ABSTRACT
Originated as the Partido Comunista Guatemalteco, f. 1923 and banned until after the Second World War. The party was revived in 1949 by José Manuel Fortuny and was legalized in 1951, under the presidency of Jacobo Arbenz, assuming its present name in 1952. At the fall of Arbenz it was immediately banned. In 1962 a section took up armed struggle in alliance with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, led by Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez, who disappeared in 1966 after he and some 20 others had been arrested. However, several groups survived and in 1981 the largest joined Unidad Nacional Revolucionaria Guatemalteca; this faction now known as PGT-Camarilla. The other factions are PGT-Núcleo de Conducción y Dirección and PGT-Comisión Nuclear.
