Guatemala: Political murders - timeline
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Timeline
- August 2007. Congress (the unicameral legislature) approves the creation of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG); it is revealed that at least 38 people, mostly politicians and political activists, have been killed since the start of the official election campaign in May.
- April 2007. Two local members of the centre-left National Union for Hope (UNE) are shot and killed after attending a political meeting in Masagua, in the department of Escuintla.
- January 2007. President Oscar Berger refuses to present his annual state of the nation report to Congress, citing fears for his safety as the reason for his absence.
- December 2005. Millions of documents relating to alleged atrocities, including torture and murder, committed by the police force during the civil war are seized by human rights officials.
- December 2004. The constitutional court strikes down as unconstitutional legislation enacted to appropriate some US$114 million in funds to be disbursed as compensation payments to some 500,000 former members of paramilitary “civil defence patrols”.
- September 2004. President Oscar Berger promulgates legislation to appropriate funds to provide for payments to some 500,000 former members of paramilitary “civil defence patrols”.
- December 2003. Oscar Berger is elected as president after defeating Alvaro Colom Caballeros in a second round of voting.
- November 2003. Simultaneous presidential, legislative, and municipal elections are held.
- May 2003. The conviction of Col Juan Valencia Osorio, the former head of the elite presidential guard, for ordering a subordinate to assassinate an anthropologist and human rights activist, is overturned.
- August 2000. President Alfonso Portillo admits for the first time the state's responsibility for atrocities committed during the civil war and vows to prosecute those responsible.
- December 1999. Alfonso Portillo, the candidate of the conservative Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), is elected as president after winning the second round run-off vote.
- February 1999. An independent Historical Clarification Commission (also known as the Truth Commission) publishes a report blaming the army for more than 90 per cent of the crimes committed during the civil war, whilst left-wing guerrillas were found to be responsible for only 3 per cent of the atrocities.
- December 1996. A historic peace accord is signed by the commanders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrillas and President Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen in Guatemala City (the capital), formally ending 36 years of civil war which had resulted in some 200,000 deaths and the “disappearance” of some 40,000 others.
- September 1996. The government and URNG guerrillas sign the fifth and most ambitious accord resulting from a series of peace talks mediated by the UN.
- March 1996. URNG guerrillas announce that they will cease military activities unless they are themselves attacked, whilst President Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen orders the armed forces to suspend anti-guerrilla activities.
- January 1996. Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen is sworn in as President, replacing Ramiro de León Carpio, who was constitutionally excluded from a further term of office, after winning a second round run-off vote.
- September 1995. A presidential order demobilising some 22,286 military commissioners brings an end to armed civilians working in collaboration with the army.
- March 1995. The US government orders an investigation into allegations of a US intelligence cover-up in the case of a Guatemalan army officer with links to the CIA.
- February 1995. A new timetable for peace talks is unveiled following weeks of negotiations between the government, the URNG, and UN officials.
- November 1994. Members of the UN Mission for Guatemala (MINUGUA) start arriving in the country to supervise the implementation of the human rights accords signed in March by the government and the URNG.
- April 1994. President Ramiro de León Carpio announces that the army has been placed in charge of internal security in an effort to combat violence and growing unrest.
- March 1994. The resumption of peace talks between the government and the URNG leads to a preliminary agreement on human rights and agreement on a timetable for continued negotiations, intended to produce a definitive peace settlement in December.
- November 1993. President Ramiro de León Carpio suffers a setback to his plans to purge the Congress and the judiciary when the constitutional court suspends temporarily an imminent referendum.
- June 1993. Ramiro de León Carpio is inaugurated as president.
- May 1993. Amid rumours of his imminent resignation, beleaguered President Jorge Serrano Eliason stages an army-backed “self-coup” (autogolpe).
- July 1991. Progress is made at a third round of peace talks, in the Mexican city of Querétaro, between the government and URNG guerrillas.
- January 1991. Jorge Serrano Elias wins the second round of presidential elections and is inaugurated as president.
- December 1990. The US Department of State announces that military aid to Guatemala is being suspended because of the government's failure to “criticise or exhaustively investigate” those responsible for human rights abuses.
- June 1990. During peace talks, the URNG vows to halt attacks on communication links and economic targets during a forthcoming presidential election.
- May 1989. An attempted military coup is suppressed by troops loyal to President Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo.
- September 1986. President Cerezo Arevalo agrees to appoint an independent commission on human rights; developments concerning the civil war.
- January 1986. Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo is inaugurated as president, after winning the second round of a presidential election held in December under Guatemala’s new constitution, marking the restoration of civilian rule after 31 years of military rule.
- November 1985. Simultaneous presidential, legislative, and municipal elections are held.
- July 1984. Elections to a constituent assembly are contested by 17 political parties.
- August 1983. A group of senior army officers stage a military coup, removing President Efrain Ríos Montt from office and replacing him with Brig.-Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores.
- June 1982. Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who assumed the presidency after a military coup in March, declares a state of siege amid an intensification of a government campaign against guerrilla groups in rural areas.
- March 1982. The holding of presidential elections is followed by a military coup which leads to the appointment of Gen. Efrain Rios Montt as president and head of a three-member military junta.
- January 1979. An estimated 130 people are killed in an upsurge of violence.
- July 1978. Gen. Fernando Romeo Lucas García is inaugurated as president.
- March 1978. Congress declares Gen. Fernando Romeo Lucas García president.
- December 1976. Amnesty International says that more than 20,000 people, many of them political dissidents, have been killed or “disappeared” in Guatemala during the past 10 years.
- March 1974. Congress declares that Gen. Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia has won a disputed presidential election.
- May 1973. Left-wing rebels and landless peasants renew a campaign of violence.
- June 1972. Left-wing rebels assassinate members of the ruling right-wing National Liberation Movement (MLN).
- November 1971. President Carlos Arana Osorio declares a state of emergency amid Guatemala’s civil war.
- March 1970. Congress appoints Col Carlos Araña Osorio as president after an inconclusive election marred by violence.
- August 1966. Guerrillas fighting against the government in Guatemala’s civil war refuse to surrender their arms amid an upsurge in violence.
- July 1966. Civilian rule is restored after Julio César Méndez Montenegro wins presidential elections in March.
- March 1963. President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes is overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by Col Enrique Peralta, who himself assumes power.
- November 1962. An attempted military coup is suppressed by troops loyal to President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes.
- December 1961. Guatemala reiterates its claims of sovereignty over British Honduras (now called Belize).
- November 1959. An armed uprising by elements of the armed forces and left-wing rebels is suppressed by troops loyal to the government.
- January 1958. Gen. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes wins Guatemala’s presidential election.
- October 1957. Ortiz Passarelli wins the most votes in presidential elections, but military commanders declare the elections “invalid” and appoint Guillermo Flores Avendano as the president.
- July 1957. Col Carlos Castillo Armas, the president who assumed power as the head of a three-member military junta in a CIA-organised military coup in 1954, is assassinated; Luis Arturo-Gonzales Lopez is inaugurated as a provisional replacement for Castillo Armas.
- June 1956. The government declares a state of emergency, suspending a number of constitutional guarantees, after claiming that it has discovered plans by communists” to spread panic and disorder”.
- December 1954. Assets expropriated from the US-based United Fruit Company, the largest banana producing company in Guatemala, are returned to the company.
- June 1954. President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman is ousted in a military coup organised by the CIA and power is assumed by Col Carlos Diaz as the head of a three-member military junta.
- February 1953. Guatemala’s diplomatic relations with the USA are soured by the expropriation by the Guatemalan government of US-based United Fruit Company, the largest banana producing company in Guatemala.
- March 1951. Lt-Col Jacobo Arbenz Guzman is inaugurated as president.
- November 1950. Lt.Col Jacobo Arbenz Guzman is elected president.
- September 1949. The UK government continues to reject Guatemala’s claims of sovereignty over British Honduras.
- July 1949. An attempted military coup is put down by troops loyal to President Juan José Arevalo.
- November 1948. The Guatemalan government rejects a UK protest against Guatemalan school textbooks showing British Honduras as part of Guatemalan territory.
- February 1948. The UK government deploys naval ships to British Honduras in an attempt to prevent Guatemala from invading the UK colony.
- May 1946. General Jorge Ubico, the president and virtual dictator of Guatemala in 1931–44, dies in the USA, aged 67.
- December 1945. Guatemala ratifies the newly established UN charter.
- September 1945. Guatemala claims sovereignty over British Honduras.
- December 1944. Arevalo is elected president to replace the ruling military-civilian junta.
- July 1944. Gen. Jorge Ubico, Guatemala’s president, resigns and transfers his executive powers to a military junta; Congress appoints Gen. Federico Ponce as the president but his military government is overthrown and power is assumed by a military-civilian junta.
- February 1942. The government assumes control of the Nazi German-owned Verapaz railway.
- August 1941. The government expels Nazi German consuls from Guatemala, after declaring war against the Axis powers.
- May 1936. Guatemala withdraws its membership of the League of Nations.
