Jorge Ubico

Ubico, Jorge (hôrˈhā ōbēˈkō) [key], 1878–1946, president of Guatemala (1931–44). An army general, Ubico as president established financial stability and political order. He built an extensive network of roads and modernized local administrations to include increased health and school facilities. His methods, however, were authoritarian. He sternly suppressed opposition and twice engineered constitutional changes to extend his term of office. His efficient and honest but tyrannical rule ended when he was driven into exile by a democratic revolution following the revolt in Salvador that deposed Maximiliano Hernández Martínez.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.