Page "Arnulfo Arias" Paragraph 3

In 1931, Arias led a coup that deposed Liberal President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena.

The next year, he helped his brother Harmodio become president.

He subsequently served in cabinet and diplomatic posts.

In 1940, he was elected president by an unprecedented majority as the candidate of the National Revolutionary Party ( PNR, which became the Panameñista Party in the mid-1940s.

Soon after taking office, Arias enacted a new constitution that granted women the right to vote for the first time.

However, he also jailed dissidents, disenfranchised the non-Spanish-speaking population, and expressed sympathy with the Axis powers of World War II.

He was ousted in October 1941, in a coup supported by the United States.