bosque, the defense minister appointed by Mendez Montenegro . The military's message to society was that fighting the guerrillas means death. Family members of the disappeared filed criminal charges against former directors of the Policía Judicial , Alberto Barrios and José María Moreira, the former director of the Policía Nacional , Luis González Salaverría, the former director of the Guardia de Hacienda , Colonel Luis Coronado Urrutia and Capitán Justo Rodríguez. The government, parliament and the Supreme Court pledged to investigate the crimes, which went unpunished.

On March 6, 1966, Julio César Méndez Montenegro was elected president, on May 4, 1966, the military granted freedom of action in asymmetric warfare , and on July 1, 1966, he took office.

The death squad , Movimiento de Acción Nacionalista Organizado (MANO, symbol of a white hand) made its existence public for the first time on June 3, 1966. In 1967 these and similar groups spread terror, for example by handing out leaflets with lists of people who accused them of being communists and threatened them with death.

Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia retired from political life and lived in Miami (USA).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Miami Herald , Christmas 1966
2. ↑ Centro Internacional para Investigaciones en Derechos Humanos, Organization y Represión en la Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala, 1944 a 1996 ( Memento of September 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ National Security Archive, US POLICY IN GUATEMALA, 1966-1996
4. ↑ DESAPARICION FORZADA DEL LOCUTOR Y MAESTRO, JOSE ARNOLDO GUILLO MARTINEZ

predecessor	Office	successor
José Miguel Ramón Idígoras Fuentes	President of Guatemala March 31, 1963-30. June 1966	Julio César Méndez Montenegro