Word: guatemala
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...during the 16-month rule of Guatemalan President Efrain Rios Montt that observers lost count of the actual attempts. Had there been seven? Eight? Ten? Whatever the tally, last week's coup turned out to be for keeps. After a brief gun duel outside the National Palace in Guatemala City, the country's military leaders toppled Rios Montt and replaced him with Defense Minister Oscar Humberto Mejía Victores...
...virtually all of the commanders of the country's armed forces gathered at the Guatemala City barracks of the Guardia de Honor, an elite army garrison. There were impassioned arguments for and against ousting Rios Montt, but gradually the plotters won. The decisive factor: the news that Sisniega Otero was once again planning to move against Rios Montt. Explains a Guatemalan journalist: "The ghost of another coup from the extreme right provoked this coup...
...including a low-level Guatemalan diplomat, eight people from the Washington area and two Miami residents. Dora Ileana Caceres, 32, third secretary in the Guatemalan mission to the Organization of American States, her husband Juan, a businessman, and her nephew were arrested after her diplomatic status was rescinded by Guatemala following consultations with the State Department...
...order is maintained largely by 7,000 lightly armed civil and rural guardsmen. The country's 1982 per capita income of $1,164 is the second highest, after Panama, in Central America, and its society is largely lacking in the unhealthy extremes of wealth and poverty that afflict Guatemala and El Salvador...
...actors, the props, even the scenario were familiar. Apparently sniffing out plans for at least the seventh coup since he seized power one year ago, Guatemala's President Efrain Ríos Montt last week declared an official "state of alarm" to muzzle his critics. Under the new orders, privately owned firearms are to be confiscated, political meetings are forbidden and nothing may be published or broadcast that might "disturb the peace of Guatemala." The government also reserved the right to search homes at will and to arrest anyone suspected of Marxist-Leninist activities. For the moment, at least...