Word: guatemala
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...Guatemala City's workers and shopkeepers applauded politely, and the hundreds of straw-hat peasants trucked into the capital stood passively. The country's new military strongman was addressing them. On a balcony of the avocado green national palace, Army Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia, 54, explained what was in store for the country following his overthrow of President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes. He began by proclaiming Decree Law No. 1: subject-labor reform. Peralta promised equal pay for both Indians and whites, an eight-hour day and a 48-hour week, paid vacations, maternity leave, the right of farm...
...Ydigoras-one of Central America's stoutest anti-Castro fighters, though weakened by a corrupt and ineffective regime at home. It was, instead, designed to prevent the comeback of a man cordially hated both by Ydigoras and his soldiers: Juan José Arévalo, 58, President of Guatemala from 1945 to 1951, an anti-Yankee (The Shark and the Sardines) leftist who permitted Communists in his government. Living in exile in Mexico City, Arévalo promised to return to Guatemala on March 31, install himself as a presidential candidate in next November's elections. With Ydigoras...
...army curfew was imposed at 8 p.m., and during the night, gunfire rattled through the streets of Guatemala City. By 6 a.m., the army went on the radio with an announcement for Guatemala's 3,800,000 people. President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, 67, the cagy old soldier who had only a year to go before completing his elected six-year term of office, had been overthrown. In command of a military junta was Defense Minister Enrique Peralta Azurdia, 54, who was assuming control for the "good of the nation...
Last week, as Arévalo's return drew near, Guatemala was declared in a "state of siege," and travel was restricted. Somehow Arévalo slipped through the net into Guatemala. In a secret interview to newsmen he called himself a democrat: "I do not like Communism and will not be a Communist." Then he disappeared. A few hours later, the military made their move. A communiqué after the coup promised to restore constitutional rights "when the country is ready,'' and "extremists have been eradicated...
...Guatemala...