How the US Made a Mess of Guatemala

When we are presented with statistics, such as the 75% poverty rateadult literacy rate of 76%the frequently occurring violencethe corruption, drug cartels, and poor health statistics among children, it is clear that conditions in Guatemala are severe. It is easy for us as Americans to look at these statistics, sympathize for a few seconds, and then go on about our day. I wonder, would it be as easy to ignore if we understood the role we played in bringing Guatemala to this point?

united fruit co

Background of US relationship with Central America
We’ve all studied the Monroe Doctrine in history class. The foreign policy of 1823 that promised US intervention against acts of European colonization or interference in North or South America. We probably weren’t taught that the doctrine was also to make sure that we had unlimited access to resources and markets. Throughout the 19th century, the US grew more and more powerful over Central America and the Caribbean. President Grover Cleveland gave the doctrine a more aggressive stance, and Theodore Roosevelt held the belief that the US should reap the most benefits from production in Central America. Armed interventions in Nicaragua (1912-33) and Haiti (1915-34) ensued, and control of the Guatemalan economy shifted from Britain and Germany to the US in 1920. The US-based United Fruit Company, which cultivated a favorable relationship with the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera, monopolized the banana trade and acquired large amounts of land at cheap prices. The UFC had control of the docks, railroads, and communications in Guatemala. The United Fruit Company opened the doors for the US government to step in and dictate policies that would serve US economic interests.  Eventually, the Monroe Doctrine was used to justify the disastrous US-sponsored coup of 1954 that would leave a mark in Guatemala for decades to come.
Guatemala leading up to the coup
Jorge Ubico took power in 1931 as president of Guatemala following a period of turbulence caused by the Great Depression. The Guatemalan elite and the United States gave Ubico vast support. With an admiration for fascist leaders Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitlor, Ubico became a repressive dictator. He enacted a vagrancy law, forcing all landless men to complete 100 days of labor a year, allowed landowners to take any measures they liked against their workers as drastic as execution, garnered the equivalent of 215,000 US dollars annually in personal wealth, exhibited cruelty and prejudice toward the indigenous people of Mayan descent, and dealt out harsh punishments to anyone who rebelled or was accused of communism. Wait, one more thing: Ubico also made generous concessions to the United Fruit Company, which included a 490,000-acre gift and a number of tax breaks. The United Fruit Company was making up to 65 million dollars yearly. Therefore, the US continued to support Ubico’s repressive rule and kept him in power until the uprisings and strikes of the October Revolution brought forth his resignation.
Elections ensued and in 1945, Juan José Arévalo was democratically elected and assumed the presidency, enacting widespread liberal reforms in favor of the people. Arévalo’s policies did not interfere with US economic interests, and he was a staunch anti-communist. However, the US did worry that he was being influenced by the Soviet Union, which was a huge no-no in the Cold War period. Arévalo also supported a group of revolutionaries called the Caribbean-Legion, which attempted to remove the dictators of Central America, who happened to be supported by the US. US hegemony over the region was obviously more important than the welfare of Central Americans. Finally, Arévalo’s reforms had an undesirable effect on the UFC, which had been strongly associated with the oppressive Ubico. Because the UFC was the largest corporation in Guatemala, Arévalo’s policies affected it the most. For example, workers were now allowed to wage strikes in demand for better pay, and the UFC, enraged, refused negotiations.
The election in 1950 of Jacobo Árbenz was the tipping point for the US. Árbenz, who would serve as Guatemala’s president from 1951 to 1954, expanded on the reforms Arévalo had begun. Even though he allowed for the communist Guatemalan Party of Labour to be legalized under his government, he continued with a moderate capitalist system. Like Arévalo, however, he allowed a number of labor strikes to occur, and several took place against the United Fruit company.  The last straw for the US, however, were Árbenz’s land reforms. Here is where it gets interesting. Decree 900 redistributed 1.4 million acres of land, giving about one sixth of the population new land, including that of the UFC. The UFC was only using fifteen percent of their 550,000 acres of land for cultivation, and thus the rest of it was up for redistribution. However, the UFC was compensated with $2.99 an acre, which was double what they originally paid for the land. Still, the UFC decided that this would not stand.
Revenge of the United Fruit Company
The UFC lobbied hard. They convinced the US government that Guatemala was not cooperating with the company’s interests. The way the Guatemalans saw it was that the UFC was exploiting their land, reaping massive benefits, and giving nothing back. But as we established before, the US did not care about such things. The UFC, with the help of a few Congressmen, undertook a half-million dollar campaign to portray the UFC as a victim of communism and garner support for the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.

CIA

Operation PBFORTUNE
Whispers of socialism and communism along with foiled economic interests led Harry Truman to authorize the CIA-planned Operation PBFORTUNE for the overthrow of Árbenz. With the support of the US- backed dictators of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, the plot devised made sure that the US would have no direct involvement. Instead, Carlos Castillo Armas, a Guatemalan army officer exiled in 1949 after a failed coup attempt to overthrow Arévalo, would act on behalf of the US and lead an invasion from Nicaragua and assassinate over 58 Guatemalans and arrest many more targeted “communists.” The US State Department had never been notified of the plan and when Secretary of State Dean Acheson found out, he persuaded Truman to terminate PBFORTUNE. However, the CIA kept funneling resources to Castillo Armas and his rebel forces.
Operation PBSUCCESS
PBFORTUNE, though a failed mission, was the precursor to PBSUCCESS, the big gun. Dwight Eisenhower assumed the presidency in 1952 and with hopes of distinguishing his foreign policy from Truman’s “containment,” he increased funding for nuclear weapons and began using covert operations. Eisenhower eventually authorized PBSUCCESS in August 1953 for the overthrow of Árbenz, looking to make a statement to the Soviet Union that the US would have none of its communist influence in the Americas.
Castillo Armas led a force of 480 men into Guatemala from bases in El Salvador and Honduras. Castillo Armas did not make a significant dent until the CIA provided him with more weapons and bomber planes.
Not only did Castillo Armas engage in a physical invasion, but the CIA also orchestrated a psychological warfare strategy which was even more damaging. A senior CIA official had once declared bluntly, “Árbenz must go; how does not matter.” Recently uncovered CIA documents reveal it had laid out options for murder tactics:  “A Study of Assassination,” “elimination lists,” and intimidation tactics. Psychological warfare included the tactics of Provocation, Nerve War, and Propaganda. “Provocation” proposed to turn the people against Árbenz and included tactics such as simulating Guatemalan attacks against Honduras, fake-kidnapping notable Guatemalan citizens, and vandalizing Guatemalan churches bearing pro-communist slogans. “Nerve War” aimed to scare government officials and police with their own death notices, anonymous phone calls during the wee hours of the morning, false rumors about their professional and personal lives, and threatening symbols in the mail. “Propaganda” used a network of anti-communist Guatemalan university students to give the people the impression that there was widespread opposition to Árbenz by handing out leaflets, arranging public gatherings, covering walls with anti-government propaganda, and disseminating fake news articles written by the CIA. Things did not end well for those students, as Árbenz took measures to arrest and torture them. Árbenz, however, had no knowledge that the US was behind all of this.
An invasion force penetrated Guatemala from Honduras in 1954, and it was originally thought that the rebellion would be suppressed quickly. However, Árbenz’s army officers reported the opposition was gaining strength, and believed that the Guatemalan army would soon turn against Árbenz and join Castillo Armas, and that if the US supported him, there was no hope. Árbenz resigned on June 27, 1954.
Consequences of PBSCUCCESS
The whole operation was portrayed as clean and fast. Eisenhower was thrilled when he was told only one CIA-backed rebel had been killed, and PBSUCCESS became exemplary for later CIA operations to come. In the end, the UFC got their entitlements back. However, the UFC’s fuss amounted to nothing as profits continued to decline from before the coup.  The United Fruit Company eventually merged with another company when bankruptcy was imminent.
After a series of military governments, Castillo Armas took dictatorial control of the presidency. With a Stalin-like paranoia, Castillo Armas arrested thousands of leaders of his opposition, accusing them of being communist, and put them into concentration camps. His National Committee of Defense Against Communism investigated around 70,000 people, many of whom were disappeared, imprisoned, or executed without a trial. Political parties, peasant organizations, and labor unions were prohibited. The liberal reforms of Arévalo and Árbenz were gone. It was with no surprise that leftist rebel groups took action in 1960, beginning the genocidal thirty-six year long Civil War, where an estimated 200,000 people lost their lives or went missing, many of them innocent indigenous people living in the countryside.  And yet, the US still decided to back Guatemala’s military government. Go figure.
With such a violent and undemocratic history, it is no wonder Guatemala has had little progress in the welfare of its people.  No wonder Guatemalans are desperately trying to find refuge outside their country. No wonder we have so many documented and undocumented.

Alexandra OBrien

Alexandra O’Brien is a fan of indie, opera, classical, and celtic music. Her hobbies include playing tennis, playing Rachmaninoff on the piano, fundraising for education in Guatemala, and reading about economics and international affairs. She hopes you like her articles that aim to inform the public on issues the media will only scratch the surface of.

2 Comments

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