Anarchism in Guatemala
Anarchism in Guatemala emerged from the country's labor movement in the late 19th century. Anarcho-syndicalism rose to prominence in the early 20th century, reaching its peak during the 1920s, before being suppressed by the right-wing dictatorship of Jorge Ubico. History In 1871, Guatemala went through a "Liberal Revolution" that modernized the country, improved trade relations and introduced new crops and manufacturing processes. Under Liberal Party rule, the cultivation of coffee for export quickly became a significant part of the country's economy. Justo Rufino Barrios was elected President of Guatemala in the country's first elections and began a campaign to confiscate land from the indigenous people, redistributing them into the hands of a few landowners and creating a system of "farmland servitude", based on the exploitation of the native day laborers. Barrios issued a decree that placed the entire native population at the disposal of the new landowners, to work on their vast monoculture coffee plantations. This introduced a policy of forced labour, with laborers being buried in substantial debt to the landowners, requiring them to work for whichever landowner required their services. It was under these conditions that the Guatemalan labour movement began to emerge, organizing indentured workers to resist