Vinicio Cerezo
Encyclopedia
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo (born 26 December 1942) is a Guatemala
n politician. He served as President of Guatemala
from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991 and currently sits in Congress
.
, the son of the Supreme Court judge
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Sierra, and came from a well known liberal family. In 1962 he was a member of the student body of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
(USAC) that played an important part in the national protests against the government of Miguel Ydígoras
. In 1964 he joined the Guatemalan Christian Democrats (DCG), a party that was banned from standing in the 1966 elections. He graduated in Judicial science from USAC in 1968, the same year in which the DCG was formally legalized, and was made its Secretary in 1970. From that time, and with a very tense political situation, Cerezo was forced to hire permanent protection. In February 1981, in the worst of 3 assassination attempts, his vehicle was attacked with hand grenades and machine gun
fire in the center of the capital.
In 1974 the DCG formed part of the coalition that backed General Efraín Ríos Montt
for President. Amidst allegations of fraud Ríos Montt lost to Kjell Eugenio Laugerud
. Cerezo was elected a deputy in the National Congress
where the DCG, with 14 seats, became the largest party within the opposition.
In 1978 General Ricardo Peralta Méndez, the DCG candidate came second to Fernando Romeo Lucas García
. During the Lucas García era 150 members of the DCG were murdered. The three surviving members of the Congress and the party were forced into hiding, not because of a ban but in fear of their lives. Yet Cerezo appeared at the March 1982 elections to support the opposition candidate Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre who lost out to the official candidate Ángel Aníbal Guevara
. Suspecting fraud Maldonado and Cerezo and their followers launched a campaign denouncing the result. The result became academic when Efraín Ríos Montt took power in a coup, which the DCG and Cerezo initially supported. When it became clear that the repression in the countryside was becoming more indiscriminate, and, perhaps more importantly, that Ríos Montt was fanatically preaching an evangelical
, messianic
born again type of Christianity, Cerezo withdrew his support for the regime and demanded new elections. In 1983 General Óscar Humberto Mejía took power in another coup, which Cerezo cautiously supported. The DCG gained 21.2% of the vote in the 1984 National Congress elections, and with 20 of the 88 seats was the largest party. With this success behind them the DCG decided to postulate Cerezo for the 1985 presidential election. He began to promote the idea of talking to the United Guatemalan National Revolutionaries (URNG), an umbrella group containing the main three guerrilla groups.
In the first round of the 1985 presidential elections on November 3 Cerezo came first with 38.6% of the result, and in the second round on December 8 he beat Jorge Carpio with 68.4% of the vote. The DCG gained 51 of the 100 seats in conference, and also gained a majority in many of the municipalities. He was both the first democratically elected President and the first civilian since 1966. In his inauguration, which was met with great hopes amongst the population, he promised to ensure that what he called the dark forces of the right would not be able to break the public order or the state. He promised to change Guatemala within his first 126 days. The response was a new wave of terror, with many what are suspected to have been extrajudicial killings but have never been proved. This battle against the undoubted forces of terror operating in the country was to be the dominant theme of his rule. According to NGO
Americas Watch in 1986 100 people a month were dying in the conflict at that time. He declared Guatemala neutral in the civil wars that were occurring in neighboring El Salvador
and Nicaragua
. He was a great supporter of the idea of a Central American Parliament
. There were 2 important conferences on Central America
n integration in Esquipulas
, the second of which, in August 1987 established the Procedure for a firm and lasting peace, the most important milestone in re-establishing peace in the region.
On September 11, 1987 he established the National Commission for Reconciliation (CNR), and on October 7 negotiations between the URNG and the government began. When they failed two days later, with the government refusing to accept the URNG's terms, Cerezo asked the United States of America for more military aid to further the counter insurgency efforts of the armed forces. On October 28 Congress passed a general political amnesty. Amidst rumors of plots and possible assassination attempts against Cerezo many also began to consider him as powerless and ineffective. After a farcical attempt by 2 colonels to take power on May 11, 1988 on May 19 an Air force
unit made a series of demands of the government, including breaking ties with pro-USSR countries and stopping any contacts with the URNG, as well as more money for better equipment and the removal of many local politicians. Cerezo admitted that he had had to submit to some of the military's demands in order to avoid a coup taking place. In August there was a three-week general strike
in protest against the liberalization of petrol and other sources of fuel.
1989 saw a worsening of the political situation, with 1600 assassinations and 800 kidnappings or disappearances in the first half of the year. These were attributed to the political violence and the covert war between suspected extrajudicial right-wing forces and the URNG. On May 9 another attempted coup failed, and though the perpetrators were sentenced to long terms in jail that November, they were released on appeal the following January. On August 1 Danilo Barillas, the Secretary General of the DCG was assassinated, but on August 25 Cerezo came back with a new promise to renovate the public administration by consolidating democracy within 500 days (the time he had left in power); which he managed to achieve as we see democracy still stands to this day on Guatemala
.
In 1990 during a thaw in diplomatic relations Cerezo invited the noted Russian
linguist and epigrapher Yuri Knorozov to Guatemala to present him with a medal. Knorozov had been instrumental in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, and this was the first opportunity for the scholar to visit the lands and sites of the former Maya civilization
.
In May 1990 an important agreement was signed in Madrid with the URNG in which they promised not to disturb the forthcoming elections. With this success behind him Cerezo felt able to give a positive recapitulation of his presidency, and he was able to hand power over to his successor Jorge Serrano
in the first democratic transition of power since 1951. In this process the DCG did very badly, with its candidate, Alfonso Cabrera Hidalgo, not getting past the first round, but they still won 27 seats in the National Congress.
Then on December 1 a troop of soldiers massacred 24 campesinos
in Santiago Atitlán
in the department of Sololá
. In the resulting outcry the US suspended military aid to Guatemala. Despite having supported the previous coups that lead to human rights abuses in the countryside, President Cerezo claims to have stopped the massacre himself.
in its first five-year term. He was accused of hiding behind the immunity conferred here and in his role as ex-President in order to avoid a variety of charges, including fraud in the buying of a Jordan
island, the covering up of the murder of Myrna Mack Chang
and the concession of a large piece of land to a conservation group owned by Cerezo's son Marco Vinicio Cerezo Blandón.
In the 1999 elections, the first for which the DCG did not offer a presidential candidate, Cerezo won one of the two National Congress seats gained by his party. He was re-elected to Congress for the 2004-08 period in the November 2003 election
, this time as the DCG's sole deputy.
At the 2007 election
Cerezo lost his seat in Congress and his party gained no seats. His son, also named Vinicio Cerezo, ran for President but received less than 1% of the vote.
Vinicio Cerezo is currently building a ONG named Esquipulas after Esquipulas
Procedure for a firm and lasting peace and a new Esquipulas conference called Esquipulas III (to follow the previous Esquipulas I and II) to further the integration of central America. He also is a political consultant.
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...
n politician. He served as President of Guatemala
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...
from 14 January 1986 to 14 January 1991 and currently sits in Congress
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...
.
Career
Cerezo was born in Guatemala CityGuatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
, the son of the Supreme Court judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Marco Vinicio Cerezo Sierra, and came from a well known liberal family. In 1962 he was a member of the student body of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala It is the biggest and oldest university of Guatemala, also it is the fourth founded in the Americas....
(USAC) that played an important part in the national protests against the government of Miguel Ydígoras
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes
General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes was President of Guatemala from 2 March 1958 to 31 March 1963. He took power following the murder of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas....
. In 1964 he joined the Guatemalan Christian Democrats (DCG), a party that was banned from standing in the 1966 elections. He graduated in Judicial science from USAC in 1968, the same year in which the DCG was formally legalized, and was made its Secretary in 1970. From that time, and with a very tense political situation, Cerezo was forced to hire permanent protection. In February 1981, in the worst of 3 assassination attempts, his vehicle was attacked with hand grenades and machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire in the center of the capital.
In 1974 the DCG formed part of the coalition that backed General 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...
for President. Amidst allegations of fraud Ríos Montt lost to Kjell Eugenio Laugerud
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García
Kjell Eugenio Laugerud García was President of Guatemala from 1 July 1974 to 1 July 1978. He was the son of a Norwegian father and Guatemalan mother....
. Cerezo was elected a deputy in the National Congress
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...
where the DCG, with 14 seats, became the largest party within the opposition.
In 1978 General Ricardo Peralta Méndez, the DCG candidate came second to Fernando Romeo Lucas García
Fernando Romeo Lucas García
Fernando Romeo Lucas García was the 25th President of Guatemala from 1 July 1978 to 23 March 1982...
. During the Lucas García era 150 members of the DCG were murdered. The three surviving members of the Congress and the party were forced into hiding, not because of a ban but in fear of their lives. Yet Cerezo appeared at the March 1982 elections to support the opposition candidate Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre who lost out to the official candidate Ángel Aníbal Guevara
Ángel Aníbal Guevara
Ángel Aníbal Guevara Rodríguez is a Guatemalan soldier and politician. He was born in La Democracia, Escuintla in 1924.Having served as defense minister in the previous administration, Guevara was victorious in the 7 March 1982 presidential election to succeed outgoing President Romeo Lucas, who...
. Suspecting fraud Maldonado and Cerezo and their followers launched a campaign denouncing the result. The result became academic when Efraín Ríos Montt took power in a coup, which the DCG and Cerezo initially supported. When it became clear that the repression in the countryside was becoming more indiscriminate, and, perhaps more importantly, that Ríos Montt was fanatically preaching an evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, messianic
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
born again type of Christianity, Cerezo withdrew his support for the regime and demanded new elections. In 1983 General Óscar Humberto Mejía took power in another coup, which Cerezo cautiously supported. The DCG gained 21.2% of the vote in the 1984 National Congress elections, and with 20 of the 88 seats was the largest party. With this success behind them the DCG decided to postulate Cerezo for the 1985 presidential election. He began to promote the idea of talking to the United Guatemalan National Revolutionaries (URNG), an umbrella group containing the main three guerrilla groups.
President
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
Americas Watch in 1986 100 people a month were dying in the conflict at that time. He declared Guatemala neutral in the civil wars that were occurring in neighboring El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. He was a great supporter of the idea of a Central American Parliament
Central 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....
. There were 2 important conferences on Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
n integration in Esquipulas
Esquipulas
Esquipulas is a town in the Guatemalan departmentof Chiquimula on the border with Honduras. It serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name...
, the second of which, in August 1987 established the Procedure for a firm and lasting peace, the most important milestone in re-establishing peace in the region.
On September 11, 1987 he established the National Commission for Reconciliation (CNR), and on October 7 negotiations between the URNG and the government began. When they failed two days later, with the government refusing to accept the URNG's terms, Cerezo asked the United States of America for more military aid to further the counter insurgency efforts of the armed forces. On October 28 Congress passed a general political amnesty. Amidst rumors of plots and possible assassination attempts against Cerezo many also began to consider him as powerless and ineffective. After a farcical attempt by 2 colonels to take power on May 11, 1988 on May 19 an Air force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
unit made a series of demands of the government, including breaking ties with pro-USSR countries and stopping any contacts with the URNG, as well as more money for better equipment and the removal of many local politicians. Cerezo admitted that he had had to submit to some of the military's demands in order to avoid a coup taking place. In August there was a three-week general strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
in protest against the liberalization of petrol and other sources of fuel.
1989 saw a worsening of the political situation, with 1600 assassinations and 800 kidnappings or disappearances in the first half of the year. These were attributed to the political violence and the covert war between suspected extrajudicial right-wing forces and the URNG. On May 9 another attempted coup failed, and though the perpetrators were sentenced to long terms in jail that November, they were released on appeal the following January. On August 1 Danilo Barillas, the Secretary General of the DCG was assassinated, but on August 25 Cerezo came back with a new promise to renovate the public administration by consolidating democracy within 500 days (the time he had left in power); which he managed to achieve as we see democracy still stands to this day on 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...
.
In 1990 during a thaw in diplomatic relations Cerezo invited the noted Russian
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
linguist and epigrapher Yuri Knorozov to Guatemala to present him with a medal. Knorozov had been instrumental in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, and this was the first opportunity for the scholar to visit the lands and sites of the former Maya civilization
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
.
In May 1990 an important agreement was signed in Madrid with the URNG in which they promised not to disturb the forthcoming elections. With this success behind him Cerezo felt able to give a positive recapitulation of his presidency, and he was able to hand power over to his successor Jorge Serrano
Jorge 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...
in the first democratic transition of power since 1951. In this process the DCG did very badly, with its candidate, Alfonso Cabrera Hidalgo, not getting past the first round, but they still won 27 seats in the National Congress.
Then on December 1 a troop of soldiers massacred 24 campesinos
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...
in Santiago Atitlán
Santiago Atitlán
Santiago Atitlán is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala. The town is situated on Lago de Atitlán, which has an elevation of . The town sits on a bay of Lago Atitlan between two volcanos. Volcan San Pedro rises to west of town; Volcan Toliman rises to southeast of town. Volcan...
in the department of Sololá
Sololá (department)
Sololá is a department in the west of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Sololá.- Municipalities :# Concepción# Nahualá# Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan# Panajachel# San Andrés Semetabaj# San Antonio Palopó# San José Chacayá# San Juan La Laguna...
. In the resulting outcry the US suspended military aid to Guatemala. Despite having supported the previous coups that lead to human rights abuses in the countryside, President Cerezo claims to have stopped the massacre himself.
Post presidency
In 1991 Cerezo 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....
in its first five-year term. He was accused of hiding behind the immunity conferred here and in his role as ex-President in order to avoid a variety of charges, including fraud in the buying of a Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
island, the covering up of the murder of Myrna Mack Chang
Myrna Mack
Myrna Mack Chang was a Guatemalan anthropologist.She was born in Barrio San Nicolás, Retalhuleu department, to a mixed Maya/Chinese family...
and the concession of a large piece of land to a conservation group owned by Cerezo's son Marco Vinicio Cerezo Blandón.
In the 1999 elections, the first for which the DCG did not offer a presidential candidate, Cerezo won one of the two National Congress seats gained by his party. He was re-elected to Congress for the 2004-08 period in the November 2003 election
Guatemalan election, 2003
General elections were held in Guatemala on 9 November 2003, with a second round of the presidential election held on 28 December. Óscar Berger won the presidential election, representing the Grand National Alliance, a coalition of alliance of the Patriotic Party, the Reform Movement and the...
, this time as the DCG's sole deputy.
At the 2007 election
Guatemalan general election, 2007
A general election was held in Guatemala in two rounds on 9 September and 4 November 2007. Voters went to the polls to elect a new President and Vice President of the Republic, 158 congressional deputies, and 332 mayors.-Results:...
Cerezo lost his seat in Congress and his party gained no seats. His son, also named Vinicio Cerezo, ran for President but received less than 1% of the vote.
Vinicio Cerezo is currently building a ONG named Esquipulas after Esquipulas
Esquipulas
Esquipulas is a town in the Guatemalan departmentof Chiquimula on the border with Honduras. It serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name...
Procedure for a firm and lasting peace and a new Esquipulas conference called Esquipulas III (to follow the previous Esquipulas I and II) to further the integration of central America. He also is a political consultant.