Francisco Villagrán Kramer
Official portrait
Vice President of Guatemala
In office
1 July 1978 – 1 September 1980
PresidentFernando Romeo Lucas García
Preceded byMario Sandoval Alarcón
Succeeded byÓscar Mendoza Azurdia
Personal details
Born(1927-04-05)April 5, 1927
Guatemala City, Guatemala
DiedJuly 12, 2011(2011-07-12) (aged 84)
EducationUniversidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

Francisco Villagrán Kramer (5 April 1927 – 12 July 2011)[1] was a Guatemalan attorney and social democrat who served as vice president[2][3][4] in the government of General Romeo Lucas García, beginning in 1978. He resigned from office on 1 September 1980,[5] before his term ended, citing differences with the Lucas administration and disapproval of Guatemala's worsening human rights situation.[6] He then went into voluntary exile in the United States, taking a position in the Legal Department of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Villagrán later served on the Inter-American Juridical Committee of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations' International Law Commission. In 1994, he was elected to the Guatemalan Congress, where he was president of the Committee on Human Rights.

In 1997, he was nominated for a seat on the OAS's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The nomination raised strong criticism based on the allegation that death squads had been active in Guatemala during his time as vice president.

Villagrán authored over two dozen books and dozens of articles on international law and Guatemalan history and politics. In Biografía Política de Guatemala, he described his involvement with the Lucas administration as a failed attempt to exert a moderating influence on an authoritarian regime.

References

  1. ↑ Archibold, Randal C. (16 July 2011). "Francisco Villagrán Kramer, Guatemala Official, Dies at 84". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Politics in Central America: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua By Thomas P. Anderson 1988
  3. ↑ "Figura vicepresidencial se ha opacado por funciones de Primera Dama". 29 October 2009.
  4. ↑ Biografía política de Guatemala. Francisco Villagrán Kramer. 1993. ISBN 9789993972815.
  5. ↑ The Future of Central America: policy choices for the U.S. and Mexico By Richard R. Fagen, Olga Pellicer de Brody, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Project on United States-Mexico Relations 1983
  6. ↑ Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Republic of Guatemala, Chapter IX, 1981
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