National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity (URNG)

The National Guatemalan Revolutionary Unity was organized in January 1982 as a front for the four Guatemalan leftist guerrilla movements: the Guatemalan Labor Party—PGT (1949), the Rebel Armed Forces—FAR (1962), the Organization of the People in Arms—ORPA (1971), and the Guerrilla Army of the Poor—EGP (1972). It sought to stop repression and bring an end to the long Guatemalan civil war through negotiations with the governments of Marco Vinicio Cerezo (1986–1991), Jorge Serrano Elías (1991–1993), and Ramiro de León Carpio (1993–), but the government and the guerrillas failed to reach an accord. However, the group eventually laid down its arms after the United Nations negotiated peace accords in 1996. In 1998 it became a legal political party but only garnered 2.6 percent of the popular vote in the 2003 presidential elections.

See alsoGuatemala, Political Parties: Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT) .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James Dunkerley, Power in the Isthmus: A Political History of Modern Central America (1988).

Phil Gunson and Greg Chamberlain, The Dictionary of Contemporary Politics of Central America and the Caribbean (1991).

Victor Perera, Unfinished Conquest: The Guatemalan Tragedy (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Bornschein, Dirk. Las izquierdas en Guatemala. Guatemala: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 2000.

McCleary, Rachel M. Dictating Democracy: Guatemala and the End of Violent Revolution. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999.

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

                                Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.