page_title: Tragic Week (Guatemala)
section_title: March 11, 1920
hierarchical_section_title: Tragic Week (Guatemala) / Background / March 11, 1920
caption_attribution_description: Español: Marcha unionista del 11 de marzo de 1920, que inició la caída de Manuel Estrada Cabrera
context_page_description: The Tragic Week of 1920 was a civil uprising that took place in Guatemala in the week of April 8 to April 14, 1920, led by Unionist Party leaders, student leaders and those who opposed President Manuel Estrada Cabrera when the latter refused to leave office after the National Assembly declared him mentally incompetent for the presidency and named Carlos Herrera as interim president.
context_section_description: Estrada Cabrera was forced to accept the new party due to internal and international pressure. On March 1, 1920, the National Assembly officially accepted the new party. Since then, Estrada Cabrera publicly admitted his willingness to bow to international opinion on opening spaces for political rivals, but kept arresting Unionist sympathizers.
  Ever since January, the Unionists had been taking a more threatening attitude - openly challenging the Government; they had also been harassed and imprisoned, but they were treated with less severity than had been previous challengers. It was whispered, however, that if necessary, the whole country would side with the Unionists.
  On 11 March 1920, the new party organized a large demonstration against the government, demanding a new government, revision of the laws, administrative reforms, political freedom, and the abolition of press censorship.  The National Assembly leaders promised to receive them, but when the procession - numbering several thousand - arrived at the Military Academy, where the National Assembly had moved after the 1917-18 earthquakes, the army fired their machine guns against it, leaving scores of dead and wounded on the ground. This caused a lot of resentment and anger and united the Guatemalan people against the President, who was already detested after two decades of strong-armed rule and, in particular, for his egregious incompetence in leading the mrecovery after the 1917-18 earthquakes.
caption: March 11, 1920.  After attacking this unarmed and peaceful demonstration, Estrada Cabrera regime began to crumble.
exif: {}