Rodolfo Lobos Zamora

Rodolfo Lobos Zamora was a Guatemalan general and diplomat. He rose to the position of Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army before being forced into retirement in 1985, after which he served as Assistant Chief of State and Guatemala's ambassador to Panama.

General of Division

Rodolfo Lobos Zamora
Deputy Head of State of Guatemala
In office
8 August 1983 – 14 January 1986
Head of StateÓscar Humberto Mejía Victores
Preceded byÓscar Mendoza Azurdia
(as Vice President)
Succeeded byRoberto Carpio
(as Vice President)
Personal details
BornGuatemala City
DiedGuatemala City
Rodolfo Lobos Zamora in the field

Military career

Lobos Zamora began his military career in the 1950s, and was sent to study at the United States Army Infantry School, from which he graduated in 1959, and then the Escuela Militar in Colombia, from which he graduated in 1965. He later rose to the command of the Mariscal Zavala base in Guatemala City.[1][2] After the coup d'état which followed the 1982 elections, he and fellow colonels César Augusto Cáceres Rojas and Héctor Gramajo Morales — two other Guatemalan officers who had studied counter-insurgency tactics at foreign military schools — created the National Plan of Security and Development.[2]

In October 1983, Lobos Zamora was named Chief of Staff of the Guatemalan Army, succeeding Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes.[1] Lobos Zamora had been expected to be promoted to Minister of Defence, but after Vinicio Cerezo emerged victorious in the 1985 elections, he forced Lobos Zamora to retire from the military, and named Jaime Hernández Méndez as Minister of Defence instead.[3][4]

Diplomatic career

In February 1984, Lobos Zamora was named to the newly created position of Assistant Chief of State under Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores.[5] He flew to Taipei, Taiwan, that year as his country's official representative at the inauguration of Chiang Ching-kuo to his second term as president of the Republic of China (ROC), demonstrating the close ties between the two anti-communist governments.[6] His opposition led to a delay of nearly five years in the ROC's plans to establish relations with Belize: in 1984, when then-ROC ambassador to Guatemala Gene Loh travelled to Belize to meet with William Quinto and Prime Minister George Price, Lobos Zamora made his displeasure known, and a CIA agent informed Loh that if the ROC went ahead with its plans, Guatemala might break off relations entirely.[7]

In March 1986, Lobos Zamora was named Guatemala's ambassador to Panama by the new civilian government of Vinicio Cerezo. The Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo accused him of human rights abuses and attempted to bring him to trial, but his diplomatic appointment made him immune from prosecution.[8][9] During the 1988 confrontation between Manuel Noriega and the United States, Cerezo frequently recalled Lobos Zamora to Guatemala to provide updates and discuss the situation; the Guatemalan government paid close attention to the situation and sought to act as a mediator between Panama and the United States.[10]

Quotes
  • "We Guatemalans can feel satisfied at being the first country in the world that has managed to inflict a substantial defeat on subversion by means of our own eminently nationalistic strategy and tactics, without outside assistance."[11]
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References
  1. "World Roundup". The Pittsburgh Press. 1983-10-22. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  2. Oettler, Anika (March 2006). "Guatemala in the 1980s: A Genocide Turned into Ethnocide?" (PDF). German Institute of Global and Area Studies Working Papers (19). Retrieved 2014-02-20.
  3. "Guatemala President-Elect Prevails; Cerezo Forces Retirement of Key General in Test of Wills With Army". San Jose Mercury News. 1986-01-10. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  4. Cody, Edward (1986-07-04). "Guatemalans get their first taste of elected civilian government". Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  5. "Leader gets assistant". The Windsor Star. 1984-02-28. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  6. Burnett, John (1984-07-29). "Taiwan Fills the Aid Gap in Guatemala: Nationalists Offer Farm Help, Military Teaching After U.S.Cutoff". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  7. "送別伍永泉大使 憶當年建交經過". National Policy Foundation Commentary. 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
  8. "Guatemala Posts Ex-Officer". The New York Times. 1986-03-21. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  9. "The World". Los Angeles Times. 1986-03-21. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
  10. "Noriega rejects U.S. ultimatum to leave Panama". Observer-Reporter. 1988-05-08. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  11. Martin, Lisa L.; Sikkink, Kathryn (1993-10-29). "U.S. Policy and Human Rights in Argentina and Guatemala, 1973–1980". In Evans, Peter B.; Jacobson, Harold Karan; Putnam, Robert D. (eds.). Double-Edged Diplomacy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics. University of California Press. p. 346. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
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