page_title: Manuel Estrada Cabrera
section_title: Unionist Party and end of Cabrera's regime
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Estrada Cabrera / Unionist Party and end of Cabrera's regime
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato de Estrada Cabrera, localizado en el Museo Nacional de Historia de Guatemala
context_page_description: Manuel José Estrada Cabrera was President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. He was a lawyer with no military background and as President, he was a strong ruler, who modernised the country's industry and transport, but only by granting concessions to the American-owned United Fruit Company, whose influence on the government was felt by many to be excessive. Estrada Cabrera used increasingly brutal methods to assert his authority, including armed strike-breaking, and the general elections were effectively controlled by him. He retained power for 22 years through controlled elections in 1904, 1910, and 1916, and was eventually removed from office when the national assembly declared him mentally incompetent, and he was jailed for corruption.
context_section_description: Opposition to his regime started after the 1917–1918 earthquakes as it was evident that the President was incapable of leading the recovery efforts.  Bishop of Facelli, Piñol y Batres from the Aycinena family, began preaching against the government policies in the San Francisco Church in 1919, instructed by his cousin, Manuel Cobos Batres. For the first time, the Catholic Church opposed the President. Additionally, Cobos Batres was able to inflame the nationality sentiment of conservative leaders José Azmitia, Tácito Molina, Eduardo Camacho, Julio Bianchi and  Emilio Escamilla into forming a Central America Unionist party and oppose the strong regime of Estrada Cabrera. The Unionist party began its activities with the support of several sectors of the Guatemala City society, among them the Universidad Estrada Cabrera students and the labor associations, who under the leadership of Silverio Ortiz founded the Patriotic Labor Committee.
  The new party was called "Unionist", to differentiate it from both the Liberal and Conservative parties and therefore be able to appeal all "good willing, freedom and democracy loving" men who "dreamed of the Central America Union". The headquarters of the new party were in a house belonging to the Escamilla family which soon was known as "People's House". Tácito Molina wrote a founding Act for the party, which was signed by fifty one citizens on 25 December 1919 and was later known as the "Three-fold Act" because it had to be folded in three when it was distributed to the citizens of the city. The document was distributed in Guatemala City until January 1, 1920.
  Estrada Cabrera was forced to accept the new party due to the 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 accept the international opinion on opening spaces for political rivals, but kept arresting Unionist sympathizers. On 11 March 1920, the new party organized a large demonstration against the government, but the army fired against it causing a lot of resentment and anger and united the Guatemalan people against the President. B.
  The National Assembly, whose president then was Adrián Vidaurre, former Secretary of War and one of the most important members of Cabrera's cabinet, declared the President unable to continue and designated citizen Carlos Herrera y Luna as interim president. Cabrera resisted this designation and settled for a fight from his residence in "La Palma", until he was defeated in April, during the "Tragic Week: 
    Estrada Cabrera finally surrendered on April 14, 1920 along with his only loyal friend, Peruvian poet José Santos Chocano.
caption: President Estrada Cabrera official portrait during his last presidential term.
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