The New York Times ran an interesting obit on former Guatemalan vice president Francisco Villagrán Kramer.
Mr. Villagrán was a left-of-center politician whose act of defiance against the military government he had joined reverberated across the country in the grip of a civil war that stretched from 1960 to 1996.
“Death or exile is the fate of those who fight for justice in Guatemala,” he said.
Although he had leftist sympathies, he ran for and won the post of vice president, agreeing to serve under a president, Gen. Romeo Lucas García, who was known for taking a hard line against leftist insurgents. Mr. Villagrán believed that as an insider he might achieve political reforms, his son later wrote.
But in September 1980, after just two years, Mr. Villagrán announced his resignation, accusing the military leaders of covering up assassinations and other crimes.
Villagrán died on Tuesday at the age of 84.
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