Ramiro de León Carpio
Encyclopedia
Ramiro de León Carpio was the President
of Guatemala
from 6 June 1993 until 14 January 1996.
, where he ran the Sol Bolivariano ("Bolivarian Sun") newspaper. After graduating he became a state civil servant, working in the Common Market division of the Ministry of Economy between 1967 and 1969, when he became the Permanent Secretary of the tariff
committee. In 1970 he became Permanent Secretary for the National Committee for Economic and Political integration. During this time he joined the right wing National Liberation Movement
(MLN), whose candidate Carlos Arana
won the 1970 presidential elections, and during Arana's four-year term de León served as Secretary General of the State Advisory Board. He then moved to the private sector, joining the Guatemala Association of Sugar Producers, serving as their legal advisor between 1978 and 1981, and then as their General Administrator until 1983. He then became involved in the bloodless coup that saw President Efraín Ríos Montt
replaced by Óscar Humberto Mejía.
Along with his cousin Jorge Carpio he co-founded the center-right Unity of the National Center (UCN) party. It opposed authoritarianism
, and instead proposed a social liberalism
. He became one of the party's 21 deputies
in 1984. He played an important role in creating the 1985 Constitution
, still in force to this day. He supported his cousin in the latter's attempt to win the presidential elections of 1985. Carpio got to the second round, but was then defeated by Vinicio Cerezo
. De León then resigned from the UCN.
In 1989 he became Defensor del Pueblo ("People's Defender"), Guatemala's human rights
ombudsman
. While this gave him the ability to denounce human rights abuses by the powers-that-be (and be heard when he did it), he did not have any actual power to combat these abuses.
led an autocoup a coup d'état against his own government dissolving the constitution and the National Congress, and giving the order to arrest de León. He avoided arrest by escaping over the roofs of the adjacent houses, and was then able to send out a condemnation of the coup. On 1 June, Serrano was forced to flee the country. The army wanted to install the conservative Gustavo Espina, Vice-President under Serrano, as the new President. De León had already accused him of violating the constitution during the autocoup. On 5 June, Espina resigned, and after an overwhelming vote of confidence from the National Congress, de León was quickly sworn in as President until 14 January 1996, the day Serrano had been due to finish his term.
De León promised to defend public freedoms and the rule of law, as well as make progress in the negotiations with the guerrillas, and purge the armed forces of their bad apples. He sacked the defence minister General José Domingo García Samayoa, replacing him with General Jorge Roberto Perussina Rivera, who had been implicated in the massacres of the 1980s. On 3 July, his cousin Jorge Carpio, who was playing a vital role in the peace negotiations, was assassinated by right-wingers. On 26 August, he demanded that both all the deputies in the National Congress and all the members of the Supreme Court of Justice resign. This created a crisis that was not resolved until 16 November, resulting in 43 amendments to the 1985 constitution, which were approved in a referendum
on 30 January 1994.
On 6 January, negotiations began with the main guerrilla group, the URNG, but this time under the auspices of both the United Nations
and the Organization of American States
(OAS), and with a reduced role of the Guatemalan military in comparison with the previous negotiations. On 29 March, he signed the Global Accord on Human Rights, which amongst other things demanded the disbandment of the Autodefence Civil Patrols (PAC), which had been accused of involvement in the massacres occurring during the Civil War
.
Both the murder of Supreme Court chief Eduardo Epaminondas González Dubón
on 3 April, and a masacre of civilians by soldiers in Xamán, department of Alta Verapaz
, on 5 October 1995, created high levels of tension in the country, and put strains on the peace process. Yet in spite of these tensions free elections were able to be held under de León's rule. On 14 August 1994, 80 of the 116 seats in the National Congress came up for election, unusual in Guatemala where the members of Congress normally stand for election to coincide with the presidential election. On 14 November 1995, a new presidential election was held, and in the second round on 7 January 1996, Álvaro Arzú
won to replace de León.
. During the next few years he worked as an international advisor and was an election monitor for the OAS. In 1999 he joined the Guatemalan Republican Front
(FRG), and was elected to the Congress in the November elections. Then, on March 18, 2002, he resigned his seat in the congress and from the FRG, declaring that he wished he had never accepted their leader Efraín Ríos Montt
's invitation to join the party. His intention was to write his memoirs and re involve himself in international work but he died while visiting Miami
, United States
, on 16 April; probably from a diabetic coma. National mourning was declared, he was given a state funeral and was posthumously awarded the Grand Collar of the Sovereign National Congress.
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
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
from 6 June 1993 until 14 January 1996.
Career
He studied law at the University of San Carlos and then at the Rafael Landívar UniversityRafael Landívar University
Universidad Rafael Landívar is a private, Jesuit University in Guatemala. The main campus is in Zone 16 of Guatemala City and is known as Vista Hermosa III, and there are satellite campuses in Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, Cobán, Zacapa and other parts of the country.Many recent Guatemalan...
, where he ran the Sol Bolivariano ("Bolivarian Sun") newspaper. After graduating he became a state civil servant, working in the Common Market division of the Ministry of Economy between 1967 and 1969, when he became the Permanent Secretary of the tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
committee. In 1970 he became Permanent Secretary for the National Committee for Economic and Political integration. During this time he joined the right wing National Liberation Movement
National Liberation Movement (Guatemala)
The National Liberation Movement was a Guatemala military-backed party formed in 1960 by Mario Sandoval Alarcón as a breakaway from the National Democratic Movement....
(MLN), whose candidate Carlos Arana
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio
Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio was President of Guatemala from 1 July 1970 to 1 July 1974.Carlos Arana was born in Barberena, in the department of Santa Rosa....
won the 1970 presidential elections, and during Arana's four-year term de León served as Secretary General of the State Advisory Board. He then moved to the private sector, joining the Guatemala Association of Sugar Producers, serving as their legal advisor between 1978 and 1981, and then as their General Administrator until 1983. He then became involved in the bloodless coup that saw President Efraín Ríos Montt
Efraín Ríos Montt
José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former de facto President of Guatemala, dictator, army general, and former president of Congress. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front .Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most...
replaced by Óscar Humberto Mejía.
Along with his cousin Jorge Carpio he co-founded the center-right Unity of the National Center (UCN) party. It opposed authoritarianism
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
, and instead proposed a social liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. He became one of the party's 21 deputies
Congress of Guatemala
The Congress of the Republic is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Guatemala.It comprises 158 deputies, who are elected by direct universal suffrage to serve four-year terms . Twenty-nine of these are elected from nationwide lists, with the rest on a district list basis...
in 1984. He played an important role in creating the 1985 Constitution
Constitution of Guatemala
The Constitution of Guatemala is the supreme law of the Republic of Guatemala. It sets the bases for the organization of Guatemalan government and it outlines the three main branches of Guatemalan government: executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch.External References=*...
, still in force to this day. He supported his cousin in the latter's attempt to win the presidential elections of 1985. Carpio got to the second round, but was then defeated by Vinicio Cerezo
Vinicio Cerezo
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo is a Guatemalan politician. He served as President of Guatemala from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991 and currently sits in Congress.-Career:...
. De León then resigned from the UCN.
In 1989 he became Defensor del Pueblo ("People's Defender"), Guatemala's human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
. While this gave him the ability to denounce human rights abuses by the powers-that-be (and be heard when he did it), he did not have any actual power to combat these abuses.
President
On 25 May 1993, President Jorge SerranoJorge Serrano Elías
Jorge Antonio Serrano Elías was President of Guatemala from January 14, 1991 to May 31, 1993.-Career:Serrano was born April 26, 1945 in Guatemala City as the son of Jorge Adán Serrano and Rosa Elías...
led an autocoup a coup d'état against his own government dissolving the constitution and the National Congress, and giving the order to arrest de León. He avoided arrest by escaping over the roofs of the adjacent houses, and was then able to send out a condemnation of the coup. On 1 June, Serrano was forced to flee the country. The army wanted to install the conservative Gustavo Espina, Vice-President under Serrano, as the new President. De León had already accused him of violating the constitution during the autocoup. On 5 June, Espina resigned, and after an overwhelming vote of confidence from the National Congress, de León was quickly sworn in as President until 14 January 1996, the day Serrano had been due to finish his term.
De León promised to defend public freedoms and the rule of law, as well as make progress in the negotiations with the guerrillas, and purge the armed forces of their bad apples. He sacked the defence minister General José Domingo García Samayoa, replacing him with General Jorge Roberto Perussina Rivera, who had been implicated in the massacres of the 1980s. On 3 July, his cousin Jorge Carpio, who was playing a vital role in the peace negotiations, was assassinated by right-wingers. On 26 August, he demanded that both all the deputies in the National Congress and all the members of the Supreme Court of Justice resign. This created a crisis that was not resolved until 16 November, resulting in 43 amendments to the 1985 constitution, which were approved in a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on 30 January 1994.
On 6 January, negotiations began with the main guerrilla group, the URNG, but this time under the auspices of both the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
(OAS), and with a reduced role of the Guatemalan military in comparison with the previous negotiations. On 29 March, he signed the Global Accord on Human Rights, which amongst other things demanded the disbandment of the Autodefence Civil Patrols (PAC), which had been accused of involvement in the massacres occurring during the Civil War
Guatemalan Civil War
The Guatemalan Civil War ran from 1960-1996. The thirty-six-year civil war began as a grassroots, popular response to the rightist and military usurpation of civil government , and the President's disrespect for the human and civil rights of the majority of the population...
.
Both the murder of Supreme Court chief Eduardo Epaminondas González Dubón
Eduardo Epaminondas González Dubón
Epaminondas González Dubón was a president of the Constitutional Court of Guatemala who was assassinated in 1994.-Murder:González received death threats just a week before being shot and killed in his car in front of his family....
on 3 April, and a masacre of civilians by soldiers in Xamán, department of Alta Verapaz
Alta Verapaz
Alta Verapaz is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and Baja Verapaz, and to the west by El Quiché.Also in Alta Verapaz...
, on 5 October 1995, created high levels of tension in the country, and put strains on the peace process. Yet in spite of these tensions free elections were able to be held under de León's rule. On 14 August 1994, 80 of the 116 seats in the National Congress came up for election, unusual in Guatemala where the members of Congress normally stand for election to coincide with the presidential election. On 14 November 1995, a new presidential election was held, and in the second round on 7 January 1996, Álvaro Arzú
Álvaro Arzú
Álvaro Enrique Arzú Yrigoyen was the 32nd President of Guatemala from January 14, 1996 until January 14, 2000...
won to replace de León.
Life afterwards
In October 1996, he became a deputy in the Central American ParliamentCentral American Parliament
The Central American Parliament , also known as PARLACEN is a political institution devoted to the integration of the Central American countries. Its headquarters are in Guatemala City....
. During the next few years he worked as an international advisor and was an election monitor for the OAS. In 1999 he joined the Guatemalan Republican Front
Guatemalan Republican Front
The Guatemalan Republican Front is a right-wing political party in Guatemala.It was created in 1989 by former president and dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, and formally registered in 1990...
(FRG), and was elected to the Congress in the November elections. Then, on March 18, 2002, he resigned his seat in the congress and from the FRG, declaring that he wished he had never accepted their leader Efraín Ríos Montt
Efraín Ríos Montt
José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former de facto President of Guatemala, dictator, army general, and former president of Congress. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front .Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most...
's invitation to join the party. His intention was to write his memoirs and re involve himself in international work but he died while visiting Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, on 16 April; probably from a diabetic coma. National mourning was declared, he was given a state funeral and was posthumously awarded the Grand Collar of the Sovereign National Congress.