Guatemalan Civil War - Mass Movement For Social Reforms

Mass Movement For Social Reforms

For several years after the "state of siege" under Osorio, the insurgency remained largely inactive, having been largely defeated and demoralized on all fronts during the counterinsurgency. Despite the initial success of the counterinsurgency, the use of repressive tactics and the military establishment's lack of respect for human rights generated discontent with the Guatemalan populace. Additionally, massive economic inequality persisted, which was further compounded by external factors such the 1973 oil crisis, which led to rising food prices and decreased agricultural output due to the lack of obtainability of imported goods and petrol-based fertilizers. Additionally, during the 1974 presidential elections, a blatant electoral fraud favored the government's preferred candidate, General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García, representing the right-wing alliance between the MLN and the Institutional Democratic Party (MLN-PID), against a center-left alliance promoting the ticket of Christian Democrat General José Efraín Ríos Montt (later president from 1982–83) and leftist economist Alberto Fuentes Mohr. Inflation, imbalance, public outrage at the electoral fraud and the discontent with human rights violations generated widespread protest and civil disobedience, which culminated in the emergence of a mass movement which persisted throughout much of the decade.

The political pressures and tensions created by the existence of the mass movement prompted the government to placate the discontent populace by coopting some of the oppositions proposed economic reforms. Unlike previous presidents, General Laugerud did not begin his term with the use of military repression to consolidate power. The administration even began to negotiate solutions to labor disputes between unions and industries rather than silencing the workers through violence, which had been characteristic of the previous two presidencies. This period marked a political opening for the opposition and allowed for greater political freedoms.

At the height of this political opening, on February 4, 1976, a devastating 7.5 M_w earthquake shook Guatemala. Over 23,000 Guatemalans perished in the disaster and close to a million were left without adequate housing. The earthquake had a political impact as well: the visible incapacity and corruption of the government to deal with the effects of the catastrophe led to a rise in independent organizing and made many survivors deeply critical of the government. It became apparent that the political system in place was ineffective with respect to ensuring the welfare of the populace. It also served to instill a heightened desire for infrastructural reforms to be made, and many saw it as the government's responsibility to make allocations for these improvements. In poor barrios disproportionately affected by the quake, due to poor infrastructure neighborhood groups helped to rescue victims or dig out the dead, distribute water, food and reconstruction materials, and prevent looting by criminals. The political pressures generated in the aftermath of the earthquake put greater pressure on the military government of Guatemala to induce reforms. This would be later met with increasing resistance from the ruling oligarchy.