Editing History of Guatemala (section)

==== October Revolution (1944) ====
After 14 years, Ubico's repressive policies and arrogant demeanor led to passive resistance by urban middle-class intellectuals, professionals, and junior army officers in 1944. On 25 June, a peaceful demonstration by female schoolteachers was suppressed by government troops, resulting in the assassination of [[María Chinchilla]], who became a national heroine.<ref name=mc>{{cite web|url=http://mundochapin.com/2013/06/profesora-maria-chinchilla/18266/|title=Personaje – María Chinchilla, Profesora y Símbolo Cívico|date=26 June 2013|publisher=MundoChapin.com|access-date=2 June 2015|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150724143037/http://mundochapin.com/2013/06/profesora-maria-chinchilla/18266/|archive-date=24 July 2015|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> On 1 July 1944, Ubico resigned amidst a [[general strike]] and nationwide protests. Initially, he planned to hand over power to former police director General Roderico Anzueto, whom he believed he could control. However, his advisors noted that Anzueto's pro-Nazi sympathies had made him highly unpopular and unmanageable by the military. Consequently, Ubico selected a triumvirate of Major General Bueneventura Piñeda, Major General Eduardo Villagrán Ariza, and General [[Federico Ponce Vaides]]. The three generals promised to convene the national assembly to elect a provisional president. However, when Congress met on 3 July, soldiers held everyone at gunpoint and forced them to vote for General Ponce instead of the popular civilian candidate, Dr. Ramón Calderón. Ponce, who had previously retired from military service due to alcoholism, took orders from Ubico and retained many officials from the Ubico administration, continuing its repressive policies.{{sfn|Streeter|2000|pp=11–12}}{{sfn|Immerman|1983|pp=39–40}}<ref>Jonas, 1991: [https://books.google.com/books?id=48YsPvIZg9oC&pg=PA22 p. 22] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125100048/https://books.google.com/books?id=48YsPvIZg9oC&pg=PA22 |date=25 November 2015 }}</ref>

Opposition groups began organizing again, joined by many prominent political and military leaders who deemed the Ponce regime unconstitutional. Among the military officers in the opposition were Jacobo Árbenz and Major [[Francisco Javier Arana]]. Ubico had fired Árbenz from his teaching post at the ''Escuela Politécnica'', and since then, Árbenz had been living in El Salvador, organizing a group of revolutionary exiles. On 19 October 1944, a small group of soldiers and students led by Árbenz and Arana attacked the National Palace in what became known as the "October Revolution".<ref>{{Cite book|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=erAkfz6c9HoC|page=41}}|title=The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention|last=Immerman|first=Richard H.|date=1982|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=9780292710832}}</ref> Ponce was defeated and driven into exile, and Árbenz, Arana, and lawyer Jorge Toriello established a [[Military junta|junta]]. They declared that democratic elections would be held before the end of the year.{{sfn|Streeter|2000|p=13}}

The winner of the 1944 elections was [[Juan José Arévalo]], PhD, a teaching major who had earned a scholarship in Argentina during General [[Lázaro Chacón]]'s government due to his outstanding teaching skills. Arévalo spent several years in South America, working as a university professor in various countries. When he returned to Guatemala during the early years of [[Jorge Ubico]]'s regime, his colleagues asked him to propose the creation of the Faculty of Humanism at the [[University of San Carlos|National University]], a project to which Ubico was strongly opposed. Recognising Ubico's dictatorial nature, Arévalo left Guatemala and returned to Argentina. After the 1944 Revolution, he came back to Guatemala and ran under a coalition of leftist parties known as the [[Revolutionary Action Party|Partido Acción Revolucionaria]] (Revolutionary Action Party, PAR), winning 85% of the vote in elections widely considered to have been fair and open.{{sfn|Streeter|2000|p=14}}

Arévalo implemented social reforms, including minimum wage laws, increased educational funding, near-universal suffrage (excluding illiterate women), and labor reforms. However, many of these changes primarily benefited the upper-middle classes and did little for the peasant agricultural laborers who constituted the majority of the population. Although his reforms were relatively moderate, he was widely disliked by the United States government, the Catholic Church, large landowners, employers such as the United Fruit Company, and Guatemalan military officers, who viewed his government as inefficient, corrupt, and heavily influenced by communists. At least 25 coup attempts occurred during his presidency, mostly led by wealthy liberal military officers.{{sfn|Streeter|2000|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Immerman|1983|p=48}}