Revolution in the Countryside: Rural Conflict and Agrarian Reform in Guatemala, 1944-1954

538 Pages·1994·1.45 MB·English

by  Jim Handy

REVOLUTION IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
RURAL CONFLICT & AGRARIAN REFORM IN
GUATEMALA, 1944-1954
JIM HANDY
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS · CHAPEL HILL &
LONDON

Revolution in the Countryside : Rural
Conflict and Agrarian Reform in
title:
Guatemala, 1944-1954
author: Handy, Jim.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807821276
print isbn13: 9780807821275
ebook isbn13: 9780807861899
language: English
Guatemala--Politics and government--1945-
1985, Social conflict--Guatemala--History,
Peasantry--Guatemala--History,
subject
Government, Resistance to--Guatemala--
History, Land reform--Guatemala--History,
Guatemala--Rural conditions.
publication date: 1994
lcc: F1466.5.H29 1994eb
ddc: 972.8105/2
Guatemala--Politics and government--1945-
1985, Social conflict--Guatemala--History,
Peasantry--Guatemala--History,
subject:
Government, Resistance to--Guatemala--
History, Land reform--Guatemala--History,
Guatemala--Rural conditions.
© 1994 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Handy, Jim, 1952-
Revolution in the countryside : rural conflict and agrarian reform
in Guatemala, 1944-1954 / by Jim Handy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2127-6 (alk. paper).ISBN 0-8078-4438-I (pbk.: alk.
paper)
I. GuatemalaPolitics and government 1945-1985. 2. Social conflict
GuatemalaHistory. 3. PeasantryGuatemalaHistory.
4. Government, Resistance toGuatemalaHistory. 5. Land reform
Guatemala History. 6. GuatemalaRural conditions. I. Title.
FI466.5.H29 1994
972.8105'2dc20 93-36112
CIP
Jim Handy, professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan,
is author of Gift of the Devil: A History of Guatemala.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on Production
Guidelines
for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
98 97 96 95 94 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 3
2. The October Revolution 21
3. "A Sea of Indians": Rural Organization and Ethnic 47
Conflict
4. Agrarian Reform: "The Most Precious Fruit of the
Revolution" 77
5. Class, Ethnicity, Politics, and the Agrarian Reform 111
6. Community and Revolution 137
7. Communism and the Military 168
8. The Liberation 191
Notes 209
Glossary 245
Bibliography 247
Index 269
Tables & Maps
TABLES
1. Population by Department, 1950 14
2. Landownership, 1950 83
3. Expropriations under Decree 900 by Department 94
4. Large Estates and Percentage of Country's Total Rural
108
Population by Department
MAPS
1. General Political Divisions 2
2. Geographic Regions 6
3. Major Crops in the 1940s 134
Page ix
Preface
Historians are taught to express certainty. We are trained to avoid
"maybe" and "perhaps" as our stories unfold, no matter how perilous
the leaps from "fact" to "fact'' we employ in constructing our tales. I
have followed that custom in this study.
This seems an opportune place, however, to admit to uncertainty. This
study is the result of years of research. I have attempted to draw a
picture of the revolution in specific Guatemalan villages and in that
fashion piece together a broader image of the revolution in the
countryside. I believe some insights have resulted, but huge gaps
remain. I will never truly understand what the revolution meant to any
single community. I will never know exactly how social relations
changed, how political change affected perceptions of power and
authority, or why some Guatemalans chose to use revolutionary
institutions to better their economic circumstances and others did not.
Perhaps the area in which my research and the sources have failed me
most is in trying to understand how the revolution affected women
and gender relations. The sources do provide glimpses: in the few
women who won positions in municipal governments, in the
antigovernment protests led by market women in Guatemala City and
Antigua, in the cases brought by female teachers against school
supervisors for sexual harassment, in the active involvement of
women teachers in peasant organizations, and in the attempts by the
Alianza Femenina to create a credit fund for campesinas. But these
glimpses are so rare and scattered that, for the most part, the questions
they suggest have not been addressed. They await a different kind of
study.
In addressing the questions this study does attempt to answer, I relied
on the help and advice of many people. The book started out as a
doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto. My adviser, Dawn
Raby, deserves my thanks for her gentle and unobtrusive
encouragement at a time when she had every right to be wrapped up
in her own concerns. The staff at a number of research facilities have
been very helpful and patient over the years, including the U.S.
National Archives, the Public Archives of Canada, the Manuscript
Division of the Library of Congress, the Hemerotecas of the Archivo
General de Centro América and the Guatemalan National
Page x
Library, and the Instituto Indigenista Nacional. I especially want to
thank the staff at the Archivos Generales of the Instituto Nacional de
Transformación Agraria, who shared their limited workspace, their
lunches, their insights, and their friendship. The cheerful staff at the
Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica in Antigua
were very helpful in preparing the final manuscript. I owe particular
thanks to Steve Elliott and Guisela Asensio Lueg. The editorial staff at
the University of North Carolina have been patient, helpful, and
careful. I especially thank David Perry for his enthusiasm and support.
Over the last decade I have enjoyed an ongoing dialogue, primarily
through panels at learned conferences, with some excellent scholars. I
am sure they do not realize how much these discussions have helped
deepen my understanding of Guatemala. Among those who have been
most influential are Rick Adams, George Lovell, David McCreery,
Carol Smith, John Watanabe, Robert Williams, and Lee Woodward.
They, of course, share no blame for any shortcomings in this study.
Kris Inwood will always have my appreciation for his friendship and
unfailing interest in this work, despite a busy research schedule of his
own. Most importantly, I want to thank Annette, without whom this
book would probably have been finished sooner, but without whom
neither finishing this work nor anything else in my life would mean as
much.
Abbreviations
Asociación General de Agricultores (General Association of
AGA
Agriculturalists)
CAD Comité Agrario Departamental (Departmental Agrarian Committee)
CAL Comité Agrario Local (Local Agrarian Committee)
CAN Consejo Agrario Nacional (National Agrarian Council)
CGTGConfederación General de Trabajadores de Guatemala (General
Confederation of Workers of Guatemala)
CNCGConfederación Nacional Campesina de Guatemala (National Peasant
Confederation of Guatemala)
CTAL Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina (Confederation of
Workers of Latin America)
CTG Confederación de Trabajadores Guatemaltecos (Confederation of
Guatemalan Workers)
DAN Departamento Agrario Nacional (National Agrarian Department)
DGAADirección General de Asuntos Agrarios (General Office of Agrarian
Issues)
FPL Frente Popular Libertador (Popular Liberation Front)
FSG Federación Sindical de Guatemala (Workers' Federation of Guatemala)
IGSS Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social (Guatemalan Institute for
Social Security)
INFOPInstituto de Fomento de Producción (Institute for Encouraging
Production)
IRCA International Railways of Central America
PAR Partido de Acción Revolucionaria (Revolutionary Action Party)
PGT Partido Guatemalteco de Trabajadores (Guatemalan Workers' Party)

Partido de Integridad Nacional (National Integrity Party)
PIN
PRG Partido de la Revolución Guatemalteca (Party of the Guatemalan
Revolution)
PROGPartido Revolucionario Obrero de Guatemala (Revolutionary Workers'
Party of Guatemala)
PTRD Partido de Trabajadores Regional Democrático (Regional Democratic
Workers' Party)
Q quetzal (the equivalent of one U.S. dollar)
RN Renovación Nacional (National Renovation)
SAMFSindicato de Acción y Mejoramiento de Ferrocarriles (Union for Action
and Improvement of Railroads)
STEG Sindicato de Trabajadores de Educación Guatemaltecos (Union of
Guatemalan Educational Workers)
UFCo United Fruit Company
REVOLUTION IN THE COUNTRYSIDE