Category:Guatemalan Revolution

Articles related to the Guatemalan Revolution (1944–1954, the Revolution, Ten Years of Spring), the period in the history of Guatemala between the coups against Jorge Ubico in 1944 and Jacobo Árbenz in 1954. It highlights the peak years of representative democracy in Guatemala from 1944 until the end of the Guatemalan Civil War in 1996. The Revolution saw the implementation of social, political, and especially agrarian reforms that were influential across Latin America. In June 1944, a popular pro-democracy movement led by university students and labor organizations forced Ubico to resign. He appointed a three-person military junta to take his place, led by Federico Ponce Vaides. This junta continued Ubico's oppressive policies, until it was toppled in a military coup led by Jacobo Árbenz in October 1944, an event also known as the "October Revolution". The coup leaders formed a junta which swiftly called for open elections. These elections were won in a landslide by Juan José Arévalo, a progressive professor of philosophy who had become the face of the popular movement. He implemented a moderate program of social reform, including a widely successful literacy campaign and a largely free election process, although illiterate women were not given the vote and the communist parties were banned.