Tragic Week (Guatemala)

Tragic Week of 1920

Time has come for president Estrada Cabrera: the Unionists party take him away after he destroyed Guatemala's children, while Jesus holds Guatemala and reminds her that she must forgive.
Native name	Semana Trágica de 1920
Date	April 8, 1920 (1920-04-08)
Location	Guatemala

The Tragic Week of 1920 was a civil uprising that took place in Guatemala in the week of April 8 to April 14, 1920, led by the Unionists Party leaders, student leaders and who fought against president Manuel Estrada Cabrera when the latter refused to leave office after the National Assembly declared him mentally incapable for presidency and name Carlos Herrera as interim president.

Several attacks had been made on president Manuel Estrada Cabrera's life, but fortune had always been on his side. He based his power entirely on the support of the military, even though he was a civilian, and when the country declared war on Germany during the First World War, made use of the opportunity to increase his already well-equipped artillery by the addition of modern field guns, machine guns and ammunition.

Opposition to his regime started after the 1917-1918 earthquakes as it was evident that the President was incapable of leading the recovery efforts. Bishop of Facelli, Piñol y Batres from the Aycinena family, began preaching against the government policies in the San Francisco Church in 1919, instructed by his cousin, Manuel Cobos Batres. For the first time, the Catholic Church opposed the President. Additionally, Cobos Batres was able to inflame the national sentiment of conservative criollo leaders José Azmitia, Tácito Molina, Eduardo Camacho, Julio Bianchi and Emilio Escamilla into forming a Central America Unionist party and oppose the strong regime of Estrada Cabrera. The Unionist party began its activities with the support of several sectors of the Guatemala City society, among them the Universidad Estrada Cabrera students and the labor associations, who under the leadership of Silverio Ortiz founded the Patriotic Labor Committee.

The new party was called "Unionist", to differentiate it from both the Liberal and Conservative parties and therefore be able to appeal all "good willing, freedom and democracy loving" men who "dreamed of the Central America Union". The headquarters of the new party were in a house belonging to the Escamilla family which soon was known as "People's House". Tácito Molina wrote a founding Act for the party, which was signed by fifty one citizens on 25 December 1919 and was later known as the "Three-fold Act" because it had to be folded in three when it was distributed to the citizens of the city. The document was distributed in Guatemala City until January 1, 1920.