General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes (1895 Retalhuleu – 1982 Guatemala City) was President of Guatemala from 2 March 1958 to 31 March 1963. He took power following the murder of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas.
In the 1950 election, Ydígoras had been the main opponent of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán and finished runner-up with nearly 19% of the vote. In 1957, following the assassination of Castillo Armas, elections were held in which Ydígoras and his party, the National Democratic Reconciliation Party, finished runner-up in a blatantly rigged election. Another election in 1958 saw Ydígoras win, considered to have represented the more moderate of the anti-Communist "right" factions.
In response to his autocratic rule and his close ties to the United States, a group of junior army officers led a rebellion in 1960.[1] Although the rebellion was successfully put down, the surviving officers went into hiding and formed the Revolutionary Movement 13th November, marking the start of a 36-year guerrilla war.
Ydígoras Fuentes was eventually overthrown in a coup by his own defense minister Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia (with the backing of opposition parties) to end the possibility of a return of former left-of-center civilian president Juan José Arévalo in the upcoming elections.[2]
| Preceded by Guillermo Flores |
President of Guatemala 1958–1963 |
Succeeded by Enrique Peralta |
|
||||||||||