J.J. Arevalo Bermejo; Guatemalan Enacted Social Reforms

Juan Jose Arevalo Bermejo, a former president whose civilian government was considered a shining moment for the poor in a nation dominated by military governments, has died. He was 86.

Arevalo died at the Spanish Hospital in the Guatemalan capital late Saturday, his sister-in-law, America Barahona de Arevalo, said Sunday. She did not give the cause of death.

Arevalo, a former university professor in the humanities, returned to Guatemala from Argentina after a 1944 popular uprising that ended the 14-year-old military dictatorship of Jorge Ubico.

Becoming president the following year, he set about carrying out social reforms akin to the New Deal in the United States.

During his six years in office, Arevalo established a social security system, began agrarian reforms and worked to integrate the Indians, who made up about half the population, into the nation.

In 1951, he turned the government over to his elected successor, Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, who expanded the reforms under a center-left administration until he was overthrown in a U.S.-backed revolt in 1954.

Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, who led the CIA-funded rebels in an invasion from Honduras, held power until his assassination in 1957. A series of right-wing military governments followed, and a leftist insurgency, begun in 1960, continues today.