"La tierra es de quien la trabaja y la libertad de quien la toma."

1524 The Spanish come to Guatemala

1821 Guatemala achieves independence from Spain.

1944 The revolution starts, also called the ten years of spring. At the election there were two candidates, but the people demanded a third. To calm the population a professor of philosophy, Juan Jose Arevalo, is determined to run as well, while situated in Argentina and not considered likely to receive any votes. Short time before the election he seeked exile in Guatemala and surprisingly he won the election.

1945 Arevalo rewrites the constitution and proclames a social democratic revolution. He gives women the right to wote, legitimizes labor unions and encourages workers to organize and engage. Arevalo was a leftist, but not a communist. He introduces freedom of speech as well as freedom of the press. He starts reforms within the education and the health sector and promotes new industry and agriculture. Arevalo's opponents were ofcourse the upper class in Guatemala who lost a lot of influence during his reign and in addition the American companies (mainly the United Fruit Company). There were 20 militant attempts to overthrow him during his term.

1951 Jacobo Arbenz Guzman who helped during the riots in 1944 succeeds Arevalo as president and turns the revolutionen further to the left.

1952 Arbenz's famous agricultural reform. The majority of the land in Guatemala was owned by an American company called the United Fruit Company. To pay minimum taxes on their land, the UFC claimed the value of the lands to be ridiculously low. Arbenz decides to buy great parts of their unused lands to the prices the UFC had stated themselves and Arbenz gives the land to the landless peasants. Meanwhile Arbenz lets the Communist Party in Guatemala organize.
United Fruit starts campaigning against Guatemala in the US to influence the American Government who's already fighting communism in Korea and also trying to limit the communism in Eastern Europe and Asia.

1954 Weapons start arriving from Eastern Europe and the US acts. They plan a coup with help from the governments in Nicaragua and Honduras. The CIA trains and arms exile Guatemalans lead by Carlos Castillo Armas and they invade Guatemala. Communists get prisoned and about 600 political prisoners incarcerated by Arbenz are freed and Armas is inaugurated as president.

---- The military reign (supported by the US), as well as the war, continue the next 36 years.

1968-69 The Guerilla organizes (URNG).

1982-83 Rios Montt becomes president after a military coup. He offers amnesty to the URNG Guerilla, but they turn down his offer, and he strikes back hard. He invents the concept "Tierra Arrazada" or "quita el agua del pez" (to remove the water from the fish) meaning exterminate villages and societies, because the Guerilla (the fish) can't survive without the support of the population (the water). He introduced the PAC (Patrollera Autrorizada Civil), a type of surveillance police consisting of forced civilians. During his 1 year (and 3 months) term crowds of people were murdered or forced to flee.

1992 Rigoberta Menchu (Indigenus Guatemalan woman who survived the attack on her village as a chile and who has been fighting for justice in Guatemala ever since. She is now living in exile in Spain, but is probably runing for presidency in 2007) wins the Nobels Peace Price and puts focus on the situation in Guatemala.

1996 The peace agreement is finally signed. The negotiations lasted about 4 years do to disagreements between the Church , the Guerilla and the military. The Guerilla achieves the right to create their own political party, URNG.

2003 DR-CAFTA (TLC) is signed in Guatemala.

2007 Election in Guatemala. Rios Montt considered runing for presidency and Otto Perez Molina (commandant during "Tierra Arrazada") is runing with the motto "the firm hand" (La Mano Dura). These people have never been charged nor excluded from politics - it never became part of the peace agreement, even though the Guerilla tried to include it as one of their demands.