page_title: Tragic Week (Guatemala)
section_title: April 8, 1920
hierarchical_section_title: Tragic Week (Guatemala) / Background / April 8, 1920
caption_attribution_description: Español: Semana Trágica, abril de 1920
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: Prince Wilhelm and his companions returned to Guatemala City on April 8, 1920, and he wrote in his book that "there was a sort of feeling in the air as though something was about to happen". The prince had no way to know that in the previous days Unionist leaders Julio Bianchi and Tácito Molina, among others, had struck a deal with Congressional leaders - especially Adrian Vidaurre - that on this day, the National Assembly would declare the President unfit for his high office. Congress assembled in one of the city’s public buildings and requested that ten medical men should be deputized to go to "La Palma" and investigate; the ten departed willingly enough, but being perfectly aware that following instructions would have been a death sentence, they stopped at a nearby corner, waited for a few hours and returned to Congress with their decision: the president is most certainly insane.
  Then, President of Congress, Adrián Vidaurre, former Secretary of War and up to that point one of the most important members of Cabrera's cabinet, declared the President insane and unable to continue. He designated Carlos Herrera as interim president.
  Herrera, then a representative from his hometown Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, had been elected on account of his good repute, his distinguished personal qualities and his great wealth, on the assumption that it would have rendered him less likely to enrich himself at others' expense.
  Soon, great masses of people were marching through the streets shouting and waving and congratulating one another. Cars and other vehicles packed with passengers drove back an forth. Some added the clatter of tin cans and braying of toy trumpets to the noise, while in government buildings and barracks the soldiers simply looked on.  Most of the soldiers had been bought off and had promised to remain neutral until the dust settled.
  But Estrada Cabrera was not done yet; upon learning of his diagnosis, he simply said: "Loco, ¿eh? ¡Ya verán su loco!" -"Mad, huh? They will see their madman!"-.
caption: Another picture from the people in front of the National Assembly.[8]
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