Mario Sandoval Alarcon, 79; Guatemalan Politician
Mario Sandoval Alarcon, 79, a former vice president of Guatemala and a leading figure in conservative politics in that Central American country for decades, died Thursday in Guatemala City, his family said. The cause of death was not announced.
Sandoval served as vice president between 1974 and 1978 in the government of Gen. Kjell Laugerud, whose election victory over Gen. Efrain Rios Montt was widely questioned.
He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1982 and 1986 for the National Liberation Movement, a right-wing party which participated in the CIA-organized overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954.
Sandoval helped found the party and served as its secretary-general from 1958 to 1993, participating in several international anti-Communist organizations.
A party biography said that at the time of the 1954 ouster of Arbenz, Sandoval was imprisoned because of clandestine organizing against Arbenz’s left-leaning government. He became private secretary to Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, who took power after Arbenz was overthrown.
Sandoval also served as an ambassador and congressman and represented his country at the funeral of Spanish Gen. Francisco Franco in 1975.
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