Julia's Cousin

"General, watch yourself," warned Guatemala's Vice President, Clemente Marroquin Rojas, in his newspaper La Hora. "You may slide downhill." He was addressing General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, 63, Guatemala's headstrong President, who was treating the country to a double dose of wacky crises. Six weeks ago, to protect native Guatemalan shrimp from poaching by foreign trawlers, Ydigoras sent out P-51s on a strafing run that killed three Mexican fishermen (TIME, Jan. 19) and caused a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries. Last week Ydigoras brought on a school strike at home by appointing his cousin, a hulking female transvestite who never got past the eighth grade, as Minister of Education.

That was too much even for Ydigoras supporters, who elected the crusty old soldier last year with a clear awareness that his regime would have stormy moments. While backing the President in his tilt with Mexico, Guatemalans united against Cousin Julia Quinones Ydigoras, 53.

A wife and mother in her youth, Cousin Julia switched to male attire and a career as a political goon for Dictator Jorge Ubico (1931-44). To terrorize the opposition, she backed her broad fist with a muscled 240 Lbs. on a 6-ft. frame. In 1957, when Ydigoras made his turbulent campaign for the presidency, Cousin Julia led his street-demonstration gangs. With his victory, she hit the big time. In dinner jacket, she turned up at diplomatic functions with her attractive, fur-clad roommate, Carmen Gandara, 26. Julia first got a job bossing all public purchases, then talked Ydigoras into giving her the Education Ministry.

As the news broke, schools began closing. "Mockery and disrespect for Guatemalan schoolchildren," declared a student manifesto. "Besides possessing a normal psychobiological makeup, a candidate for such a post should also have the necessary culture and education." Teachers' groups begged Ydigoras to change his mind.

The President was surprised. He had only wanted to reward a blood relative, as he had done in naming his brother Alvaro as head of the government land office, his niece Soledad Ydigoras as chief of procurement for school supplies, and Julia's son Boris as assistant secretary to the President. But Ydigoras switched sides abruptly and grabbed Julia's resignation, announcing that he was heeding "opinions widely held by educational groups." Darkly, Julia declared that "Communists and Mexicans" were against her, announced that "I am no longer to be called Ydigoras --I am ashamed of that name."

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