Manuel Estrada Cabrera

Manuel Estrada
President of Guatemala
In office 8 February 1898 – 15 April 1920
Preceded by	José María Reina
Succeeded by	Carlos Herrera
Personal details
Born	21 November 1857(1857-11-21) Quetzaltenango
Died	24 September 1924(1924-09-24) Guatemala City

Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (21 November 1857 – 24 September 1924) was President of Guatemala from 8 February 1898 to 15 April 1920.

Manuel Estrada forcibly took the presidency after the assassination of José María Reina. The Guatemalan cabinet called an emergency meeting to appoint a new successor, but declined to invite the General to the meeting. Nevertheless, Cabrera entered "with pistol drawn" to assert his entitlement to the presidency.^[1]

United Fruit Company

One of Cabrera's most famous and most bitter legacies was allowing the entry of the United Fruit Company into the Guatemalan economical and political arena. As a member of the Liberal faction, he sought to encourage development of the nation's infrastructure of highways, railroads, and sea ports for the sake of expanding the export economy. By the time Cabrera assumed the presidency, there had been repeated efforts to construct a railroad from the major port of Puerto Barrios to the capital, Guatemala City. Yet due to lack of funding exacerbated by the collapse of the internal coffee trade, the railway fell sixty miles short of its goal. Cabrera decided, without consulting the legislature or judiciary, that striking a deal with the United Fruit Company was the only way to get finish the railway.^[2] Cabrera signed a contract with UFCO's Minor Cooper Keith in 1904 that gave the company tax-exemptions, land grants, and control of all railroads on the Atlantic side.^[3]

Cabrera often employed brutal methods to assert his authority. One American Minister returned to the United States after he learned the dictator had given orders to poison him. Former President Manuel Barillas was stabbed to death in Guatemala City on Cabrera's orders. Also, Cabrera responded violently to workers' strikes against United Fruit. In one incident, when UFCO went directly to Cabrera to resolve a strike (after the armed forces refused to respond), Cabrera ordered an armed unit to enter the workers' compound. The forces "arrived in the night, firing indiscriminately into the workers' sleeping quarters, wounding and killing an unspecified number."^[4]

In 1906 Estrada faced serious revolts against his rule; the rebels were supported by the governments of some of the other Central American nations, but Estrada succeeded in putting them down. Estrada continued in power until forced to resign by new revolts in 1920. By that time, his power had declined drastically and he was reliant on the loyalty of a few generals. While the United States threatened intervention if he was removed through revolution, a bipartisan coalition came together to remove him from the presidency. He was removed from office after the national assembly charged that he was mentally incompetent, and appointed Carlos Herrera in his place on April 8, 1920.^[5]

Estrada's Temple of Minerva, Guatemala City, c. 1905. The architrave is inscribed: MANUEL ESTRADA CABRERA PRESIDENTE DE LA REPUBLICA A LA JUVENTUD ESTUDIOSA ("Manuel Estrada Cabrera, President of the Republic, to the Studious Youths"). This structure was later demolished during the government of Col. Jacobo Arbenz in the early years of the 1950s, but similar Temples in Quetzaltenango and other cities still stand.

Estrada's most curious legacy was his attempt to foster a Cult of Minerva in Guatemala. He ordered a number of Hellenic style "Temples of Minerva" built in major cities of the country.

Estrada was immortalized in the dictator novel El Señor Presidente (1946), written by the Nobel laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias.

See also

• History of Guatemala
• Presidents of Guatemala

References

1. ^ Chapman, Peter. Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. NY: Canongate, 2007. pg. 54.
2. ^ Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala, Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1993, p.3.
3. ^ Chapman, Peter. Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. NY: Canongate, 2007.
4. ^ Peter Chapman, Bananas, pg. 83.
5. ^ Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala, Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1993, p.27.

Preceded by José María Reina

President of Guatemala 1898–1920

Succeeded by Carlos Herrera

Persondata
Name	Estrada Cabrera, Manuel Jose
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 November 1857
Place of birth	Quetzaltenango
Date of death	24 September 1924
Place of death	Guatemala City