C. Arana Osorio, 85; General Was President of Guatemala in ‘70s

Gen. Carlos Arana Osorio, 85, a hard-line conservative president of Guatemala from 1970 to 1974, died Saturday in a Guatemala City military hospital of an unspecified illness.

Arana Osorio was one of several military leaders to hold the presidential office during the decades of unrest in Guatemala following a 1954 coup. He ran for president with the ultraconservative National Liberation Movement and, once elected, expanded government efforts to bring armed rebels under control while also persecuting student radicals, workers’ groups and political opponents.

A state of siege was declared, suspending civil liberties, during Arana Osorio’s first year in office. A document extending it indefinitely included the government’s first official acknowledg- ment that the country was embroiled in a civil war. The decades-long struggle cost 200,000 lives before peace accords were reached in 1996.

Born in the rural community of Barberena, 37 miles southeast of Guatemala City, he joined the military and rose to command a base in Zacapa in eastern Guatemala, leading a repressive campaign against rebel guerrillas. Arana Osorio ended his career as Guatemalan ambassador to Nicaragua.