9.30 am
Movement of troops and tanks in front of the National Palace, looking for positions.
10.30 a.m.
The Central and Centenario parks are surrounded by tanks and hundreds of soldiers with their right sleeves rolled up, possibly as an identification of belonging to the movement.
11:00 a.m.
It is rumored that the detachments of Cobán and Quetzaltenango do not submit to the coup d’état against the government of Romeo Lucas García.
11:20 a.m.
Army officers inform journalists that there will be only one voice to report the events and that no photos can be taken or filmed for television.
1:50 p.m.
Commanding officers in the Central Park area report that no agreement has yet been reached. President Lucas does not agree. A deadline is given that will expire at 3 p.m. The order to shoot at the National Palace will be given at that time if the president does not surrender.
1:55 p.m.
General Efraín Ríos Montt arrives, aboard a Volkswagen truck with plates from Texas, USA.
2:40 p.m.
Officially it is reported that General Ríos Montt is in charge of the situation.
16.02 hour
Five vehicles leave 5th. street and turn south on Sixth Avenue. The until then president of the Republic leaves the National Palace.
4:40 p.m.
The officers in charge in the park area report that there will be a press conference in which General Ríos Montt himself will tell who accompanies him on the Government Representative Board.
Statement
The armed movement “is exclusively institutional, to revitalize the institutions and rescue the moral values that have been broken and men have made dirty,” said yesterday, at 5:00 p.m., General Efraín Ríos Montt, president of the military junta that, at 10:00 a.m., had deposed the government of General Romeo Lucas García.
—I wanted to inform you: Today an armed movement took place. We have done it and we have controlled the situation. At this moment three people are part of the governing board, General Horacio Maldonado Schaad, Colonel Francisco Gordillo Martínez and I… We want to show the people that the movement is exclusively institutional, to revitalize the institutions and to revalue the values.”
“We, military personnel, want to express the following to you: None of us here—members of the junta—have any interest in participating in any political activity.”
He declares himself president
“Thank you, my God, you have brought me here,” said General Efraín Ríos Montt, after declaring himself president of the Republic, during the surprise ceremony that took place before noon – on June 8, 1983 – in the reception hall of the National Palace.
There was a strong movement of troops yesterday in the National Palace from early hours, before the resignations of the triumvirs General Horacio Egberto Maldonado Schaad and Colonel Francisco Luis Gordillo Martínez became public knowledge.
*With information from editions 9404 and 9476
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