The convenience of remembering
Mario Merida. Writer, communicator and university professor
The elections in our country have been held under different circumstances, some of which are more difficult and complex to resolve. From 1970 I devoted greater interest in the national context and its relationship with the international situation. Internally, the country was preparing to elect a successor to President Julio César Méndez Montenegro (1966-1970), in an environment marked by political violence, which tried to prevent elections from being held.
One of the first victims was the journalist Don Isidoro Zarco, deputy director of Prensa Libre (01/28/1970). The news of the following day portrays the regret of the journalistic union: Our beloved Deputy Director Isidoro Zarco was assassinated. “Our beloved journalist, Deputy Director Isidoro Zarco, tragically died yesterday (01/28/1970) at 1:15 p.m. The death of the well-known and beloved journalist has caused consternation in journalistic and social circles in the country, especially in his house, of which he was the founder and in which he has left a great void. The treacherous and criminal attack that put an end to his life was committed after leaving the offices of PRENSA LIBRE, he was heading to his residence in zone 9, driving on 10th. Avenida de la zona 1. As he passed under the Barranquilla bridge and in front of the stadium, he was passed by another vehicle on the left side, from where they cowardly opened fire on his person, hitting him with four bullets. One in the nose, one in the left parietal and two in the occipital part.
A previous attack against Zarco with a terrorist bomb, thrown at his home years ago (1962) was also recalled.
In this environment of instability and uncertainty due to urban violence attributed to guerrilla groups of the Rebel Armed Forces (FAR), the general elections were held (03/01/1970).
These elections had as finalists the pairs made up of Colonel Carlos Arana Osorio-Eduardo Cáceres Lehnhoff and Doctor Mario Fuentes Pieruccine-Óscar Castañeda Fernández, the final election called “second degree” was defined by the deputies to Congress (PL 03/03 /1970*)
The decision of the deputies did not have any setbacks thanks to the pronouncement of Dr. Fuentes, who left Congress “… complete freedom so that without any moral pressure they could vote in accordance with their convictions, because they had ratified what they said during their campaign , that he would not accept the presidency if he did not get the highest number of votes in the elections.
The second degree election was held on a Saturday (03/21/1970*). The headline of Prensa Libre of that date highlighted this election and the explosion of a bomb, which caused “Damage to a telephone installation”, which left the sector without service.
The first words of the president-elect (1970-1974) were: “The triumph does not inflate me in any way, but it does satisfy me greatly, because the people of Guatemala have ratified their faith in democracy and their right to have a government of tranquility, justice and peace”
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Days later (03/31/1970), the German ambassador to our country, Karl von Spreti, was kidnapped after attending a formal ceremony at the National Geographic Institute, near the Christopher Columbus monument, Av. las Américas, Z. 13. The FAR attributed the act to them. At the beginning of April, the ambassador’s corpse was found near San Pedro Ayampuc with two wounds on his right temple. The FAR leadership justified the execution by refusing to pay a ransom for seven hundred thousand dollars.
The media headlines of the time reflected the magnitude of the event. The Prensa Libre note was blunt: “The German ambassador is found murdered.” Meanwhile, the evening newspaper El Imparcial published on its cover “Tragic outcome of the plagiarism of the ambassador.”
Guatemalans of the generation of 1950 have witnessed a good number of events that allow us to understand the present and the importance of looking at it through a rear-view mirror and then observing a hundred meters from the reference point.
Today it is up to the generation of the eighties to make decisions that will be decisive for their future, it is no longer worth making mistakes.
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