AREVALO (BERMEJO), JUAN JOSE

born Sept. 10, 1904, Taxisco, Guat. died Oct. 6, 1990, Guatemala City president of Guatemala (19451951), who pursued a nationalistic foreign policy while internally encouraging the labour movement and instituting far-reaching social reforms. Arvalo was educated at the University of Guatemala and the University of La Plata (192834) in Argentina, where he received a doctorate. After serving in the Guatemalan ministry of education in 1936, he returned to Argentina, where he held a variety of academic positions. After a coup d'tat (Oct. 20, 1944) overthrew the military dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, Arvalo was elected president in an election in which, for the first time in Guatemalan history, organized labour played an important part. He received 85 percent of the vote. His policies favoured urban and agricultural workers and the nation's Indian population. During his administration a social-security system was established, a labour code enacted, and important programs in education, health, and road building begun. He allowed freedom of speech and of the press and, in accord with his nationalist policy, reopened the dispute over Belize with the British. He was appointed ambassador at large in 1951. During his term in office he refused to recognize Anastasio Somoza's Nicaragua, Francisco Franco's Spain, and Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republic. In 1963 he was prevented from running for president after Colonel Enrique Peralta seized the government. Arvalo was the author of a widely circulated book, The Shark and the Sardines (1961), which denounced U.S. domination of Latin America. He served as ambassador to France from 1970 to 1972.