Ydigoras Fuentes, Miguel

Ydigoras Fuentes, Miguel

 

Born Oct. 17, 1895, in Quezaltenango. Guatemalan statesman and military figure.

Ydígoras Fuentes received a military and engineering education. He became a military attaché in Washington in 1918 and was later a military attaché in Paris. He was governor of the departments of El Petén, Jalapa, San Marcos, and Retalhuleu from 1931 to 1944. In 1945 he entered diplomatic service. In 1950, having been defeated in the presidential elections, Ydígoras Fuentes emigrated to El Salvador, where he headed a council of Guatemalan counterrevolutionary émigrés. He took part in the overthrow of the democratic government of Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. He again entered the diplomatic service in 1955. Ydígoras Fuentes was president of Guatemala from 1958 to 1963. He pursued an extremely reactionary internal policy, and his foreign policy was completely oriented to the USA. He has lived in exile since the coup of 1963.