Jorge Ubico (redirected from Jorge Ubico y Castañeda)

Ubico, Jorge 

Born Nov. 10, 1878, in Guatemala City; died June 14,1946, in New Orleans, USA. State and military figure of Guatemala.

Ubico became president of Guatemala in 1931 and remained in office until 1944, during which time he assumed the powers of a dictator. The regime of terror that he established outlawed all workers’ organizations and in 1934 adopted a vagrancy law that, in effect, made serfs of those who held no land or only small plots by compelling them to work 180 days a year for hire. In 1944 the government gave landowners the right to shoot anyone caught trespassing on their land. In the meantime it transferred ownership of large tracts of land to the United Fruit Company and otherwise granted wide privileges to US monopolies. In June 1944, however, a popular uprising broke out, as a result of which Ubico was forced to flee the country, going first to Mexico and then to the United States.