Guatemalan Civil War - Mejia Victores Regime and Democratic Transition: 1983-1986

Mejia Victores Regime and Democratic Transition: 1983-1986

Ríos Montt was deposed on 8 August 1983 by his Minister of Defense, General Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores. Mejía became de facto president and justified the coup, saying that "religious fanatics" were abusing their positions in the government and also because of "official corruption". Ríos Montt remained in politics, founded the Guatemalan Republican Front party, and was elected President of Congress in 1995 and 2000.

By the time Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores assumed power, the counterinsurgency under Lucas Garcia and Rios 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 Guatemala's political institutions and eradicating its opponents in the government through terror and selective assassinations. Thus, the counterinsurgency program had succeeded in militarizing Guatemalan society and creating an atmosphere of terror where public agitation and insurgency were virtually impossible. The military had consolidated its power in virtually all sectors of society.

In 1983, indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú wrote a testimonial account, I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala, which gained worldwide attention. She was later awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in favor of broader social justice. This served to draw international attention to the situation in Guatemala and bring the nature of the violence to light for the international community. Due to international and regional pressures, General Mejía Victores allowed a gradual return to democracy in Guatemala. On 1 July 1984 there was an election for a Constituent Assembly to draft a democratic constitution. On 30 May 1985 the Constituent Assembly finished drafting a new constitution, which took effect immediately. Elections were scheduled following the drafting of the constitution, and a civilian candidate (Vinicio Cerezo) was chosen. However, this program of democratization did little to signify an end to the disappearances and death squad killings, as extrajudicial state violence had become an integral part of the political culture.

Although violence in the countryside was at lower levels than the 1981-1983 period, sources with the US intelligence community indicate an increase in urban violence during the early part of the Mejia presidency. After the August 1983 coup, the CIA station noticed a sudden increase in the number of kidnappings and killings in the cities by government agents, In Mejia Victores's first full month in power, the number of documented monthly kidnappings jumped from 12 in August to 56 in September. The victims included a number of US Agency for International Development employees and officials from moderate and leftist political parties and Catholic Priests. A secret United States Department of Defense report from March, 1986 noted that from August 8, 1983 to December 31, 1985 there were a total of 2,883 recorded kidnappings (3.29 daily); kidnappings averaged a total of 137 a month through 1984 (a total of approximately 1,644 cases). The report linked these violations to a systematic program of abduction and killing by the security forces under Mejía Víctores, noting, "while criminal activity accounts for a small percentage of the cases, and from time to time individuals ‘disappear’ to go elsewhere, the security forces and paramilitary groups are responsible for most kidnappings. Insurgent groups do not now normally use kidnapping as a political tactic. " In February 1999, a Guatemalan military intelligence logbook was discovered, containing details of the secret extrajudicial killings of 183 persons by G-2 (Guatemalan military intelligence) death squads between August 1983 and March 1985. The document consisted of encrypted references to the executions of the individuals, as well as the victims mugshots prior to their interrogation and killing.