Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT)

The Guatemalan Labor Party (Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, or PGT) is a communist political party founded by José Manuel Fortuny. The party evolved from the secretive Democratic Vanguard created in 1947, which changed its name to the Guatemalan Communist Party and gained legal recognition from President Jacobo Arbenz in 1951. To avoid constitutional restrictions on political parties with international affiliations, the party dropped the word "communist" from its title and became the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo (PGT) in 1952. Attacked by opponents of the Guatemalan Revolution as a dangerous communist threat, in actuality the party had only modest political power. Party ranks never surpassed 4,000 members. PGT candidates failed to win more than four of the fifty-six seats in Congress. Party activists obtained subcabinet posts, but none achieved the level of cabinet minister. Party affiliates did, however, play important roles in agrarian reform and in labor organizations.

Banned after the fall of the Arbenz regime in 1954, the PGT went underground and operated clandestinely despite government persecution. The outlawed party sponsored guerrilla fronts in the early 1960s and in the 1970s. The PGT and three other rebel groups united to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in January 1982 to coordinate their antigovernment campaigns. The URNG remains active but only received 2.6% of the popular vote in the 2003 presidential election.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert J. Alexander, Communism in Latin America (1957), esp. pp. 350-364.

Richard Gott, Guerrilla Movements in Latin America (1971), esp. pp. 31-90.

George Black, with Milton Jamail and Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, Garrison Guatemala (1984).

Additional Bibliography

Montenegro Ríos, Carlos Roberto. Historia de los partidos políticos en Guatemala. Guatemala: Mayaprin, 2002.

Soto Rosales, Carlos Rafael. El sueño encadenado: El proceso político guatemalteco, 1944–1999. Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 2002.

Streeter, Germán. Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and Guatemala, 1954–1961. Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000.

                                  Steven S. Gillick