**Mario Monteforte Toledo ** (September 15, 1911 – September 4, 2003) was a Guatemalan writer, dramatist, and politician. Born in Guatemala City, he played important roles in the governments of both Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Arbenz, including periods as Ambassador to the United Nations between 1946 and 1947, as a deputy in the National Congress from 1947 to 1951, and being both President of the Congress and Vice-President between 1948 and 1949 before retiring from politics in 1951. With the fall of the Arbenz administration in 1954, Monteforte went into exile in Mexico until 1987. A master of narrative prose, in 1993, Mario Monteforte was awarded the Guatemala National Prize in Literature for his body of work. He died of heart disease in Guatemala City.

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