Juan José Arévalo
Encyclopedia
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (10 September 1904 – 8 October 1990) was the first of the reformist presidents
of Guatemala
. Preceded by military junta interregnum after a definitive pro-democracy revolt in 1944. Arévalo's 1944 election is considered by historians the first fair and democratic election in Guatemala's republican history; since independence from Spain, the country had seen a series of dictatorship
s.
Arévalo served as President from 15 March 1945 to 15 March 1951. Arévalo's administration was marked by unprecedented relatively free political life during his six year term. Arévalo, an educator and philosopher, understood the need for advancement in individuals, communities, and nations by practical means. Before his presidency, Arévalo had been an exiled university professor. He returned to Guatemala to help in the reconstructive efforts of the new post-Ubíco government, especially in the areas of social security
and drafting of a new Constitution
. His philosophy
of "spiritual socialism," referred to as Arevalísmo, may be considered less an economic system than a movement toward the liberation of the imagination of oppressed Latin America
. In the post-World War II
period, internationalist players such as the United States
regarded Arevalísmo socialism as Communism
, and therefore cause for unease and alarm, which garnered support from neighboring satellite caudillo
s such as Anastasio Somoza García
.
In Guatemala's cities, newly enfranchised labor unions accompanied reformist labor law that greatly benefitted the urban lower and middle classes. Several parties and trade unions formed, and the enfranchisement of a large proportion of the population were significant legacies of his term. These benefits did not spread to the rural agrarian areas where hacendado traditions, termed latifundia
, remained patrician, unyielding, and harsh. Whilst the government made some effort to improve campesino
peasants' civil rights, rural conditions in Guatemala could not be improved without large scale agrarian reform, proposed as mediated and fairly compensated land redistribution. Failure in achieving this platform was a weakness for Arévalo's administration, which his successor attempted to confront and to remedy.
Agrarian reform met with the second officially orchestrated clandestine CIA-instigated coup d'etat
chartered as Operation PBFORTUNE
and Operation PBSUCCESS, championed by US Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles
, whose brother Allen, the Director of Central Intelligence
, was a primary stakeholder in the United Fruit Company
, which owned significant portions of the rural land subject to agrarian reforms.
Arévalo was succeeded by Jacobo Árbenz
, who continued the agrarian reform approach of Arévalo's government. Arévalo yielded succession to his presidency openly in 1951 to Jacobo Arbenz in the second democratic election in Guatemala's republican history. Following Árbenz's expulsion in 1954, open democracy would not be allowed to return to a destabilized Guatemala for three decades despite considerable efforts to regain it. Arevalo went into voluntary exile as a university professor and writer. At the end of March 1963 he returned to his country to announce his candidacy for the November presidential elections. Dictator Miguel Ydigoras flew into exile to Nicaragua within twenty-hours of Arevalo's arrival. Enrique Peralta seized power which ended any political return to Guatemala for Arevalo.
Juan José served as the Guatemalan ambassador to France between 1970 and 1972.
He is the author of a scathing allegorical short story "The Shark and the Sardines," published in 1956. In 1963 he published "Anti-Communism In Latin America," a sequel.,
was directed towards the moral development of Guatemalans with the intent to, “...liberate man psychologically”. Arévalo, the revolution’s intellectual pillar, positioned his theoretical doctrine as integral to the construction of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society. Governments are capable of initiating the formation of an ideal society by allowing citizens the freedom to pursue their own opinions, property and way of life. The revolution’s first president asserted that safeguarding the free will
of citizens generates popular support for governmental institutions, which ensure the security of the individual and collective equally.
Arévalismo did emphasize the importance of civil freedoms as the essential groundwork for human development, but the political principle maintained that, “Individual liberty must be exercised within the limits of social order”. Democracy, according to Arévalo, was a social structure that required the restriction of civil rights in the event individual liberties conflict with national security and the will of the majority. The limit on civil rights appears contradictory to the notion of a Guatemalan government that expresses the free will of the people. However, the ambiguity is associated with Arévalo’s dismissal of classical liberalism
as an applicable guideline for Guatemalan governments. Arévalo’s rejection of Western oriented liberal individualism and apparent socialist inclinations led conservative sectors of the press to denounce the revolutionary president as a communist.
Arévalo opposed classical Marxism
’s materialist tendency and affirmed that, “Communism is contrary to human nature, for it is contrary to the psychology of man”. Spiritual socialism’s anti-communist stance was apparent through Arévalo’s suppression of various communist influenced initiatives operating in Guatemala. The president exiled several communist activists, declined to legalize the Communist Party of Guatemala
, removed government officials with ties to the communist newspaper and shut down the Marxist instruction facility known as Escuela Claridad. Regardless of the aforementioned measures, Arévalo endured nearly 30 attempted coups from members of the Guatemalan military due to his perceived empathy for communists.
The character of the 1944 revolution, envisioned by Arévalo, was based on the development of a modern capitalist society. A conversion from the remaining presence of feudalist arrangements to a reformed capitalist system was an aspiration of the revolutionary Guatemalan government. Arévalo’s political philosophy stressed the importance of government intervention in the realm of economic and social interests as necessary to sustain the desires of the majority’s free will. Deviating from Marxism, Arévalo valued property rights with the aim to subordinate them to benefit Guatemala as a whole if required. Overall, Arévalo sought to improve the social environment of the working majority through a reform of the capitalist mode of production
.
Arévalismo was considered a popular movement opposed to firm authoritarian rule with the overarching objective to free Guatemala from its dependent status to the developed states.
President of Guatemala
The title of President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1839, when that title was assumed by Mariano Rivera Paz...
of Guatemala
History of Guatemala
The history of Guatemala begins with the arrival of the first human settlers as early as 12,000 BC or even 18,000 BC. Civilization developed and flourished during the Pre-Columbian era with little to no contact with cultures from outside of Mesoamerica...
. Preceded by military junta interregnum after a definitive pro-democracy revolt in 1944. Arévalo's 1944 election is considered by historians the first fair and democratic election in Guatemala's republican history; since independence from Spain, the country had seen a series of dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
s.
Arévalo served as President from 15 March 1945 to 15 March 1951. Arévalo's administration was marked by unprecedented relatively free political life during his six year term. Arévalo, an educator and philosopher, understood the need for advancement in individuals, communities, and nations by practical means. Before his presidency, Arévalo had been an exiled university professor. He returned to Guatemala to help in the reconstructive efforts of the new post-Ubíco government, especially in the areas of social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
and drafting of a new Constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
. His philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
of "spiritual socialism," referred to as Arevalísmo, may be considered less an economic system than a movement toward the liberation of the imagination of oppressed Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. In the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
period, internationalist players such as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
regarded Arevalísmo socialism as Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, and therefore cause for unease and alarm, which garnered support from neighboring satellite caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
s such as Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García was officially the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination.-Biography:Somoza was born in San Marcos, Carazo Department in Nicaragua, the son of...
.
In Guatemala's cities, newly enfranchised labor unions accompanied reformist labor law that greatly benefitted the urban lower and middle classes. Several parties and trade unions formed, and the enfranchisement of a large proportion of the population were significant legacies of his term. These benefits did not spread to the rural agrarian areas where hacendado traditions, termed latifundia
Latifundia
Latifundia are pieces of property covering very large land areas. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates, specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine...
, remained patrician, unyielding, and harsh. Whilst the government made some effort to improve campesino
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
peasants' civil rights, rural conditions in Guatemala could not be improved without large scale agrarian reform, proposed as mediated and fairly compensated land redistribution. Failure in achieving this platform was a weakness for Arévalo's administration, which his successor attempted to confront and to remedy.
Agrarian reform met with the second officially orchestrated clandestine CIA-instigated coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
chartered as Operation PBFORTUNE
Operation PBFORTUNE
Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere...
and Operation PBSUCCESS, championed by US Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world...
, whose brother Allen, the Director of Central Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...
, was a primary stakeholder in the United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
, which owned significant portions of the rural land subject to agrarian reforms.
Arévalo was succeeded by Jacobo Árbenz
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán
Colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as Defense Minister of Guatemala from 1944–1951, and as President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954....
, who continued the agrarian reform approach of Arévalo's government. Arévalo yielded succession to his presidency openly in 1951 to Jacobo Arbenz in the second democratic election in Guatemala's republican history. Following Árbenz's expulsion in 1954, open democracy would not be allowed to return to a destabilized Guatemala for three decades despite considerable efforts to regain it. Arevalo went into voluntary exile as a university professor and writer. At the end of March 1963 he returned to his country to announce his candidacy for the November presidential elections. Dictator Miguel Ydigoras flew into exile to Nicaragua within twenty-hours of Arevalo's arrival. Enrique Peralta seized power which ended any political return to Guatemala for Arevalo.
Juan José served as the Guatemalan ambassador to France between 1970 and 1972.
He is the author of a scathing allegorical short story "The Shark and the Sardines," published in 1956. In 1963 he published "Anti-Communism In Latin America," a sequel.,
Spiritual Socialism (Arévalismo)
Categorized as a dedicated democrat and nationalist, Juan José Arévalo defined his political philosophy as “spiritual socialism”. The ideologyIdeology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
was directed towards the moral development of Guatemalans with the intent to, “...liberate man psychologically”. Arévalo, the revolution’s intellectual pillar, positioned his theoretical doctrine as integral to the construction of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society. Governments are capable of initiating the formation of an ideal society by allowing citizens the freedom to pursue their own opinions, property and way of life. The revolution’s first president asserted that safeguarding the free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
of citizens generates popular support for governmental institutions, which ensure the security of the individual and collective equally.
Arévalismo did emphasize the importance of civil freedoms as the essential groundwork for human development, but the political principle maintained that, “Individual liberty must be exercised within the limits of social order”. Democracy, according to Arévalo, was a social structure that required the restriction of civil rights in the event individual liberties conflict with national security and the will of the majority. The limit on civil rights appears contradictory to the notion of a Guatemalan government that expresses the free will of the people. However, the ambiguity is associated with Arévalo’s dismissal of classical liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
as an applicable guideline for Guatemalan governments. Arévalo’s rejection of Western oriented liberal individualism and apparent socialist inclinations led conservative sectors of the press to denounce the revolutionary president as a communist.
Arévalo opposed classical Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
’s materialist tendency and affirmed that, “Communism is contrary to human nature, for it is contrary to the psychology of man”. Spiritual socialism’s anti-communist stance was apparent through Arévalo’s suppression of various communist influenced initiatives operating in Guatemala. The president exiled several communist activists, declined to legalize the Communist Party of Guatemala
Communist Party of Guatemala
Communist Party of Guatemala may refer to:*Communist Party of Guatemala *Guatemalan Party of Labour , known in its early days as the "Communist Party of Guatemala"....
, removed government officials with ties to the communist newspaper and shut down the Marxist instruction facility known as Escuela Claridad. Regardless of the aforementioned measures, Arévalo endured nearly 30 attempted coups from members of the Guatemalan military due to his perceived empathy for communists.
The character of the 1944 revolution, envisioned by Arévalo, was based on the development of a modern capitalist society. A conversion from the remaining presence of feudalist arrangements to a reformed capitalist system was an aspiration of the revolutionary Guatemalan government. Arévalo’s political philosophy stressed the importance of government intervention in the realm of economic and social interests as necessary to sustain the desires of the majority’s free will. Deviating from Marxism, Arévalo valued property rights with the aim to subordinate them to benefit Guatemala as a whole if required. Overall, Arévalo sought to improve the social environment of the working majority through a reform of the capitalist mode of production
Capitalist mode of production
In Marx's critique of political economy, the capitalist mode of production is the production system of capitalist societies, which began in Europe in the 16th century, grew rapidly in Western Europe from the end of the 18th century, and later extended to most of the world...
.
Arévalismo was considered a popular movement opposed to firm authoritarian rule with the overarching objective to free Guatemala from its dependent status to the developed states.