Jorge Serrano Elías

Jorge Serrano Elias was born on April 26, 1945 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. His father was Jorge Adan Serrano and his mother was Rosa Elias, who was of Lebanese descent.

Serrano has three sisters. He attended high school at the ‘Liceu Guatemala’ in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

He graduated from the ‘University of San Carlos’ in Guatemala with a degree in industrial engineering and economic development, in 1967.

From 1966 to 1967, Serrano was ‘President of the Engineering Students Association’ at the University of San Carlos.

He also received a doctorate in education and science from ‘Stanford University’ in California.

In 1975, Serrano became an evangelical Baptist after a lifetime of being a devout Catholic. He then joined the ‘Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship’ and later the ‘Pentecostal Church of the Word’. The head of the church in Guatemala was Efrain Rios Montt.

In 1976, he worked with several religious organizations in the United States to raise funds to help his native Guatemala following a devastating earthquake hit the country. He then joined 'El Shaddai', a Protestant congregation headquartered in California.

He published a white paper about the conditions of the indigenous people of Guatemala and received numerous death threats, which caused him to flee to the United States.

From 1978 to 1981, he was President of the ‘Organization of American States Inter-American Council for Education, Science and Culture’.

In 1982, he returned to Guatemala to accept a position as Vice President of the ‘Advisory Board’ under President Efrain Rios Montt. The following year, Serrano alienated a large percentage of the population when he refused to shake hands with the visiting Pope John Paul II.

Jorge Serrano was the president of Guatemala from January 14, 1991 to June 1, 1993. During his term he made some significant reforms including the ‘Guatemala Protocol’ aimed at reducing trade tariffs and an agreement with Mexico for repatriation of refugees displaced during the Civil War.