Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: Over the next two episodes, we're going to be talking
Speaker 1: about something that still has a lot of relevance in
Speaker 1: the world today, and that is the nineteen fifty four
Speaker 1: coup that overthrew the democratically elected president of Guatemala, which
Speaker 1: was orchestrated by the US Central Intelligence Agency. It's not
Speaker 1: really accurate to say that this caused the coupe, but
Speaker 1: one of its biggest advocates in the United States was
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company. Sometimes you'll see it described as like
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company convinced the CIA to overthrow this government,
Speaker 1: and that's fu exactly what happened. It also didn't happen
Speaker 1: in isolation. This was rooted in Cold War paranoia about communism,
Speaker 1: and it was also part of an overall pattern of
Speaker 1: US intervention in Latin America and an overall pattern of
Speaker 1: US business interests trying to influence the governments of those nations.
Speaker 1: So today we will have an overview of how the
Speaker 1: United States relationship to Latin America evolved over the nineteenth
Speaker 1: and twentieth centuries. This definitely is not every twist and
Speaker 1: turn of those decades. It's more like a through line
Speaker 1: to put this stuff in context. Plus the stuff that's
Speaker 1: going to kind of come up later in the episodes,
Speaker 1: and we will talk about how United Fruit Company came
Speaker 1: to be such a major player in Guatemala in the
Speaker 1: first place, and what was happening in Guatemala that caused
Speaker 1: the United Fruit Company to be so opposed to it.
Speaker 1: The next time, the second part of this two party,
Speaker 1: we will talk about the coup itself and its aftermath.
Speaker 1: This school was carried out in nineteen fifty four, but
Speaker 1: the United States mentality behind it goes back to the
Speaker 1: Monroe Doctrine, which was articulated by President James Monroe in
Speaker 1: his December second, eight three annual Address to Congress. This
Speaker 1: that's known today as the State of the Union Address,
Speaker 1: and the address and the ideas in it were heavily
Speaker 1: influenced by Monroe's Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. We
Speaker 1: talked about it just a little on our episode on
Speaker 1: John Quincy and his wife Louisa. There's obviously a lot
Speaker 1: more in the scope of this address, but the basic
Speaker 1: ideas of the Monroe Doctrine were these. Number one, the
Speaker 1: world had two spheres of influence, the America's where their
Speaker 1: own sphere, and the rest of the world was another.
Speaker 1: Number two, the Americas were also not open for further
Speaker 1: colonization by European world powers. Number three, the US wouldn't
Speaker 1: interfere with the internal matters of other nations. That included
Speaker 1: remaining neutral in the face of wars in Europe and
Speaker 1: remaining neutral when it came to existing European colonies in
Speaker 1: the America's And then number four, if a European power
Speaker 1: attacked or attempted to exert control over a nation in
Speaker 1: the Western Hemisphere, the United States would view that as
Speaker 1: an attack on itself. One of the mode vations behind
Speaker 1: the Monroe Doctrine was the recent independence of several nations
Speaker 1: in Central and South America, which had previously been Spanish
Speaker 1: colonial territory. The US was concerned about the possibility of
Speaker 1: Spain or another European nation trying to recolonize, and the
Speaker 1: Latin American nations themselves had the same concerns. In eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty six, Simon Bolivar convened the Panama Congress, which brought
Speaker 1: together several newly independent Latin American republics to discuss these
Speaker 1: same issues. While the Monroe Doctrine asserted that the Western
Speaker 1: hemisphere was off limits to European colonization, it didn't suggest
Speaker 1: that the United States should stop its western expansion across
Speaker 1: North America, but also didn't really suggest that the United
Speaker 1: States couldn't expand its territory beyond that which happened through
Speaker 1: everything from the annexation of Texas to the treaties that
Speaker 1: into the Mexican American War in eighteen forty eight and
Speaker 1: the Spanish American War in eighteen ninety eight. The Monroe
Speaker 1: Doctrine also didn't really discourage the United States from trying
Speaker 1: to extend its influence within the Western hemisphere, including through
Speaker 1: what came to be known as the Big Brother Policy.
Speaker 1: In eight nine, U s Secretary of State James G.
Speaker 1: Blaine spearheaded the first International Conference of American States, and
Speaker 1: this was the first in a series of meetings among
Speaker 1: the United States and several Latin American countries, and it
Speaker 1: was something Blaine had been advocating for about a decade,
Speaker 1: and this led to the creation of the International Union
Speaker 1: of American Republics and the International Bureau of American Republics
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety. The Bureau later became known as the
Speaker 1: Pan American Union. These conferences and the organization that grew
Speaker 1: out of them were meant to improve cooperation among the
Speaker 1: nations involved, including working out matters of international trade, international law,
Speaker 1: and dispute resolution. And although it was an international organization,
Speaker 1: it was also heavily directed by the United States, circling
Speaker 1: back to that idea of the US being the big
Speaker 1: brother in this part of the world. The first conference
Speaker 1: was held in Washington, d c. Where the Bureau was
Speaker 1: also headquartered. The United States also organized the Bureau and
Speaker 1: funded its first year of existence. The Secretary of State
Speaker 1: of the United States was also chair of the organization's
Speaker 1: governing board, including after Hispanic delegates tried to turn it
Speaker 1: into an elected position. The Monroe doctrine was a cornerstone
Speaker 1: of US foreign policy until nineteen o four, when President
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt articulated what came to be known as the
Speaker 1: Roosevelt Corollary in his annual Message to Congress. The Roosevelt
Speaker 1: Corollary expanded the Monroe doctrines, who include the idea that
Speaker 1: the United States had a responsibility to police the Western hemisphere,
Speaker 1: preserving the quality of life in other countries, and taking
Speaker 1: direct action to restore and maintain order. Here is a
Speaker 1: segment of that address quote. All that this country desires
Speaker 1: is to see the neighboring country stable, orderly, and prosperous.
Speaker 1: Any country who's people conduct themselves well can count upon
Speaker 1: our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows
Speaker 1: how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social
Speaker 1: and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations,
Speaker 1: it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic
Speaker 1: wrongdoing or in impotence which results in a general loosening
Speaker 1: of the ties of civilized society may in America as elsewhere,
Speaker 1: ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, And in the
Speaker 1: Western Hemisphere, the adherents of the United States to the
Speaker 1: Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however, reluctantly, in
Speaker 1: flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise
Speaker 1: of an international police power. Another aspect of this that
Speaker 1: was alluded to briefly in that was the collection of
Speaker 1: debts under the Roosevelt corollary, if a country in the
Speaker 1: Western Hemisphere had an unpaid debt to one of the
Speaker 1: European powers, that European power could not collect the debt directly. Instead,
Speaker 1: it was supposed to go through the United States. The
Speaker 1: United States had intervened in various nations in the Western
Speaker 1: Hemisphere before this point, including in Panama, where the US
Speaker 1: controlled Panama Canal Zone was created in February nineteen o four.
Speaker 1: But after this shift in foreign policy, the US intervened
Speaker 1: a lot, especially in the Caribbean and Central America. At
Speaker 1: various points, the US occupied Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: on and on. There's actually more about US intervention in Haiti,
Speaker 1: in the Dominican Republic and the aftermath of that intervention
Speaker 1: in our previous episode on the Mirraball Sisters. Yeah, that that,
Speaker 1: however reluctantly statement didn't actually play out to seem all
Speaker 1: that reluctant. It kind of seems like a cover your
Speaker 1: tail phrase. Right, that's all of this. We don't want
Speaker 1: to have to do this, you guys, But according to
Speaker 1: the rules that we just made. So although Roosevelt's address
Speaker 1: had really focused on ideas, like international stability. A lot
Speaker 1: of these occupations and police actions and other interventions were
Speaker 1: motivated by protecting US interests in these nations, especially business interests.
Speaker 1: A lot of those businesses were major growers of crops
Speaker 1: like coffee and fruit, and for this reason, sometimes all
Speaker 1: this US military activity in Latin America during this period
Speaker 1: is looped together as the Banana Wars. It is also
Speaker 1: during this same time period that the term banana republic
Speaker 1: was coined by American writer William Sidney Porter, also known
Speaker 1: as O. Henry. Porter, first used the term in a
Speaker 1: short story published in nineteen o one, and it's used
Speaker 1: to describe a fictional country that was probably based on Honduras,
Speaker 1: where he was living at the time. The term conjures
Speaker 1: up images of small, impoverished countries governed by harsh and
Speaker 1: often corrupt military dictatorships and dominated by one key agricultural export,
Speaker 1: like bananas. The term banana republic has a lot of
Speaker 1: disparaging connotations, but it also reflects the reality of what
Speaker 1: was going on in much of Latin America. Many of
Speaker 1: these nations were reliant on one key export like bananas,
Speaker 1: with that one industry being very tightly controlled by United
Speaker 1: States businesses, and as those businesses tried to keep conditions
Speaker 1: favorable to their own interests in these countries, they contributed
Speaker 1: to ongoing instability and corruption in the nations where they
Speaker 1: were operating. Makes this kind of a weird name for
Speaker 1: a clothing retailer. Yeah, I have often over the years
Speaker 1: wondered how they landed there. Well, it kind of goes
Speaker 1: up against the cherry pop and Daddy songs zoot suit
Speaker 1: riots in terms of historical Why did you do this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it sounded good to someone at some point
Speaker 1: in time. But this practice of direct intervention in international
Speaker 1: affairs took a pause after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president,
Speaker 1: And we're gonna get to all of that after we
Speaker 1: first paused for a little sponsor break. In his March fourth,
Speaker 1: ninety three inaugural address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt articulated what
Speaker 1: came to be known as his good neighbor policy. To quote,
Speaker 1: in the field of world policy, I would dedicate this
Speaker 1: nation to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor
Speaker 1: who resolutely respects himself and because he does so, respects
Speaker 1: the rights of others. This aligned with a proclamation signed
Speaker 1: at the seventh International Conference of American States on December
Speaker 1: twenty six that same year. Article eight of this proclamation
Speaker 1: was that quote no state has the right to intervene
Speaker 1: in the internal or external affairs of another. So, with
Speaker 1: this reduced focus on intervention, the United States started pulling
Speaker 1: troops out of the nations that was still directly occupying,
Speaker 1: including Haiti and Nicaragua. Roosevelt's administration also encouraged favorable depictions
Speaker 1: of Latin Americans and of Central and South America in
Speaker 1: the media. The career of past podcast subject Carmen Miranda
Speaker 1: was tied of this whole idea, and she became something
Speaker 1: of an international spokesperson for the ideals of the good
Speaker 1: neighbor policy. Overall, the countries in the Caribbean and Central
Speaker 1: America saw this change in attitude with both relief and
Speaker 1: suspicion after so many decades of direct military intervention by
Speaker 1: the United States, But it didn't last long. After World
Speaker 1: War Two, things shifted once again, and once again the
Speaker 1: shift was outlined in a president's annual address to Congress.
Speaker 1: This time the president was President Harry S. Truman, and
Speaker 1: in his March twelfth, nineteen forty seven address before Congress,
Speaker 1: he outlined the idea that the United States would intervene
Speaker 1: to help democratic nations that were being threatened by authoritarian forces,
Speaker 1: whether those forces were coming from within or without. This
Speaker 1: Truman doctrine grew out of events taking place in Greece,
Speaker 1: but a similar mindset was also driving US foreign relations
Speaker 1: in the America's In the spring of nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: the ninth International Congress of American States was held in Bogota, Columbia,
Speaker 1: and at this conference, the Pan American Union was reorganized
Speaker 1: as the Organization of American States or o a S,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the ideas that were part of
Speaker 1: the Monroe and Truman doctrines became part of its formal charter,
Speaker 1: basically applying these same ideas to all of the o
Speaker 1: S member states. The charter also built on the Rio
Speaker 1: Security Pact of nineteen forty seven, which was also called
Speaker 1: the Inter American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, and in that
Speaker 1: nineteen countries signed an agreement that an attack on any
Speaker 1: American state would be viewed as an attack on all
Speaker 1: the signatories. This was at the start of the Cold War,
Speaker 1: and at this conference, the O a s also passed
Speaker 1: Resolution thirty two, known as the Preservation and Defense of
Speaker 1: Democracy in America. This resolution read, in part quote, in
Speaker 1: order to safeguard peace and maintain mutual respect among states,
Speaker 1: the present situation of the world demands that urgent measures
Speaker 1: be take in to prescribe tactics of totalitarian domination that
Speaker 1: are inconsistent with the tradition of the countries of America,
Speaker 1: and prevent agents at the service of international communism or
Speaker 1: of any totalitarian doctrine, from seeking to distort the true
Speaker 1: and the free will of the peoples of this continent.
Speaker 1: The republics represented at the ninth International Conference of American
Speaker 1: States declare that, by its anti democratic nature and its
Speaker 1: interventionist tendency, the political activity of international communism or any
Speaker 1: totalitarian doctrine is incompatible with the concept of American freedom,
Speaker 1: which rests upon two undeniable postulates, the dignity of man
Speaker 1: as an individual and the sovereignty of the nation as
Speaker 1: a state. This resolution also condemned quote interference by any
Speaker 1: foreign power or by any political organization serving the interests
Speaker 1: of a foreign power in the public life of the
Speaker 1: nations of the American continent. It also condemned quote methods
Speaker 1: of every susp him tending to suppress political and civil
Speaker 1: rights and liberties, and in particular the action of international
Speaker 1: communism or any totalitarian doctrine. And this is where things
Speaker 1: take something of an ironic turn. The United States approved
Speaker 1: this resolution, which condemned international communism because of quote, its
Speaker 1: anti democratic nature and its interventionist tendency. But not long
Speaker 1: after the resolution was passed, the United States started intervening
Speaker 1: in other nations democracies, and not necessarily because they were
Speaker 1: under any kind of communist or totalitarian threat. In another shift,
Speaker 1: the US increasingly handled these interventions not through direct actions,
Speaker 1: but through covert operations through the newly established Central Intelligence Agency.
Speaker 1: The first big example of this came in nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: when the CIA orchestrated a coup that overthrew the democratically
Speaker 1: elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Massadek. The major issue
Speaker 1: was that Masadek hald started nationalizing British oil fields in Iran,
Speaker 1: and the CIA launched the coup with the approval of
Speaker 1: the British government. So this coup wasn't really about protecting
Speaker 1: Iran's democratic election from authoritarian forces. It was about protecting
Speaker 1: oil interests. For the most part, the CIA admitted its
Speaker 1: role in and of course this is an entire other
Speaker 1: story with ramifications that are still affecting the world today,
Speaker 1: but the fact that it was successful kind of made
Speaker 1: the CIA more okay with doing more things like this
Speaker 1: in the future. The CIA orchestrated coup in Guatemala was similar.
Speaker 1: It was ostensibly about stopping the spread of communism in Guatemala,
Speaker 1: but one of its biggest advocates was United Fruit Company,
Speaker 1: which had a monopoly on Guatemala's banana industry. So we
Speaker 1: have to backtrack for just a moment and talk about
Speaker 1: both bananas and United Fruit Company. Zo bananas are the
Speaker 1: most popular fruit in the United States today, with apples
Speaker 1: being a close second. Until the end of the nine
Speaker 1: teenth century, most Americans had never even seen one. Then
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy, Captain Lorenz o'doal bought a hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty bunches of green bananas in Jamaica for a shilling
Speaker 1: a bunch. He took them to Jersey City and sold
Speaker 1: them for two dollars a bunch, which was a huge profit.
Speaker 1: He grew this into a business and along with several
Speaker 1: other men established Boston Fruit Company in eighteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: Soon multiple companies based in the US were buying up
Speaker 1: land in the Caribbean and establishing banana plantations, and when
Speaker 1: they started running out of available land in the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: they expanded into Central America. Boston Fruit Company and other
Speaker 1: similar businesses didn't have much trouble buying the land that
Speaker 1: they wanted. Likely mentioned earlier, The countries where they were
Speaker 1: doing business tended to be small and impoverished and governed
Speaker 1: by dictatorships, so a lot of times the decision to
Speaker 1: sell this land was being made unilaterally. Often the land
Speaker 1: wasn't being used for anything else, so the governments were
Speaker 1: happy to have the money or it or a government
Speaker 1: might give up the land in exchange for the fruit
Speaker 1: company providing some new infrastructure like roads or railroads or
Speaker 1: a port. And all of this ties back to the
Speaker 1: banana republic idea that we mentioned earlier. In Boston Fruit
Speaker 1: Company merged with railroad ventures owned by Minor C. Keith,
Speaker 1: and this newly formed company was called United Fruit Company.
Speaker 1: The combined railroad slash banana plantation model meant that the
Speaker 1: company could establish a monopoly on growing the fruit and
Speaker 1: on transporting it and anything else in the territory where
Speaker 1: it operated. And this enterprise was already pretty large, holding
Speaker 1: more than two hundred thousand acres of land in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean and Central America. A little over sixty tho acres
Speaker 1: of land were used as banana plantations. This finally brings
Speaker 1: us to the history of Guatemala, which we will get
Speaker 1: to you after another sponsor break. Now we finally get
Speaker 1: to how all of this connects specifically to Guatemala. So
Speaker 1: as a quick overview of Guatemalan history. Spain began conquering
Speaker 1: and colonizing what's now Guatemala in the sixteenth century. Guatemala
Speaker 1: was a Spanish colony for more than two hundred years,
Speaker 1: although in some of its more remote areas the indigenous
Speaker 1: Maya had pretty limited contact with the Spanish. Guatemala declared
Speaker 1: its independence from Spain in eighteen twenty one. From there,
Speaker 1: it was briefly part of the Mexican Empire, and in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty three it became part of the United Provinces
Speaker 1: of Central America, which also included Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras,
Speaker 1: and Nicaragua. The United Provinces began to fracture in eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty eight after a colera epidemic and an uprising, and
Speaker 1: it dissolved by eighteen forty. The uprisings leader Raphael Carrera
Speaker 1: became president of Guatemala and after abolishing elections, became president
Speaker 1: for life in eighteen fifty four. Again, we are really
Speaker 1: us hitting highlights here for some context. For the next
Speaker 1: several decades, Guatemala was governed by a series of dictatorships,
Speaker 1: which were occasionally interrupted by shorter term governments, and specifics
Speaker 1: of these dictatorships could really change from one administration to
Speaker 1: the next. For example, the Catholic Church was very powerful
Speaker 1: in Guatemala from eighteen twenty three until eighteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: but when a more liberal administration took over in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy one, the Church was stripped of a lot of
Speaker 1: that power. In general, though, these dictatorships were all known
Speaker 1: for human rights abuses and for maintaining control through oppressive
Speaker 1: policies and the use of a standing army and secret
Speaker 1: police force, regardless of whether you might classify them as
Speaker 1: liberal or conservative. Throughout all of this, while there were
Speaker 1: some advances in things like public health and the nation's
Speaker 1: overall economy. Outside of the aristocracy, Guatemala's people lived in
Speaker 1: poverty and without a lot of basic civil rights. This
Speaker 1: was often particularly true for indigenous people and for the
Speaker 1: descendants of enslaved Africans. People of both indigenous and Spanish ancestry,
Speaker 1: known in Guatemala as Ladinos, often had more social mobility,
Speaker 1: but overall it was socially and economically very stratified, with
Speaker 1: multi layered hierarchy based on racial, ethnic, and class disparities.
Speaker 1: For decades, any gains in civil or human rights tended
Speaker 1: to be very small and short lived in these decades.
Speaker 1: After becoming independent, Guatemala became a major producer of coffee,
Speaker 1: which was grown on large plantations, and as this happened,
Speaker 1: Guatemala shifted away from growing crops that were grown on
Speaker 1: smaller farms, like indigo and coconeal. As part of this shift,
Speaker 1: fewer and fewer Guatemalans owned their own land as it
Speaker 1: was sold or seased to be consolidated into large coffee plantations,
Speaker 1: and the shift happened very quickly. In eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: coconeal made up seventy one percent of Guatemala agricultural exports.
Speaker 1: Ten years later, coffee was at fifty percent and coconeal
Speaker 1: was down to thirty three. That was a trend that
Speaker 1: continued over the next couple of decades. The country also
Speaker 1: increasingly exploited the indigenous population as a source of cheap
Speaker 1: or even unpaid labor for these growing plantations. For decades,
Speaker 1: the peasant class, which was mostly indigenous, was subject to
Speaker 1: debt peonage, in which people were forced into unpaid labor
Speaker 1: in order to pay off debts, and Guatemala's economic conditions
Speaker 1: meant that in rural areas, landless people were very likely
Speaker 1: to be in debt. United Fruit Company's presence in Guatemala
Speaker 1: started to increase around the turn of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: In Guatemalan President Manuel Estrata Cabrera gave United Fruit Company
Speaker 1: a ninety nine year lease on land in exchange for
Speaker 1: finishing a railroad from the Guatemalan capital to the port
Speaker 1: of Puerto Barrios, which United Fruit comp He also controlled.
Speaker 1: He also put United Fruit Company in charge of the
Speaker 1: country's postal service. United Fruit Companies presence continued to grow
Speaker 1: in Guatemala after nineteen o one, with the company following
Speaker 1: a similar pattern of acquiring land for banana plantations that
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. After Dictator Jorge Ubiko came to
Speaker 1: power in nine he granted the company another ninety nine
Speaker 1: year land lease. Part of this agreement included United Fruit
Speaker 1: Company agreeing not to pay workers more than fifty cents
Speaker 1: a day so that other workers wouldn't demand more money
Speaker 1: as well. Three years later, youb Go abolished Guatemala's debt
Speaker 1: peonage system, which had been keeping much of its indigenous
Speaker 1: population effectively enslaved. He was praised for abolishing that system,
Speaker 1: but in its place, he implemented a vagrancy law that
Speaker 1: required landless people to work for at least a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty days a year. He also passed a law
Speaker 1: that exempted landowners from prosecution if they hurt or killed
Speaker 1: someone while defending their property. So, because this work was
Speaker 1: legally mandated, and because landowners were empowered to use this
Speaker 1: kind of force under the idea of defending their property,
Speaker 1: people had virtually no negotiating power when it came to
Speaker 1: things like their pay and their working conditions. So even
Speaker 1: though this effective enslavement system didn't exist anymore, United Fruit
Speaker 1: Company still had access to very cheap labor. While Ubiko
Speaker 1: was in power, Guatemala and United Fruit Company became even
Speaker 1: more interconnected. By the nineteen forties, of the nation's arable
Speaker 1: land was being controlled by United Fruit Company. To look
Speaker 1: at it another way, less than half a percent of
Speaker 1: Guatemala's farms measured more than one thousand one acres, but
Speaker 1: plantations of that size were taking up about half of
Speaker 1: the country's farmland, and most of those plantations belonged to
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company. By this point, United Fruit Company had
Speaker 1: become Guatemala's largest employer, and it had a monopoly over
Speaker 1: Guatemala's banana trade. It also controlled the railroads and the utilities,
Speaker 1: and the port at Puerto Barrios. United Fruit Company worked
Speaker 1: out a lot of these deals in the nineteen thirties
Speaker 1: thanks to John Foster Dulles. He was working at United
Speaker 1: Fruit Companies law firm Sullivan and Cromwell. United Fruit Company
Speaker 1: was such a massive presence in Guatemala and the United
Speaker 1: States was such a big part of United Fruit Company
Speaker 1: that a lot of Guatemalans thought that the two were
Speaker 1: basically the same thing. But then on July one, ninety four,
Speaker 1: things started to change. Jorge Ubiko was forced to resign
Speaker 1: after a popular uprising in general strike that was largely
Speaker 1: led by teachers, intellectuals, workers and students. Another general, Federico Pontse,
Speaker 1: became interim president. He promised an election to confirm his presidency,
Speaker 1: but by October of that year seemed pretty clear that
Speaker 1: no election was coming. Protests and demonstrations continued, and on
Speaker 1: October he was overthrown in a coup led by Major
Speaker 1: Francisco Arana and Captain Jjobo Our Bends Guzman. This was
Speaker 1: a start of what came to be known as the
Speaker 1: Guatemalan Revolution or the October Revolution, and it followed the
Speaker 1: overthrow of military dictatorships in both Ecuador and Al Salvador
Speaker 1: in May of that same year. This wave of revolutions
Speaker 1: had been inspired in part by World War Two, and
Speaker 1: the Allies focused on the ideals of democracy and human rights.
Speaker 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four Freedom's Speech, which was his nineteen
Speaker 1: forty one State of the Union address, was particularly influential.
Speaker 1: In that speech, he had expressed the idea that every
Speaker 1: person in the world had the right to the freedom
Speaker 1: of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want
Speaker 1: in the freedom from fear. One Jose Arevalo won the
Speaker 1: election that was held in December of nine with more
Speaker 1: than eighty five percent of the vote. He had run
Speaker 1: on a reform platform that aligned with these ideals and
Speaker 1: with the protests and demonstrations that had led up to
Speaker 1: the October evolution. A committee of fifteen was formed to
Speaker 1: draft a new constitution, which went into effect in March
Speaker 1: of nineteen forty five. Because Guatemala had been ruled by
Speaker 1: military dictatorships for so much of its post colonial history,
Speaker 1: this constitution limited the power of the executive branch of
Speaker 1: the Guatemalan government. It established Guatemala as a representative democracy,
Speaker 1: with the presidency limited to one six year term, and
Speaker 1: former presidents were ineligible for re election for the next
Speaker 1: twelve years. Military officers had to resign at least six
Speaker 1: months before election day if they wanted to run for office.
Speaker 1: The new constitution also outlawed discrimination and guaranteed quote life, liberty,
Speaker 1: equality and security of the person, of honor and of property.
Speaker 1: Juan Jose Arevalo was inaugurated as President of Guatemala in
Speaker 1: March of nine, just a few days after this new
Speaker 1: constitution was signed, and he had a lot to get
Speaker 1: done in his one six year term. The changes he
Speaker 1: and his administration tried to make were ambitious and sweeping.
Speaker 1: He was focused on addressing the issues that had led
Speaker 1: to the October Revolution and had been part of those
Speaker 1: protests and demonstrations, especially agrarian reform, improving the educational system,
Speaker 1: protecting labor rights, and reinforcing this newly established system of
Speaker 1: democracy in Guatemala. The Arrable of government disbanded the secret
Speaker 1: police and purged Torbecou's former supporters from office. They changed
Speaker 1: the oath that soldiers had to take upon entering military
Speaker 1: service to include protecting the principle of democracy, not just
Speaker 1: protecting the nation. The administration allowed freedom of speech and
Speaker 1: a free press, and multiple political parties emerged. It was
Speaker 1: totally different from the previous one party systems that tended
Speaker 1: to be under although the Communist Party was banned. Voting
Speaker 1: rights were expanded, although women who could not read still
Speaker 1: could not vote. Other initiatives included equal pay laws and
Speaker 1: legal equality between husbands and wives. Guatemala's largest university was
Speaker 1: also put under its own control rather than being controlled
Speaker 1: by the government. Previous administrations had, for example, tried to
Speaker 1: use this government control of the university to try to
Speaker 1: keep students from learning about the pro democracy movements that
Speaker 1: were happening elsewhere in Latin America. In the nineteen forties,
Speaker 1: new labor laws at a forty hour work week and
Speaker 1: established paid leave after giving birth to a child, as
Speaker 1: well as a social security system. Employers were also required
Speaker 1: to pay people in actual money rather than in script.
Speaker 1: In nineteen forty seven, a new labor code established collective
Speaker 1: bargaining rights, including the right to strike. The new labor
Speaker 1: code also established labor courts to settle disputes, an increased
Speaker 1: minimum wage, and other worker protections. In ninety eight, the
Speaker 1: Arrevolo government started trying to improve the condition of Guatemala's
Speaker 1: small farmers and landless citizens by passing a law that
Speaker 1: forced large landowners with cultivated land to rent it to
Speaker 1: people who had no land of their own. The government
Speaker 1: also redistributed land that had been confiscated from Germans and
Speaker 1: Nazi sympathizers during World War Two. All of this was
Speaker 1: just incredibly ambitious, and it didn't go flawlessly. The Arravla
Speaker 1: administration started to struggle about halfway through his term, as
Speaker 1: some of the projects bogged down in bureaucracy and in
Speaker 1: general it became harder to build on the earlier gains,
Speaker 1: but overall, this could not have been more different from
Speaker 1: the dictatorships that had governed Guatemala for most of its
Speaker 1: post colonial history. However, many of Guatemala's elite were not
Speaker 1: happy about these changes, and the Arrevalo administration had to
Speaker 1: fight off seemingly continual coup attempts. US business interests were
Speaker 1: not happy either. United Fruit Company and US officials denounced
Speaker 1: many of arravlos policies and programs as communism, and they
Speaker 1: started looking for a way to get rid of him,
Speaker 1: which is what we will talk about next time. Do
Speaker 1: you have some listener mail in the meantime? I do.
Speaker 1: This actually came in vias some tweets from John and
Speaker 1: John's first tweet in this couple of tweets that he
Speaker 1: sent us was regarding our thalidomide episode. He tweeted us
Speaker 1: after part one came out and said something I hope
Speaker 1: you discussed an episode two is how the crisis led
Speaker 1: to women being virtually excluded from decades of medical testing
Speaker 1: and all the terrible downstream effects. Shocked to discover while
Speaker 1: researching this Cracked article, I wrote a couple of years
Speaker 1: back and then sent us the link as well to
Speaker 1: the article on Cracked. So at that point we had
Speaker 1: recorded an edited episode two, but it was not live yet,
Speaker 1: and we talked in that episode a little bit about
Speaker 1: how medical testing evolved in various ways that that affected
Speaker 1: drug testing and medical ethics. We didn't talk about this
Speaker 1: specific aspect of it. It's one of those things where
Speaker 1: I had things in my notes about it and about
Speaker 1: especially how still today a lot of pharmaceutical testing is
Speaker 1: carried out on male test subjects, and then the dosages
Speaker 1: are kind of extrapolated from that based on body weight,
Speaker 1: which doesn't account for physiological sex differences at all. But
Speaker 1: there was so much stuff to cover in that episode
Speaker 1: and not enough time to get to all of it,
Speaker 1: and that was one of the things that wound up
Speaker 1: being cut. So Yes, after the the litamide disaster, there
Speaker 1: was also another drug that was called die ethel stillbstrall
Speaker 1: or d S. This is a synthetic estrogen that was
Speaker 1: given during pregnancy to try to prevent miscarriages and premature labor.
Speaker 1: But not only was it not effective at preventing these things,
Speaker 1: that also caused issues for the developing fetus, including an
Speaker 1: increased risk of some cancers of the reproductive system and
Speaker 1: fertility and reproductive issues later in life, especially among women.
Speaker 1: Some of these issues can also be passed down to
Speaker 1: their children. So after these two issues, in seven, the
Speaker 1: FDA issued a guideline called General Considerations for the Clinical
Speaker 1: Evaluation of Drugs and it recommended excluding quote pre menopausal
Speaker 1: females capable of becoming pregnant from all phase one and
Speaker 1: early phase two clinical studies. And that guidance didn't really
Speaker 1: change until three So that's more than twenty years of
Speaker 1: of female patients being completely excluded from this kind of
Speaker 1: testing and even now, uh, I mean it's been now
Speaker 1: decades since that happened. Female patients are way underrepresented in
Speaker 1: drug testing and this has enormous and far reaching consequences
Speaker 1: on what drugs are available and which adverse reactions are
Speaker 1: caught ahead of time. It goes on and on. So
Speaker 1: thank you John for that. We also got a couple
Speaker 1: of emails that were also about um the the d
Speaker 1: e S drug disaster, which has not gotten as much attention,
Speaker 1: I think, as as the litamide has. So if you
Speaker 1: would like to email us, we're history podcast at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. We're also all over social media.
Speaker 1: Missed in History. That's where you will find our Facebook, Interest, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Twitter. You can come to our website, which is
Speaker 1: Missed in History dot com. Or you will find show
Speaker 1: notes for all the episode but Holly and I have
Speaker 1: ever worked on, and a searchable archive of every episode ever.
Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show in Apple podcast
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, and anywhere else you'd like
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