Estrada Cabrera

The prize renewed interest in “Mr. President,” which draws from the autocratic reign from 1898 to 1920 of the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera.

The dictator isn’t named either, but he is based on a real person: Manuel Estrada Cabrera, Guatemala’s president for the first two decades of the 20th century.

In real life, Estrada Cabrera modernized Guatemala by opening it to U.S. capital.

As a young man, Asturias saw how Estrada Cabrera ruled Guatemala with ever-increasing doses of cynicism and sadism.

A sofa given to Darío from Manuel Estrada Cabrera, the Guatemalan dictator, sat in a main room, along with Darío’s diplomatic suits from missions to Argentina and Spain.