Méndez Montenegro, Julio César (1915–1996)

Guatemalan politician, president 1966–70, member of the leftist Revolutionary Party. He launched a five-year plan of social and economic reform and offered the communist guerrillas an amnesty.

When the latter was rejected, Colonel Carlos Araña Osorio was placed in charge of a concerted anti-guerrilla campaign, in which government forces were supported by right-wing and peasant paramilitaries, but which led to spiralling urban and rural violence. Arana, who had been dismissed for excesses in 1968, replaced Méndez as president in 1970.

Formerly a law professor, following the assassination of his brother, Méndez was elected president in 1966 at a time of intense guerrillas activity.