Report on Citizenship Law: Guatemala economic elite, as well as with foreign merchants. This achievement would be expressed in the issuance, at last, of a constitutional text in 1851 called the Constitutive Act. In this text Guatemalans were defined as a) all those born in the Republic, b) those who were in Guatemala at the time of independence, c) those born abroad to Guatemalan parents, d) the natives of other Central American States settled in the country and e) naturalised foreigners. In the case of the latter, they could be considered naturalised if they accepted the official appointment as such. For its part, the Constitutive Act established as citizens “Guatemalans who have a profession, trade or property that provides them with means to subsist independently” 9. Although it is true that the constitutional text was quite general, new criteria excluding indigenous populations were established in secondary laws, as happened in November 185110. Other criteria for the loss of citizenship status were to take arms against the authorities, or for a sentence of corporal punishment. It could also be suspended in the case of a criminal process, for fraudulent debts, “notoriously flawed” behaviour and for judicial interdiction. This constitutional regulation was in force until 1871, when the coffee-growing liberals of Los Altos reached power. The political changes that took place after 1871 built the political bases of the Modern State in Guatemala because, despite some modifications, the Constitution issued in 1879 was in force until 1944. This marked an almost seventy year period in which the landscape was transformed in order to cultivate coffee, a fact that was at the centre of considerations regarding citizenship, as will be discussed later. The Constitution divided Guatemalans into the natural and the naturalised. The first were people born in the country regardless of the father’s nationality (except in the case of diplomats); “the children of a Guatemalan father or the illegitimate children of a Guatemalan mother, born abroad from the moment they reside in the republic, and even without this condition, when, according to the laws of the country of birth, they have the right to choose their nationality and opt for the Guatemalan”. Those who came from Central America and lived in the country were also seen as natural11. On the other hand, “Hispanic Americans” who had their residence in the country were considered naturalised Guatemalans, as long as they did not retain their nationality of origin, and those foreigners who had or obtained the nature card and, finally, foreigners who accepted an official position which required the enjoyment of citizenship were considered naturalised. For its part, Guatemalans “over 21 years old and who have income, trade, industry or a profession that provides them with means of subsistence” were citizens. With this it repeated a condition that was already in the federal and state constitutions of the 1820s. To the above, the new constitution added “all those who belong to the army being over 18 years old”. With this last condition, the Government of Justo Rufino Barrios confirmed a central element of social mobility: the role of the armed forces as a means of accessing citizenship. The Conservative Government had not recognised this fact constitutionally, although in practice military officers, both frontline and reserve, had several privileges. But the difference was largely territorial. The conservatives relied mostly, though not exclusively, on military units from the east and the centre. In contrast, the Liberals after 1871 had Los Altos as their military base, where the heads of state between 1873 and 1920 came from, as well as the main military leaders12. The power struggles 9 Acta Constitutiva de la República de Guatemala, 1851, art. 1. Hipótesis principal del estudio de Arturo Taracena et. al. 11 Ley Constitutiva de la República de Guatemala, 1879, art. 4-6. 12 Ley Constitutiva de la República de Guatemala, art. 8 y 10. 10 4 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/2 - © 2020 Author