Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity
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The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca or URNG) was a guerrilla movement that emerged in Guatemala in 1982. After a peace process brokered by the United Nations it laid down its arms in 1996 and became a legal political party in 1998.
The URNG was formed as guerrilla umbrella organization on February 7 by four revolutionary groups active in Guatemala: the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), the Revolutionary Organization of Armed People (ORPA), the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), and the National Directing Nucleus of PGT (PGT-NDN).
On 23 March 1982, retired General Efraín Ríos Montt came to power as the chairman of a military junta that began a violent "scorched-earth" counterinsurgency campaign in the indigenous highlands against the URNG and its supporters until he was toppled the following year.
By the time a civilian government returned to office in 1986, the URNG recognized that coming to power through armed struggle was out of the question, and they took initiatives to negotiate a political solution.
According to a report in NACLA's Report on the Americas (May/June 1997),
- The government and army maintained that since they had "defeated" the URNG, they had no need to negotiate until the guerrillas had laid down their arms. The subsequent settlements ending the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador stiffened the elites' resolve "never" to permit such an outcome in Guatemala.
But gradually, from 1986 to 1996, the army and government were drawn into a peace process moderated and verified by the United Nations and including other international actors as key players. Both sides made major concessions. Obligations were imposed on the government, including significant constitutional reforms, which were internationally binding and be verified by the UN.
In 1987 URNG substituted PGT-NDN for the Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT) in its leadership.
On 29 December 1996, a peace agreement was signed by the government and the URNG in the presence of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, officially ending the 36-year Civil War. The Secretary-General of the URNG, Comandante Rolando Morán, and president Álvaro Arzú jointly received the UNESCO Peace Prize for their efforts to end the civil war and attaining the peace agreement.
In the last legislative election, held on 9 November 2003, the party won 4.2% of the popular vote and 2 out of 158 seats in Congress. In the presidential election held the same day, its candidate Rodrigo Asturias won 2.6% of the popular vote.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) URNG party website
- The Guatemalan peace process (Accord magazine, 1997)
