Revolutionary Party (Guatemala)
|
Revolutionary Party
Partido Revolucionario |
|
|---|---|
| President | Jorge Serrano Elías (last) |
| Founded | 1957 |
| Dissolved | January 10, 1990 |
| Merged into | Guatemalan Republican Front |
| Headquarters | Guatemala City |
| Membership (1966) | 50,000 |
| Ideology |
Centrism Liberal conservatism Social democracy (formerly) |
| Political position |
Centre-left (1957–1970s) Centre-right (1970s–1990) |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colors | Brown, white, blue |
The Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario, PR) was the ruling Guatemalan political party from 1966 to 1970.
The party was founded in 1957 by Mario Méndez Montenegro. It was on the moderate left, but its opponents claimed that during the early 1960s, the country's communists adopted a policy of entryism towards the PR, which was used as justification for the coup of Enrique Peralta Azurdia.
Despite this the PR survived the coup and contested the 1966 general election, managing to gain the 50,000 members required by the military government in order to be allowed to run. Montenegro was initially chosen as their presidential candidate and agreed to an alliance with the military-backed Institutional Democratic Party (PID). However prior to the vote, Montenegro died and was replaced as candidate by his brother, Julio César Méndez Montenegro, a more committed reformer who repudiated the alliance with the military.
The younger Montenegro brother was duly elected as President, but his promised reforms were implemented poorly as despite his repudiation of any alliance, the military remained too powerful a check on his ambitions. Alongside this the government was also blighted by violence from the far right National Liberation Movement, who would go on to be the PID's running mates in their successful 1970 election campaign.
The PR remained an important opposition force despite not regaining the presidency, but in the later 1970s, the party moved to the right and became more well disposed towards the military to the point that they were the Institutional Democratic Party's running mates in the 1978 general election which saw Fernando Romeo Lucas García elected as President.
...
Wikipedia