Juan Carlos Sarazua amongst liberals themselves forced the reform of this condition in 1885. Thus, Article 8 eliminated the access to citizenship for the simple fact of belonging to the army. This same article emphasised that citizenship could be accessed if one knew how “to read and write, or had income or industry, trade or a profession that provided with means of subsistence”. That is, faced with the practice of military caudillismo, the opportunity was opened to people who could read and who did not necessarily belong to the armed forces13. 2.1. Women, indigenous populations and others From 1823, with the formation of the Federal Republic, the political elites doubted the way to proceed with regards to the indigenous, mestizo, mulatto and black population within the framework of a community of citizens, with shared rights and obligations that were supposed to be equal. As heirs of colonial hierarchies, each of these population groups had been differentiated by means of colonial regulations. The challenge, then, was to integrate all within citizenship but this step implied the renunciation of ascribing privileges and different obligations to each. Given the majoritarian presence of the indigenous population, the elites in Guatemala oscillated over the years between their assimilation and segregation with regards to citizenship rights. In a study focusing on the way the state and the political elites approached the construction of the Guatemalan nation over almost two centuries (1824-1985), it became apparent that the inclusion of the indigenous population within citizenship rights was part of an intense debate. There were steps directed towards their integration into the body of citizens and also steps to take them backwards in order to guarantee their segregation or differential treatment. One of the fundamental conclusions was that the state used secondary regulations to consolidate differentiated treatment towards the indigenous people, as forced labour on farms, transport and road construction. This was fundamental for the economic project of “modernisation” between the late nineteenth and the whole of the twentieth century. This means that although the different constitutions often opened up citizenship rights to a larger part of the population with the passing of time, secondary legislation differentiated the treatment of indigenous people and was the basis for their exclusion from citizenship rights. Yet the gradual opening marked by the constitutions was quickly used by the mestizo and mulatto population to take ownership of the citizenship rights they guaranteed. This was possible because of their role in the military, their access to education, their denunciations of land, but above all because of their proper use of the Castilian language. This differentiating experience was particularly marked in the region of Los Altos (current West of the Republic), where most coffee farmers and militaries in power came from after 1871. At the same time, this was fuelled by widespread racism on behalf of foreign coffee growers, mostly Germans but not exclusively. Hence the conception of the country divided into Ladinos and indigenous populations spread with the formation of the oligarchic state (1871-1944). Secondary legislation that helped create this segregation with regards to citizenship included municipal regulations (1824) and forced labour ones (1830, 1877, 1893, 1894 and 1934), amongst others14. As expressed in a statement from a political Club in the 13 Reformas de la Constitución de la República, 1885. Arturo Taracena et al. Etnicidad, estado y nación en Guatemala, 1808-1944, Antigua Guatemala: CIRMA, 2002 y Arturo Taracena, Invención criollas, sueño ladino, pesadilla indígena: Los Altos de región a Estado, 1750-1871, Antigua Guatemala: CIRMA, 2000. Matilde Gonzalez-Izas, Territorio, actores armados y formación del Estado, Guatemala: URL, 2014. 14 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/4 - © 2020 Author 5