Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores
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His Excellency General of Division Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores |
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|---|---|
| 27th President of Guatemala | |
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In office 8 August 1983 – 14 January 1986 |
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| Preceded by | Efraín Ríos Montt |
| Succeeded by | Vinicio Cerezo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
9 December 1931 Guatemala City |
| Died | 1 February 2016 (aged 84) Guatemala City |
| Spouse(s) | María Cristina de Mejía |
Brigadier General Óscar Humberto Mejía Víctores (9 December 1931 – 1 February 2016) was the 27th President of Guatemala from 8 August 1983 to 14 January 1986. A member of the military, he was president during the apex of repression and death squad activity in the Central American nation. When he was minister of defense, he rallied a coup against José Efraín Ríos Montt, then president of Guatemala, which he justified by declaring that the government was being abused by religious fanatics. He allowed for a return to democracy, with elections for a constituent assembly in 1984 followed by general elections in 1985.
Ríos Montt was deposed on 8 August 1983 by his own Minister of Defense, General Mejía Víctores. Mejía Víctores became then de facto president and justified the coup by saying that "religious fanatics" were abusing their positions in the government and also because of "official corruption." Ríos Montt remained in politics, founding the Guatemalan Republican Front party in 1989. Elected to Congress, he was elected President of Congress in 1995 and 2000.
By the time Mejía Víctores assumed power, the counterinsurgency under Lucas García and Ríos Montt had largely succeeded in its objective of detaching the insurgency from its civilian support base. Additionally, Guatemalan military intelligence (G-2) had succeeded in infiltrating most of the political institutions. It eradicated opponents in the government through terror and selective assassinations. The counterinsurgency program had militarized Guatemalan society, creating a fearful atmosphere of terror that suppressed most public agitation and insurgency. The military had consolidated its power in virtually all sectors of society.
In 1983, indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú published a memoir of her life during that period, I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala, which gained worldwide attention. She is the daughter of one of the peasant leaders who died in the Spanish Embassy massacre on 31 January 1980 and was heavily coached by the intellectuals in the leftist guerrillas after that. She was later awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize -on the year of the Fifth Centennial celebration of America Discovery- for her work in favor of broader social justice. Her memoir drew international attention to Guatemala and the nature of its institutional terrorism.
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