Search results
Ubico considered Guatemala to be the closest ally of the United States in Central America. Adopting a pro-USA stance to promote economic development and recovery from depression, the United Fruit Company under Ubico became the most important company in Guatemala.
Apr 12, 2024 · In 1931, backed by liberals and progressives, he was elected president of Guatemala, an office he held until 1944. Ubico restored Guatemala’s international credit, built roads and public works , improved public health , and eliminated wholesale corruption.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
People also ask
How did president Ubico change Guatemala?
Why is Ubico important in Guatemala?
Why did the Ubico campaign start in Guatemala?
Why did president Ubico resign?
The Guatemalan Revolution began in 1944, after a popular uprising toppled the military dictatorship of Jorge Ubico. Juan José Arévalo was elected president in Guatemala's first democratic election. He introduced a minimum wage and near-universal suffrage.
- 18–27 June 1954
Case Study Details. Beginning in 1931 Jorge Ubico ruled Guatemala with an iron fist with the help of the vicious secret police. He admired Hitler’s tactics. By the summer of 1944, a similarly brutal dictator, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, was overthrown in the face of a widespread nonviolent campaign in nearby El Salvador.
In 1931 Guatemala’s elite united to restore order and turned to the rule of a strongman or caudillo, Jorge Ubico Castañeda, to restore social stability and economic growth. Ubico was given virtually unchecked powers, and upon assuming office he suspended constitutional guarantees and crushed all opposition, particularly from organized labor.
After the fall of Estrada Cabrera, the presidency was held by a series of short-term rulers who continued to rule in behalf of the coffee elite. Following a military coup in 1931, Gen. Jorge Ubico was elected president without opposition and began the fourth of Guatemala’s extended dictatorships.
Ubico also abolished debt slavery and peonage, and oversaw the Vagrancy law which issued identification cards to all Guatemalans for the purpose of enforcing employment. Instability ended, but the price was high. His methods were authoritarian. Ubico harshly suppressed opposition through press censorship and police control.
