Captaincy General of Guatemala

The Captaincy General of Guatemala (Spanish: Capitanía General de Guatemala), also known as
the Kingdom of Guatemala (Spanish: Reino de Guatemala), was an administrative division of
the Spanish Empire, under the viceroyalty of New Spain in Central America, including the
present-day nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and the
Mexican state of Chiapas. The governor-captain general was also president of the Royal
Audiencia of Guatemala, the superior court.
Antecedents
Colonization of the area that became the Captaincy General began in 1524. In the north, the
brothers Gonzalo and Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés and others headed various
expeditions into Guatemala and Honduras. In the south Francisco Hernández de Córdoba,
acting under the auspices of Pedro Arias Dávila in Panama, moved into what is today
Nicaragua.
Moving of the capital
The capital of Guatemala has moved many times over the centuries. On 27 July 1524, Pedro
de Alvarado declared the Kaqchikel city Iximche the first regional capital, styled Santiago de los
Caballeros de Guatemala ("St. James of the Knights of Guatemala"). However, hostilities
between the Spaniards and the Kaqchikel soon made the city uninhabitable.
In 1526 the Spanish founded a new capital at Tecpán Guatemala. Tecpán is the Nahuatl word
for "palace". Tecpán is sometimes called the "first" capital because it was the first permanent
Spanish military center, but the Spaniards soon abandoned it due to Kaqchikel attacks that
made defense of the city untenable.
In 1527, the capital was moved to the Almolonga Valley to the east, on the site of today's San
Miguel Escobar district of Ciudad Vieja, near Antigua Guatemala. This settlement was
destroyed by a catastrophic lahar from Volcan de Agua in 1541, and the survivors abandoned
the site.
In 1543, the capital was again refounded several kilometres away at Antigua Guatemala. Over
the next two centuries, this city would become one of the richest of the New World capitals.
However, it too was destroyed, this time by a devastating series of earthquakes, and the city
was ordered abandoned in 1776.
The final and current capital is the modern-day Guatemala City.

Role of the church

The Church played an important role in the administration of the overseas possessions of the
Spanish crown. The first dioceses were established in León, Nicaragua and Guatemala in 1534.
Another diocese was created in Chiapas in 1539. The dioceses of Guatemala and Chiapas
were suffragan to the Archdiocese of Seville, until 1546 when they were placed under
the Archdiocese of Mexico. The Diocese of León was made suffragan to Archdiocese of
Lima in 1546. Another short-lived diocese was set up in Verapaz, Guatemala in 1559. Along
the Caribbean coast, there were several attempts to establish a diocese in Honduras—which
finally succeeded in 1561 with the Diocese of Comayagua—which was placed under
the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo.
In 1543 the territory of the kingdom was defined with the establishment of the Audiencia of
Guatemala, which took most of Central America as its jurisdiction. This audiencia, along with
the one in Lima, took over the territory of the first Audiencia of Panama. It was the first
institution to define Central America (with the exception of Panama) as a region within the
Spanish Empire.

Establishment
In 1609 the area became a captaincy general, when the governor and Audiencia president was
also granted the title of captain general to deal with foreign threats to the area from the
Caribbean, granting the area autonomy in administrative and military matters. Around the
same time Habsburg Spain created other captaincies general in Puerto
Rico (1580), Cuba (1607) and Yucatán (1617).
In the 17th century, a process of uniting the church hierarchy of Central America also began.
The dioceses of Comayagua and León became suffragan to the Archdiocese of Mexico in 1620
and 1647, respectively. Finally, in the 18th century, Guatemala was raised to an archdiocese in
1743 and the dioceses of León, Chiapas and Comayagua were made suffragan to it, giving the
region unity and autonomy in religious matters.
As part of the Bourbon Reforms in 1786 the crown established a series of intendancies in the
area, which replaced most of the older corregimientos. The intendants were granted broad fiscal
powers and charged with promoting the local economy. The new intendancies were San
Salvador (El Salvador), Ciudad Real (Chiapas), Comayagua (Honduras), and León (Nicaragua).
The governor-captain general-president of Guatemala became the superintendente general of the
territory and functioned as the de facto intendant of Guatemala proper. The agricultural,
southern region of Costa Rica remained under a civil and military governor with fiscal
oversight only over military expenses; the expenses of the civil government were handled by
the intendant of León. These intendancies helped shape local political identity and provided
the basis of the future nations of Central America.

Independence
With the removal of Ferdinand VII during the Peninsular War, independence
movements broke out in the intendancies of San Salvador and León in 1811, which were
quickly suppressed. In 1812 the Cortes of Cádiz divided the region into two
provinces: Guatemala (consisting of Guatemala, Belize, Chiapas, Honduras and El Salvador)
and Nicaragua y Costa Rica. These provinces existed from 1812 to 1814 and once again from
1820 to 1821, the period during which the Spanish Constitution of 1812 was in effect. The two
provinces elected seven deputies to the Cortes during the first period.
The jefe político superior (governor) of Guatemala remained the Captain General of Central
America and Chiapas. The Captaincy General ended in 1821 with the signing of the Act of
Independence of Central America, after which the regional elite supported the Plan of
Iguala and joined the First Mexican Empire by annexation. With the exception of Chiapas, the
region peacefully seceded from Mexico in July 1823, establishing the United Provinces of
Central America. While the region remained politically cohesive for a short time, centrifugal
forces soon pulled the individual provinces apart by 1842.

Liberal Revolution of 1871

The liberal revolution of 1871 (Guatemala) was a revolutionary process that occurred
in Guatemala , of a liberal nature, which caused a change in the politics of this country, and
which would overthrow President Vicente Cerna . Led mainly by Miguel García Granados ,
and with an important participation of Justo Rufino Barrios , it arose as a result of the struggle
between conservatives and liberals, developed in different events since the Central American
Independence. The Liberals waited for the Conservative ruler Rafael Carrera to die in 1865 to
rise up against the Conservative government of 30 years.
Background
Central American Federation
Since the independence of Central America, conflicts have been common and constant, firstly
the fights between those who wanted to annex Mexico, and those who wanted to establish a
separate nation, and secondly, the fights between the conservatives, who wanted to maintain
the government parameters that existed during the Spanish domination, and the liberals, who
wanted a radical change in certain policies after independence.

The Salvadoran politician and soldier Manuel José Arce became president of Central America
in 1825, ruling until 1829, ruling first with the support of the liberals, but later with that of the
conservatives. This, after being deposed by General Francisco Morazán and fleeing to Mexico,
would lead frustrated rebellions in 1831 and 1833.
In 1829, the Honduran general Francisco Morazán achieved a victory, leading the self-styled
Allied Army Protector of the Law, of liberal tendency, over the conservative government of
federal president Manuel José Arce , and the head of the State of Guatemala Mariano de
Aycinena and Piñol . Morazán was installed as president of the United Provinces of Central
America. The liberal government initiated educational, judicial and economic reforms, and
tried to limit the economic and political power of the Catholic Church.
During his tenure, the presidents José Francisco Barrundia were in command , under whose
government Spanish properties were confiscated and radical measures were adopted against
the Church, such as the expulsion of the archbishop of Guatemala, the prohibition of religious
orders and the confiscation of all their goods and properties; and Mariano Gálvez , federalist
and liberal, who reformed education and who in 1836 was re-elected for a second term, in
which the reformist measures of the Penal Code, divorce laws, civil marriage and freedom of
testament stood out. This policy provoked conservative reactions, such as the Santa Rosa
uprising in 1837 and the rebellion of Rafael Carrera that overthrew him in 1838, forcing him
into exile.
Even during the Central American mandate of Francisco Morazán , who would have moved
the Central American capital to El Salvador, internal struggles within the confederation forced
him to carry out military actions in order to maintain its unity. He had to go into exile in 1840,
forced by the conservative forces of Rafael Carrera; he returned two years later, with the
intention of reestablishing the confederation, but was betrayed and was finally shot in Costa
Rica.

Conservative governments of Guatemala

After Rafael Carrera 's victory in the fight that he had started since 1837 against Francisco
Morazán , the fractures between the local governments of Central America made impossible
the possibility of continuing with the Central American Federation : a powerful conservative
government in Guatemala eliminated any possibility of said union . Carrera installed himself in
power and ruled Guatemala on two occasions and was subsequently elected president for life
until his death. Rafael Carrera had during his government the propitious support of
conservative and liberal political and religious groups (although not publicly). During his tenure,
he vindicated and returned to the regular orders [ c] the assets that had been confiscated from
the Catholic Church during the liberal mandates, reestablished tithes, abolished the indigenous
tribute, silenced the press - which, by the way, continued to be practiced by the liberals in a
harsher and more rigid way - and founded the Republic of Guatemala on March 21, 1847.
What is not generally spoken or written about was the contributions in economic matters since
it was during his government when coffee began to be cultivated in the country due to the fact
that scarlet was losing ground in international markets due to the emergence of artificial red
dyes. He waged a war against El Salvador and Honduras between 1850 and 1853, and in El
Salvador, supporting the conservatives, overthrowing Gerardo Barrios and installing Francisco
Dueñas. After the death of Carrera and some provisional governments, he was elected
President of the Republic Vicente Cerna y Cerna in 1865. During his government, Cerna
continued the conservative policy initiated by his predecessor. After being re-elected in 1869,
he implemented a repressive policy and ended the parliamentary debate. Miguel García
Granados, who was the leader of the Liberal Party, and who would have maintained a rejection
of the policies of Carrera and Cerna, led two frustrated uprisings against Cerna in 1865 and
1867, after which he had to go into exile in Mexico. In this country, joining Justo Rufino
Barrios , he would organize an army together with exiled Guatemalans (mostly mercenaries) to
depose Cerna.
History of the Liberal Reform
With a long history of struggle between conservatives and liberals, and with a conservative
government declared for life under his predecessor Rafael Carrera , the liberals exiled in
Mexico and led by Miguel García Granados and Justo Rufino Barrios , made a revolution to
depose Cerna. On June 3, 1871, García Granados arrived with his troops
at Patzicía , Chimaltenango department , where they raised the Act of Patzicia ignoring the
government of Vicente Cerna y Cerna .

On June 30, 1871, the liberal army entered Guatemala City and García Granados became
provisional president, ruling until June 4, 1873. His ministers of state were: José Víctor
Zavala —in the Ministry of War—, Felipe Gálvez —in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the
Ministry of Public Instruction—, JM Samayoa —in the Ministry of Public Works—, and
Francisco Alburez —in the Ministry of the Interior, Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs.
From the first days of his government, the decrees that radically modified the economic and
diplomatic policy of the Guatemalan regime began. For example, the Ministry of Development
was created by García Granados on August 25, 1871, according to Decree No. 14 of the liberal
government, replacing the Consulate of Commerce that had functioned during the
conservative governments; This new ministry was in charge of promoting and improving trade,
agriculture, livestock, arts, industries, public works, telegraph lines and other means of
communication.

patriotic symbols
There were also other decrees, intended to remove any conservative vestige from the national
emblems; Decree No. 12 of the Liberal government instituted the new Guatemalan national
flag on August 17, 1871, reverting to the colors approved on August 21, 1823 and eliminating
the red and yellow stripes that had been instituted by the government of Rafael Carrera as
references to Spain.
Subsequently, the creation of the current Coat of Arms of Guatemala was authorized , where
the quetzal appears , as a symbol of freedom, replacing the conservative shield, which made
reference to the creation of the Republic of Guatemala on March 21, 1847, in French
opposition to the union with the rest of the nations of the area, which were liberal.

Attack on the political and economic power of the Catholic Church

Liberal writers explained their position regarding the regular orders of the Catholic Church in
terms similar to those used here by Ramón Rosa: «In America, where popular instruction
spreads with the speed of light, and where, as in Europe, deeply rooted and traditional religious
interests do not exist, which give power and privileges to numerous social classes; in our
America, where freedom of conscience is already a definitive conquest: all, all positive religions
have to disappear, in no remote day, with their artificial and contradictory dogmas, with their
liturgical theatrical devices, with their bloody histories, with their selfish and poorly disguised
worldly interests, with their hypocritical sanctities, with their privileged and arrogant castes,
and with their execrable tyrannies [...]».
— Ramón Rosa
In the prologue to Poems by José Joaquín Palma Honduras
, 1882.

Before 1871, the Guatemalan economy had been based on crops or activities that did not
require much labor, such as nopal, a nutrient for cochineal. But when the grain of international
markets was displaced by artificial chemical dyes, the new crop that was developed -coffee-
demanded many workers for its production. The problem was solved by reinstating systems for
contracting and managing workers typical of the colonial era; This system of forced labor went
beyond the agricultural field and was also used in public works, especially in the construction
of roads, telegraphs and other means of communication. Thus, the undeniable merit of the
advancement in transport, especially the railway, and that of the creation of a modern network
of public services, were overshadowed by the establishment of almost slave-owning practices
with said regulation.
On the other hand, the regular clergy , who were a powerful landowner and political factor
during the Conservative government, were again stripped of their assets, including not only
their convents, but also their farms, sugar mills, and doctrines.
The Jesuits were expelled on September 3, 1871 after being given twenty-four hours to leave
the country; Seventy-two of them embarked at Puerto San José for Corinto, in Nicaragua.
At the beginning of October 1871 there was a conservative revolt in the eastern part of the
country, which forced García Granados to leave the city to appease it; then, taking advantage
of his absence, the Ministers of State issued decrees No. 21 and 22 of October 14, 1871,
appointing him as Captain General of the Army and the then Marshal Justo Rufino Barrios as
Lieutenant General of the Army, for his «services in favor of the peoples». On October 17,
García Granados returned and ratified those decrees and also issued Decree No. 23 by which
he expelled the Archbishop of Guatemala — Bernardo Piñol y Aycinena— and No. 24 with
which he expelled the Bishop of Teya —Mariano Ortiz Urruela— for having led the
conservative revolution in the East. Finally, to completely weaken the secular clergy ,
compulsory tithing was prohibited on December 22, 1871.
Being lieutenant general of the army and in charge of the presidency of the provisional
government of the Republic due to the absence of García Granados, on May 24, 1872, he
confiscated some properties of the religious and suppressed the Jesuits and other regular
orders. Barrios was convinced that the Catholic Church had been responsible for the fall of the
liberal government of Francisco Morazán and that it had given its full support to the
government of Rafael Carrera ; For this reason, he decided that this could never happen again
in Guatemala and he set out to undermine the economic power of the church.
When the Catholic people rose up in protest of these provisions, Barrios promulgated the
following decree:
J. RUFINO BARRIOS
Lieutenant General of the Army and Head of the Presidency of the Provisional Government of
the Republic
To your fellow citizens:

Firmly resolved to carry out the salutary goals involved in the democratic revolution that [...]
made so many sacrifices [...] in our country, I do not avoid, nor will I avoid, any means for [...]
and [.. .] in practical results. I work like this, because the [...] and in the institutions, do not go
beyond being vain [...] that today or tomorrow fall into shameful discredit at the push of
disastrous reactions.

A proof of these ideas: a clear testimony of my intentions is the decree that I have issued
today, declaring [...] the religious communities and the nationalization of their assets whose
product [...] the government to free education, the only means of effectively operating the
progress and freedom of peoples.7

[...] The disposition that I have taken is proper and worthy of educated peoples; even the well-
inspired monarchies have decreed [...] that of the religious and the nationalization of their
temporalities. Why, compatriots, do we not have to take that great step, we who are
republicans and who cannot consent to the civil death of the individual, we who aspire with [...]
the institutions to thus build the happiness of our country?

[...] That the blindfold of fanaticism and old concerns [...] your eyes: that the discontents of the
government [...] the decree of cloistering as a party signature to create [...] and disturb the
public order, that the national clergy and [...] religious, treated with benevolence and respect,
do not insist on diverting the opinion of the unsuspecting to promote disturbances; because if
such a thing happens, for the religious who show themselves to be instigators, there will be
estrangement instead of cloistering, and for all those who cause scandals and resist the law,
compatriots, understand that I have enough strength and energy to reprimand them and apply
severe penalties as is the case with the president who knows how to fear and respect the laws
and principles that determine the goals of his administration.

Guatemala, June 7, 1872

Justo Rufino Barrios

By virtue of this decree, the army occupied the buildings of the orders, and gave the religious
an ultimatum that if they wanted to remain in the country, they should be secularized —that is,
they should become priests and leave the regular order to the that they belonged. [ 30 ]
Finally, in March 1873, it was decreed that the secular clergy would be subject to civil courts,
freedom of worship was decreed, and religious orders were placed under government control.
Rivalries between García Granados and Justo Rufino Barrios
The liberal reform followed the guidelines of the government program of Morazán y Gálvez in
the 1830s, with the difference that Miguel García Granados was a moderate politician, who
believed in the slow transformation of the people and the government and who did not want to
have conflicts with the members of the Aycinena Clan to which his family belonged. For his
part, Justo Rufino Barrios wanted to wrest power from that family, when he was appointed
governor of Quetzaltenango he realized that in order to establish liberalism in that province he
had to break the influence exercised there by the Jesuits, in such a way that he opted for get rid
of them, sending them to Guatemala City. In order to neutralize the political power of the
Catholic Church, which had been reinforced by the Guatemala Concordat of 1852 signed by
Carrera and the members of the Aycinena Clan with the Holy See, Barrios began his attack
against the regular order that he considered most pernicious: the Jesuits.
Barrios had the support of the radical liberals, while García Granados that of the moderate
liberals and - to a lesser degree - the conservatives of the Aycinena Clan. Soon attacks began
through publications from both sides, and the tension reached such a degree that the problem
of the expulsion of the Jesuits fell into the hands of García Granados. The president, eager to
avoid a direct confrontation, went to the eastern provinces of the country to put down a
conservative insurrection and appointed Barros as provisional president. When García
Granados returned, he could hardly recognize his moderate program of government. The
Radicals then set out to install Barrios permanently in the presidency and thus arose an evident
desire to replace the indecisive old president with the young caudillo who possessed a stronger
and more determined character.
Protestantism
When Justo Rufino Barrios was already president, he opened the doors of Guatemala to the
migration of evangelical missionaries in this country, the first being the Presbyterian John C.
Hill. The sympathy for Protestantism was essentially that the Liberals longed for a system of
education that would replace the Jesuit scholastic; For this, it was necessary to take the path of
pragmatic education, more inclined to science and technology, to get out of the traditionalism
of belles lettres. The fact that Justo Rufino Barrios was an active Freemason was not
antagonistic to the Protestantism of that time; What's more, they had features in common, for
example: the defense of religious freedom, declaring themselves against the monopoly of the
Catholic Church, the ideas of ethical values, democracy and their theoretical perspective
regarding work.

Mandate of Justo Rufino Barrios and attempt to reunify Central America

In 1873, Justo Rufino Barrios was elected president of Guatemala , who would follow a much
more radical line than that of Miguel García Granados , and who would be known
in Guatemala for having declared secular education , free and compulsory, and who would
carry out social reforms , cultural, economic and legislative. During his government, Barrios
would establish an anti-clerical policy, suppressing brotherhoods and religious orders, and
expropriating church assets, and would also establish the 1879 Constitution, which explicitly
prohibited the establishment of monasteries in the country.
Two important economic factors occurred in this period:

1. Large-scale coffee production was introduced.

2. In order to reward the military who collaborated with the revolution, Indian lands, tracts
of land where indigenous Guatemalans had lived since colonial times, were
expropriated. Likewise, rotations of the indigenous among the properties of the new
landowners were instituted. During the Barrios government, the indigenous people were
stripped of their Indian lands , which were distributed among the officers who helped him
during the Liberal Reform. Decree 170 (or Census Redemption Decree) facilitated the
expropriation of indigenous lands in favor of officials, and Germans in Las Verapaces, by
promoting the sale at public auction of communal lands. Communal property, dedicated
to subsistence crops, became private property aimed at the cultivation and large-scale
commercialization of agricultural products. Therefore, the fundamental characteristics of
the productive system, were from the time of Barrios the accumulation of property in a
few hands and a kind of "servitude of the farm", based on the exploitation of the "mozos
colonos".

During his administration, he continued the policy initiated in the previous presidency,
undertaking a vast program of reforms that included, among other aspects, the Church, the
economy, and education. He founded the Banco Hipotecario, the so-called Hospital de
Oriente, the Polytechnic School and ordered the construction of the General Cemetery of
Guatemala and the Central Penitentiary of Guatemala . In addition, during his presidency, the
first telegraph and railway lines were laid in Guatemala, signing the contract for the
construction of the Southern railway. In the administrative and legal order, the Penal Code, the
Military Code and the Fiscal Code were promulgated. Likewise, the departments
of Retalhuleu and Baja Verapaz and free public education was established, through schools
throughout the country, suppressing brotherhoods and religious orders in parallel. Barrios also
dissolved the Legislative Assembly and convened a constituent made up solely of those close
to him so that they promulgated the Constitution of 1879, tailored to their needs. And, the
following year, he was re-elected president for a six-year term. He also presented his
resignation to the Legislative Assembly on two occasions to give it the appearance of
democracy, which was not accepted in any of the cases.
Barrios legalized the dispossession of the communal lands of the peasants: while rural
authorities systematically rejected purchase requests from the communities, they awarded the
communal lands -declared uncultivated- preferably to foreigners since General Barrios was of
the opinion that a "German was worth two hundred peasants". On the other hand, in San
Marcos there were excellent lands for coffee, of which hundreds of caballerias were quickly
acquired by Barrios and his associates, and in Huehuetenango, a ladino obtained five hundred
caballerias of communal land, whose peasants could only acquire lots of three to five
cuerdas. In Escuintla, in 1877, the Herrera family -which later came to own large-scale sugar
mills- took over ninety caballerias of the communal lands of Santa Lucía
Cotzumalguapa and Siquinalá.

Alta Verapaz was where the Germans concentrated: at the end of the 19th CENTURY , German
farmers came to concentrate in their hands three quarters of the total extension of the 8,686
km² that the department had. In addition, it was found that the peasants fled their towns so as
not to fall into the hands of the farmers, who, in addition to dispossessing them of their lands,
forced them to work on the coffee plantations and mills. [ 36 ]
To guarantee the supply of young settlers , he decreed the Day Laborers Regulations , labor
legislation that placed the indigenous population practically at the disposal of the interests of
the new coffee latifundistas, and the traditional conservatives - with the notable exception
of the regular clergy of the Church Catholic , who was expelled from the country. The decree
established the following for indigenous people:
1. They were forced to work on the farms when the owners needed them and regardless of
where they were.
2. They remained under the guardianship of the local authorities, who were in charge of
ensuring that the contingents of indigenous people were sent to the farms.
3. They were subject to the qualification : advance forced payment, indebtedness of the
worker and justifying his sending to the farms and his retention in them.
4. Creation of the day laborers booklet : document proving the solvency of the worker before
his employer, and without which the worker was subject to the rigors of the authorities
and the owners of farms.

As a result of the regulation, there was a notable increase in exports, and trade with
capitalist countries was activated; both the old aristocratic conservatives and the new
coffee landowners benefited from these measures. [ 42 ] Now, there was a conservative
landowner who was attacked and stripped of the privileges he had enjoyed during the 30-
year government : the regular clergy of the Catholic Church ; The coffee liberals attacked
the Catholic Church because of the strong ties it had with the members of the Aycinena
Clan that ruled Guatemala along with General Rafael Carrera .
What the economic policy promoted by Barrios achieved was the creation of capitalism in
the country's agriculture; many of the new German landowners were capitalists or had
credit with powerful banks or commercial houses in Hamburg . It is estimated that by 1898
-the year in which the government of lawyer Manuel Estrada Cabrera began- , the Germans
had invested in Guatemala more than one hundred and twenty million US dollars. [ 43 ]On
the other hand, due to the high level of corruption existing in the liberal government, many
nouveau riche arose from among its ranks, including Justo Rufino Barrios, who as the main
promoter of the liberal agrarian reform very soon became the main exporter of country
coffee. [ 43 ]
internal policy
 Barrios fiercely persecuted the opposition, forcing many Guatemalans to flee into exile from
Guatemalan lands. [ 1 ] During his exile, the Cuban poet José Martí arrived in Guatemala:
he came from Mexico disappointed in the regime of General Porfirio Díaz and hoping to
find a better one in that of Barrios. During his stay in Guatemala in 1877 he met María
García Granados y Saborío, daughter of Miguel García Granados whom he courted, but
being already engaged, he could no longer reciprocate. Martí married in 1878 and a few
months later María died of a lung disease aggravated by having swum with some
friends. Martí dedicated Poem IX to him in 1891which is known as the famous poem La Niña
de Guatemala . Devastated by the death of María, and disappointed in the Barrios
government, Martí left Guatemala.* Martínez, MB (nd). «Old data make the legend green
again: Martí and the Girl» . The Jiribilla . Archived from the original on 2014-07-
14 . Retrieved August 23, 2014 .

Constitution of 1879

Barrios convened a National Constituent Assembly to issue a new constitution. The

constitution was finally issued in 1879 and the final document served to meet the needs of
President Justo Rufino Barrios , who had already been president since 1873 and who was
given the first six-year constitutional term, [ 44 ] which began in March from 1879. [ 45 ]
Among the characteristics of the constitution is that only those who knew how to read and
write or who had a profession or trade were considered citizens, and members of the army,
excluding the vast indigenous majority of the country, who were illiterate. [ 46 ] It also
guaranteed dignified and fair treatment for the prisoners, which was violated time and time
again by all the regimes that ruled on its basis, especially those of Barrios himself, and those of
the lawyer Manuel Estrada Cabrera and the General Jorge Ubico . [ 44 ]
The Constitution was decreed on December 11, 1879 and the Executive Power put the
"Execute" on December 12 of the same year. [ 47 ]
The question of Chiapas and the internship of José María Orantes

«This boundary agreement, which culminated a long period of negotiations and the subsequent
drawing of the border, which was its consequence, constituted fundamental events for
Guatemala in its history at the end of the 19th CENTURY .. Through this treaty, Guatemala
renounced not only discussing its rights over Chiapas and Soconusco, but also the rights
themselves. The opportunity for further claims was definitively closed, without even asking for
anything in return; This agreement hermetically closed the door to any subsequent claim, by
virtue of the fact that, when Guatemala ceded Chiapas and Soconusco, it expressly and
categorically waived any compensation or indemnity. This is a singular example, in the annals
of International Law, of an arrangement between two countries in which one of them came to
generously hand over its positions and definitively closed the door to further claims, without
asking for anything in return.”
—Solis Castañeda, 2013 [ 49 ]
After the war between Mexico and the United States in the 1840s, the Latin American power
ended up losing two and a half million kilometers due to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgoof its
northern border; consequently, it expanded its borders over an area that belonged to
Guatemala: Mexico settled the question of Soconusco through a military invasion, to which
Guatemala protested on September 12, 1842 when the Guatemalan Minister of Foreign
Relations sent a lengthy letter to his Mexican counterpart , but war was not declared and
diplomatic relations were not broken either because Guatemala was too weak to present such
a battle. Guatemala limited itself to sending that letter and a protest to all the countries with
which diplomatic relations had been established on November 17, 1842, in which the military
occupation of Mexican President Antonio López de Santa
Anna in Chiapas and Soconusco was denounced . [49 ]
Despite the disparity of forces with Mexico, Guatemala maintained its argument over the
territories of Chiapas and Sononusco for forty more years, but the participation and pressure of
General Justo Rufino Barrios in the arrangement of boundaries between Guatemala and
Mexico in 1882 precipitated the solution. of a dispute in which Guatemala ended up ceding all
its positions to the benefit of the particular policy of General Barrios to eliminate the obstacles
that might oppose him in his Central American union project. Barrios must have believed that
the end of the border issue with Mexico by signing a definitive treaty covered his rear, since he
left Mexico satisfied with the cession of Chiapas and Soconusco; In addition, he had El
Salvador -whose president he had placed himself-, with Honduras -where he had placedMarco
Aurelio Soto in 1876 later replaced him when it no longer suited him - and, supposedly, with
the support of the United States, to which he had offered control of a future interoceanic
canal. [ 49 ]
The engineer Claudio Urrutia , Head of the Guatemalan Boundary Commission between 1896
and 1900 stated in his report to the Government of the Republic of Guatemala in 1900 that:
«[...] the treaty was fatal for Guatemala. In everything with which the question of limits was
related during that time, there is something hidden that nobody has been able to discover, and
that forced the people who took part in it for Guatemala to proceed in a festive way or as if
forced by a powerful pressure, they tried to matters with other people's ideas or in an
unconscious way”. [ 50 ]And then he continues: «Guatemala lost about 15,000 km on the one
hand and won on the other, about 5,140 km. Result: A loss of 10,300 km. Guatemala lost
fourteen towns, nineteen villages, and fifty-four ranches, with more than 15,000 Guatemalans,
while Mexico lost one town and twenty-eight rancherias with 2,500 inhabitants: judge equity in
compensation." [ 51 ] [ l ]
José María Orantes was named Interim President on June 23, 1882, due to the trip of Justo
Rufino Barrios and his friend and advisor Ángel María Arroyo [ m ] to New York to sign the
boundary treaty with Mexico on August 12 of that year.
Because of the signing of this treaty, Barrios y Arroyo fell out with Dr. Lorenzo Montúfar y
Rivera , who had been one of his main collaborators since the Liberal Reform and who strongly
opposed the delivery of the Soconusto territories to Mexico.
Central American unification attempts
In 1883, Barrios left the presidency for six months his position in an interim presidency of José
María Orantes , on the occasion of his trip to New York to sign the treaty to set the limits
with Mexico , returning on January 5, 1884 to the presidency . This meeting was intended to
have the support of Mexico with its desire for this country to support the union, but at a high
price, since it completely renounced power over the territories of Chiapas and Tabasco . His
greatest wish would be the reunification of Central America, probably inspired by the
liberal Francisco Morazán .
In 1885, with the support of Honduras , he undertook a military campaign to forcibly re-
establish the Central American union, and declared that he was assuming military command of
Central America. Barrios won the endorsement of Honduran President Luis Bográn , but Costa
Rica , El Salvador , and Nicaragua allied to oppose his claims, and were also condemned by
the United States and Mexico.
To put his plans into practice, Barrios invaded El Salvador in March 1885, while troops
from Costa Rica and Nicaragua were preparing to confront those from Honduras . However,
the plans for Central American reunification were suddenly frustrated, since the Guatemalan
president died in the Battle of Chalchuapa , shortly after his troops invaded El Salvador . [ 53 ]

Government of General Manuel Lisandro Barillas

As a result of the resignation of President Alejandro M. Sinibaldi , provisional that he exercised
after the violent death of General Justo Rufino Barrios in 1885, the National Assembly declares
that the second designated to the Presidency of the Republic will assume power. The indicated
person was General Manuel Lisandro Barillas. who arrived at the time of the burial of
General Justo Rufino Barriosand demanded that Juan Martín Barrundia—until a few days
before, Minister of War in Barrios and main candidate to remain in the presidency—be handed
over power, alleging that a regular number of troops came with him, indicating to Barrundia
that the troops were stationed near the city. Before Barillas used that ruse to press for the
immediate entry of the presidency, he held the position of Quetzaltenango's chief
politician. The troops of which he spoke did not exist and so he marched to the Government
Palace to assume the first magistracy of the Nation. [ 58 ]When Barrundia realized his mistake,
it was already too late; he decided to leave the country for a while, since he had the necessary
means to do so. Barrundia returned to Guatemala in 1888, finally settling in Mexico from
where he published pamphlets against the Barillas government. [ 58 ]

Constitutional modifications of 1887 and expulsion of Archbishop Casanova y Estrada

On June 26, 1887, Barillas suspended the constitutional guarantees and the dictator was
instituted, recognized by the National Legislative Assembly , an action that was communicated
to the other governments of Central America and Mexico, indicating that the measure was
transitory. [ 59 ] Protected by his dictatorial power, and by article 92 of the Penal Code in force
at that time and which punished with arrest or a fine anyone who issued decrees from the
Roman Curia without permission from the republic, he expelled the archbishop,
licensed Ricardo Casanova y Estrada , who was compiling dispositions of the Roman Curia
and publishing them as his own in printed edict outside of Guatemala. [ 60 ]Casanova refused
to accept the arrest and on September 2, 1887, published a protest claiming an attack on
property or personal liberty and as an abuse of force. [ 61 ] By virtue of this, Barillas issued a
decree on September 3, 1887 by which he expelled the archbishop for as long as the Executive
saw fit, since he considered that he could not allow rebellion to be incited, alleging that only
depended on the Pope . [ 61 ]
Barillas suspended the constitutional guarantees protected by the following attributions of the
legislative power:

• Grant extraordinary powers to the Executive when the necessity or interest of the
Republic demands it; determining in the decree which are the faculties
• Approve or disapprove the acts carried out by the Executive Power in exercise of the
powers that had been granted [ 62 ]

The term of the presidency stipulated by the constitution of 1879 was six years. [ 62 ] One of
the stipulations that was ignored the most and that was eventually modified is that of the
presidential designee. In the case of Justo Rufino Barrios, the designated person was Alejandro
M. Sinibaldi but he was forced to resign after two days; Reina Barrios' appointee was Manuel
Estrada Cabrera, who should have called elections in which he did not participate but
remained in power for twenty-two years; and in the case of Lázaro Chacón the appointee,
General Mauro de León was ignored in favor of Baudilio Palma and eventually assassinated
during a coup against Palma.[ 63 ]
The transitory provisions left in effect the treaties made by the Barrios government, especially
the one on the limits with Mexico, known as the Herrera-Mariscal Treaty . Also the Concordat
of 1884 , which in the end was not corroborated by the Barillas government. [ 64 ] [ 65 ]
Finally Barillas called for elections, which he easily won. In order to perpetuate himself in
power, he changed the constitution of the Republic to his taste and whim and extended the
constitutional mandate for six years. During that government, numerous enemies of the regime
were shot and many people who did not share Barillas' political thinking were expelled from
the country. Among the rebellions that he quelled with blood and fire, the one in
Huehuetenango in 1887 is historically noted, which gave him the opportunity to suspend
constitutional guarantees and dissolve the Legislative Assembly and then convene a
Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution adapted to the ruler's aspirations.
Ezeta uprisings in El Salvador
On October 17, 1888, the municipality of Barillas in Huehuetenango was founded in his honor
. The purpose of the maneuver, apart from giving him his name, was to legalize, in favor of
individual ladino owners, the award of two hundred caballerias expropriated to the natives of
Santa Eulalia. [ 66 ]
After the overthrow of the Salvadoran president by Carlos Ezeta in El SalvadorEl Salvadoran
presidential nominee Camilo Álvarez and numerous enemies of the new regime took refuge in
Guatemala and asked President Barillas for help to stop the armies of Ezeta, who intended to
invade Guatemala; the real intention was to recover the government in his country using the
Guatemalan army. Convinced by the rumors, the troops mobilized to the border, with Camilo
Álvarez among them, who had even appointed his ministers. The Guatemalan troops no longer
advanced. Ezeta's army even had the luxury of returning to the Salvadoran capital to quell an
uprising. Once back at the border, Guatemala continued without moving its troops; and the
matter ended with the intervention of the members of the Diplomatic Corps, who signed a
peace agreement,[ 58 ] Ironically, Guatemalans called this the "totoposte war", since it only
served to mobilize ground corn grain (totoposte) to feed troops who never fought, which
seriously damaged the country's economy. [ 58 ] During the war, however, two significant
events occurred for the Barillas government:
• Death of Juan Martín Barrundia: General Barrundia embarked
from Acapulco , Mexico for El Salvador to unite with Ezeta. Upon learning of this, the
Guatemalan government, relying on international law, stopped the boat in Puerto San
José and requested the surrender of Barrundia as a prisoner. Barrundia resisted, but was
shot down by the policemen who tried to arrest him.

Arrival of the famous Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío in Guatemala: [ 74 ] On June 30, 1890,
Rubén Darío arrived in Guatemala, fleeing from the Ezeta from El Salvador and stayed at the
"Hotel Unión". Barillas sent for him, and upon leaving the interview, Darío wrote the "Black
History", a vivid and accurate account of the betrayal of June 22, which appeared on July 2
in El Imparcial , signed with the pseudonym "Tácito ».
Education
Barillas granted scholarships to study in Europe to the most outstanding medical students of
the National University , and also to writers, such as Enrique Gómez Carrillo , who was granted
a scholarship to study in Madrid, at the request of the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío , who
directed the newspaper where Gómez Carrillo collaborated. [ 75 ] He founded the Faculty of
Medicine of the West [ 76 ] And on June 28, 1888, he created the Normal School for Young
Ladies (current Central Normal Institute for Young Ladies Belén), but its inauguration was
delayed a few years, since it was not until 1893 when it began its work under the direction of
the teacher Rafaela del Águila. [ 77 ] The Guatemalan Language Academy was established
during the regime of General Barillas in 1887.

Infrastructure
He left the construction of the Northern Railway partially abandoned despite the fact that
Barrios had left a fund for it, and instead he occupied himself with the channeling of the
Motagua River , a work that provoked strong criticism of corruption due to the large sums of
the national treasury that were they used. [ 78 ] During his government, the "Carrera Theater"
was remodeled, which was renamed "Colón Theater" and was demolished in 1923 after the
damage from the 1917-18 earthquakes . By 1898, when the transfer of power to Reyna Barrios
took place, the central park of Guatemala already had public lighting.
General election of 1892
In the 1892 election , it was the first time that the parties made propaganda in the newspapers
of the time. [ 80 ]Barillas Bercián was a unique case among all the liberal presidents that
Guatemala had between 1871 and 1944: he handed over power to his successor
peacefully. When the election period was approaching, he sent for the three liberal candidates
to ask them what his government plan would be. By then, Reyna Barrios had returned to
Guatemala and had run as one of the candidates. Barillas conferred separately with each of the
Liberal candidates, and when Reyna Barrios told him that he would know how to respect and
protect him, he decided to support the latter. When the election period arrived, the first two
days of voting favored Lainfiesta. But at the middle of the third day, an immense column of
indigenous people from Quetzaltenango and TotonicapánHe came down from the mountains
to vote for General Reyna Barrios. The official agents did their job: General Reyna Barrios was
elected. [ 81 ]

Government of General José María Reina Barrios

After the popular elections, Barillas handed over the presidency to also general José María
Reina Barrios , during whom beautiful monuments were made in Guatemala City , the
current Anthem of Guatemala would be constituted and the ambitious Central American
Exhibition of 1897 would be held to try to attract investors to Guatemala who would be
satisfied with the construction of the interoceanic railway. After the failure of the Expo by not
being able to complete the railway on time, the external debt with English banks skyrocketed,
his government degenerated and he ended up being assassinated by Edgar Zollinger after
the Quetzalteca Revolution of 1897.in circumstances that were never clarified. After his death,
the licensed president Manuel Estrada Cabrera would come to power, who was the first
designated to the presidency and whose 22-year government would be considered relatively
conservative, but at a time when the Liberal-Conservative struggle was no longer declared.
Infrastructure
During his government he undertook the beautification of Guatemala City , which he endowed
with avenues, avenues and monuments following the example of Paris . Of his works, the
"Paseo de la Reforma" [ n ] and the "Parque Concordia" are still preserved. [ or ] [ 84 ]
In addition, beautiful buildings such as the Presidential Palace were built or remodeled, which
unfortunately were mostly destroyed by the famous earthquakes of 1917–18. The Reina
Barrios Park located on Paseo de la Reforma was improved (with the construction of
the Central American Exhibition Pavilion and the placement of several animal sculptures from
Europe) and the Real Estate building was built, today National Museum of History, in the
center of Guatemala City. The Presidential Palace, or Presidential House, was inaugurated to
celebrate the birthday of President Reina Barrios in December 1896 with a reception and a
banquet for two hundred and fifty guests; The splendid reception was criticized because by
then the serious economic effects that these constructions and improvements had on the
national economy were beginning to be noticed. [ 85 ]
As for communications, he was concerned with the construction of roads and the connection
of internal and international telegraphs. Likewise, during his government, two thirds of the
route between Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic coast and Guatemala City were completed,
ending in San Agustín Acasaguastlán , [ p ] and he also concluded the one hundred kilometers
of railway between the Port of San José in the Pacific and Guatemala City since the
construction of an interoceanic railway was the main objective of his government, due to the
military and economic importance it had at that time.

Economy
The power of the landowners over the peasants increased under the rule of Reina Barrios and
the large amount of currency that he minted for his projects caused inflation and made him
unpopular. [ 86 ] This excess of circulating currency was due to indebtedness for infrastructure
works and for the Central American Exposition in 1897 which, ironically, had been planned to
show Guatemala's agricultural, cultural, and commercial advances to potential investors.
foreigners but failed when the interoceanic railway could not be completed on time. [ 87 ]That
railway would have been the best offer for foreign investors, since the War between the United
States and Spain for the island of Cuba had not yet occurred in 1897 and the Panama
Canal had not yet been built . [ 87 ]
Brazil 's entry into the coffee market, which by then was already the fundamental crop of
liberal governments and landowners, was another determining factor in the fall of the
Guatemalan economy. [ 87 ] This led to heavy indebtedness, mainly with British banks, which
was the main factor for his successor, Manuel Estrada Cabrera , to eagerly seek political,
economic and military support from the United States , since in those days European nations
resorted to military invasions when they had to collect debts from former Spanish colonies (as
was the case with the French Invasion of Mexico in the 19th century ) . [88 ]
In June 1896 it was reported that Guatemalan society had been shaken by cables reporting
that there had been a drop in coffee; the cultural magazines that circulated among the
enlightened circles of the country commented that the golden dreams of liquidating by selling
the estates at fabulous prices, recreational excursions to Europe and the pearl and brilliant
dressings for the ladies would be left aside. [ 89 ]In February 1897, the effects of inflation were
already being felt in all strata of society: the costs of the basic basket increased, the measure to
suppress customs duties on basic necessities did not serve to avoid the Rising prices and
support for national agriculture was requested, since even the hay for the horses used in the
Creole carriages and the corn that the indigenous people used to make their tortillas were
imported. And finally, it was requested that the national be consumed, since the stores had a
wide assortment of foreign products, despite the fact that the national ones were of similar
quality. [ 90 ]

In March 1897, coinciding with the start of the Central American Exposition, the cultural
magazine La Ilustración Guatemalteca published a detailed analysis of the economic situation in
Guatemala. [ 91 ] By then, the country's banks sensed a bad situation and had wanted to
improve their credits by demanding fiduciary guarantees, withdrawing credits and issuing
circulars, which caused general panic among the Guatemalan population. [ 92 ] On the other
hand, some banks had considerably increased the interest rate, taking advantage of the
concession they had from the government to issue banknotes. [ 92 ]
By this time, the cessation of the rise in the prices of government securities had turned into a
rapid and heartbreaking decline; For example, the shares of the International Bank fell from
$5,500 to $5,000 between June 1896 and February 1897, while the Exposition and Northern
Railroad bonds fell from $90 and $44 to $80 and $32, respectively, in the same
period. [ 91 ] Only the shares of Banco de Occidente and the floating debt bonds remained
stable since the bank's shares could not be lower, producing 11% per share; [ 91 ]Of the
floating debt bonds, originally issued for three million pesos, only $380,000 remained, which
were found in a small circle of people with funds, who did not offer them because they had no
need to do so at the moment. [ 91 ] Finally, the bonds of the Northern Railroad were the ones
that fell the most, since they were in the hands of employees and people with little wealth, who
had seen the need to sell them to survive.
According to the analysis of La Ilustración Guatemalteca , in March 1897 there was a complete
paralysis in business due to an almost absolute lack of cash, a very serious situation that was
beginning to affect commerce, agriculture, industry, and other sources of wealth. [ 93 ] The
causes of this serious problem were the excessive development that the government of Reina
Barrios had given to fictitious needs - that is, the beautification of Guatemala City , the Acatán
project and the millionaire spending on the Central American Exhibition - without having taken
into account the true state of the national accounts and for which it needed many private
resources obtained through bonds. [ 93] This attitude had been transferred to the population in
general, since families had entered a time of luxury and vanity in which they looked for cars,
stables, footmen in luxurious livery, visits to the theater and other things in which they he spent
more than the families had in income; this resulted in the abuse of credit and
speculation. [ 94 ] It was considered by then that the only solution was a complete austerity
with a plan of economies and the absolute abstention of all unnecessary waste and it was
feared that a state bankruptcy would be reached. [ 93 ]

On the other hand, it was indicated that the country only produced coffee and had no other
fruit with which to meet the countless needs increased by the bonds for the Northern Railroad,
for Acatán and for the Exhibition, among others; on the other hand, everything was imported
and therefore, the country was a debtor not only for the amount of the goods, but also for the
currency exchange, freight and commissions. Guatemalan exports did not reach twenty million
pesos and as there were many farms in foreign hands, the total value of exports did not return
to the country. [ 92 ]
In summary, there was no balance left that could balance the balance of Guatemalan trade in
1897 [ 93 ] and austerity measures were recommended and that a long-term loan be
negotiated under good conditions, and that it not be like those that until then they had been
made by the Guatemalan governments that not only had excessive interests, but were not
administered honestly. [ 93 ]

On March 10, the opposition newspaper La República published that there was no rejoicing
among the Guatemalan population for the Exposition, despite its majesty; this apathy was due
to concern about the economic and political events of recent months. [ 95 ] It was pointed out
that from the beginning the idea of holding the exhibition was not well received -despite the
fact that the country's economic situation was very good at that time- and that in 1897 the
crisis made the exhibition unpopular. celebration: the scarcity of money, the reduction of
businesses and the imposition of greater sacrifices to pay for the Exhibition, made the citizens
reject it completely. [ 95 ]
In late March 1897 strong anti-government editorials in La República continued . In one it was
indicated that the Northern Railroad line had not been completed and that almost twelve
million Guatemalan pesos were needed for this and that if said works were suspended, the cost
of maintaining what had already been built would cost close to four and a half million of
Guatemalan pesos. The editors of La República accused the government of squandering the
treasury because it tried to do everything at once: apart from the Northern Railroad -which by
itself would have brought great economic benefits to Guatemala- boulevards, parks, squares,
sumptuous buildings had been built , apart from spending three million Guatemalan pesos in
the Exhibition. [ 96] The Republiceven went a little further and accused the president of
appropriating state assets. [ 96 ] In another strong article against the government, they accuse
of deficient water management - which was obtained in part from the Acatán project - and that
it was being used in the sources of the Exhibition, leaving the population of the city without
supplies.Guatemala City. [ 96 ] Due to these publications, the newspaper was temporarily
closed by the government of Reina Barrios, although it was reopened a few months later.
When the government realized that the Central American Exposition was going to fail, it
caused a drop in the amount of silver coin in circulation when it relieved the Guatemalan
banks of paying in current gold or silver currency, empowering them to do so with their own
bills. , of which there were then around 10 million pesos in circulation. On August 15, 1897, La
Ilustración del Pacífico published a severe editorial on the country's economic situation, showing
that the money that had been generated when the price of coffee was high had been
squandered in such a way that when it fell into international markets there was a strong
economic crisis derived from the devaluation of the circulating currency. [ 97 ]In that same
publication it is reported that the Banco Agrícola Hipotecario was announcing with large signs
that it was exchanging its bills for bank transfers, that there was a guard at the door of the
Intercontinental Bank who was threatening people who were going to change their bills, and
that the opposition newspaper La República reported that the cost of milk, eggs and fish was so
high that only wealthy families could afford them and requested that tariffs on flour be reduced
so as not to weaken the population. [ 98 ]
By another later decree, he provided for the gradual exchange of the bills for silver in the first
months of 1898, but this was not fulfilled due to the assassination of the president in February
of that year. [ 99 ]

Art and Education

In education, the government of General Reina Barrios is one of those that can show the best
results. Only that General Reina Barrios, in the end, induced by the incapable elements that
surrounded him to the last, even decreed the closure of the schools, endorsing such an unusual
disposition Don Mariano Cruz, as Minister of the branch. In those anguishing days, many noble
spirits founded from one day to the next, the bases of a Popular University , which would fill
the gaps required by the official disposition.
 —Taken from the article by Hernández de León, F .: The chapter of the ephemerides , La
Hora newspaper , April 22, 1959.
During the government of Reina Barrios, Guatemala had made some progress in the
intellectual order, especially in written ideas. A large number of newspapers were published in
the capital and in numerous towns in the republic, even some that were predominantly
indigenous and barely more than villages.

At the beginning of his government, he gave a powerful impetus to teaching. The normal
schools were the object of his attention and his work, although he did not have time to
complete this work. At the end of his first year in government, the president made a visit to the
towns (visits that Guatemalan presidents made with some frequency until 1944) and collected
many boys from the public schools in the towns and gave the best scholarships to the School
Old normal. This school worked in the convents of San Sebastian and later in that of the
Company of Jesus.

In 1892, the future Nicaraguan unionist intellectual Salvador Mendieta arrived in Guatemala to
study at the National Central Institute for Men as an external student. [ 100 ] Mendieta was
part of a student community made up of young people from different parts of the isthmus, who
through dialogue and daily coexistence would acquire knowledge of the political realities of
neighboring countries and a regional perception of Central America as a historical whole.
In 1894, Mendieta was the leader of the first unionist student society, which had an ephemeral
existence, because in July of that year Mendieta -together with his fellow students- was
expelled from the Institute by order of the president of Guatemala, General Reina Barrios, after
having promoted a movement against the director of the institution.
On March 21, 1893, Legislative Decree 193 provided that the boards of directors of the
faculties of the National University would be appointed by the executive as well as the
professors of the facultative schools. The faculties would not proceed to elect their boards of
directors, and they could not take chairs in opposition. [ 101 ] That same year, the Indigenous
Agricultural Institute was created, which was originally established on the Aceituno farm in
1894 under the direction of Adolfo Vendrell. [ 102 ] In that school, agricultural technology was
taught as well as Spanish grammar and instruction in the Metric System ; [ 102 ]then, in April
1896, the school was transferred to its new building, built in the fields of La Reforma where it
was in charge of the director José María Fuentes. [ 102 ]
In 1897, due to the economic crisis derived from the beautification of the infrastructure and the
failure of the Central American Exposition , there were serious economic problems in the
country, which were reflected in education. [ 103 ] . In a publication of the Diario de Centro
América on February 20 of that year, the director of the National Central Institute for Boys -
then the best secondary school for boys in Guatemala- is required to make an effort to pay for
a good mathematics teacher, geometry and trigonometry, since this education had been
neglected for three years and to the students who wanted to enter the Facultative School of
EngineeringThey were forced to take a preliminary exam. [ 82 ] The situation worsened: Reina
Barrios was forced to save on education, closing schools and the National
University . [ 104 ] At the end of that year, Salvador Mendieta returned to Guatemala to begin
his university studies, but due to the political instability in Guatemala after the revolutions in
the East and West after the re-election of president, the acute economic crisis derived from the
failure of the Central American Exposition and the fall in coffee prices, and the closing of the
University, he decided to move to Mexico at the beginning of 1898. [ 105 ]But after the death
of Reina Barrios on February 8, the government decreed the opening of public educational
establishments, moving away from the fact that instruction was the basis of liberal
institutions; Mendieta then entered the Faculty of Law and Notaries of the National
University of Guatemala. [ 105 ]

Foreign policy
He influenced Central American politics, organizing the first Central American Exposition in
1897 and pressured Ponciano Leiva to vacate the Honduran presidency won in a coup.
In 1897, he issued an amnesty that allowed the return of Archbishop Ricardo Casanova y
Estrada to Guatemala, who had been expelled by President Manuel Lisandro Barillas
Bercián . [ 109 ] The archbishop arrived on March 19 of that year, accompanied by Father
Juan Paz; When he arrived at Puerto San José on the steamer Newport, a crowd came to
receive him and listened submissively to the mass that the prelate celebrated. [ 109 ] He then
left by train for the city, where he was greeted by a huge crowd at the station, and then
escorted to the Plaza de Armas; there were also people on the roofs and in the windows of the
houses, who frantically cheered the newcomer. [ 109 ] A majestic Te Deum was then
celebrated in the Metropolitan Cathedral , which was completely packed with representatives
of all Guatemalan society.
Even the agnostic writers of La Ilustración Guatemalteca , such as A. Macías del Real, could not
help but congratulate the archbishop, who had arrived from Rome , and they could not deny
that Catholicism was at that time the predominant religion in the country. [ 109 ]

Quetzaltec Revolution of 1897

The forced extension of the Reina government created discontent among the Guatemalan
population, which realized that the ruler's intentions were no longer solely the progress of the
country. Protests were given and on September 7 insurgents took over the barracks and public
offices in San Marcos and marched towards Quetzaltenango with a makeshift army made up of
workers, merchants and professionals. The leaders of the movement, Juan Aparicio Jr.
(wealthy philanthropist), and Sinforoso Aguilar (first mayor of Quetzaltenango), were betrayed
by a supposed friend and handed over to soldiers loyal to Reina Barrios. The President ordered
them to be shot on September 13 without prior trial. [ 117 ]
The Quetzalteca society pleaded with the president that the condemned men not be shot, to
which Reina Barrios finally agreed and asked her Minister of the Interior Estrada Cabrera to
telegraph the message. The Minister -who was also from Quetzaltenango and had a personal
dispute with Aparicio- delayed sending the telegram, which reached its destination after
Aparicio's death. Apparently, Estrada Cabrera had a personal problem with Aparicio for failing
to take over the Quetzaltenango Electric Company, and he took advantage of the
circumstance to eliminate him. Realizing this, Reina Barrios sends Estrada Cabrera to Costa
Rica on a diplomatic commission; Upon returning from that country, Estrada Cabrera was
removed as Secretary of the Interior. [ 84 ]