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 V. Wilson and I'm Hony Fry.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our two part episode about the time the
Speaker 1: US Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated a coup to overthrow the
Speaker 1: democratically elected president of Guatemala. In Part one, we gave
Speaker 1: an overview of US policy as it related to Central America,
Speaker 1: especially in particular, we talked about how it evolved in
Speaker 1: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We also talked
Speaker 1: about United Fruit Company and how it came to be
Speaker 1: a major player in Guatemala and elsewhere. And then we
Speaker 1: took a very brief look at Guatemala's history up to
Speaker 1: the presidency of Juan Jose are Below, who made just
Speaker 1: sweeping reforms in Guatemala after being elected president after the
Speaker 1: October Revolution. That was a lot to cover. I strongly
Speaker 1: recommend listening to part one before listening to this episode,
Speaker 1: because that recap is just the tip of the iceberg
Speaker 1: for an episode that also is a tip slightly larger
Speaker 1: tip of the iceberg. At this point, United Fruit Company
Speaker 1: was Guatemala's largest employer and its largest single landowner, and
Speaker 1: it had a monopoly on the banana industry. United Fruit
Speaker 1: Company also controlled the railroad and the port and the utilities,
Speaker 1: and the United Fruit Company thought all of these changes
Speaker 1: that the Arrablow administration had made were threatening its business,
Speaker 1: and as we'll talk about today, the CIA increasingly thought
Speaker 1: they were evidence of a communist threat that needed to
Speaker 1: be dealt with. As we mentioned in Part one, Juan
Speaker 1: Jose Avalo's administration started to struggle in its later years.
Speaker 1: He faced increasing criticism, especially from Guatemala's elite, and he
Speaker 1: weathered multiple coup attempts. One of his most vocal critics
Speaker 1: increasingly became Colonel Francisco Arena. Arana had served in the
Speaker 1: military during the Ubiko administration and had been part of
Speaker 1: the coup that overthrew his interim successor, General Frederico Pont.
Speaker 1: He had also been part of the military junta that
Speaker 1: had temporarily run Guatemala during part of the October Revolution.
Speaker 1: From there, he had become Arrevalo's Chief of the armed Forces,
Speaker 1: But Arana increasingly disagreed with a lot of Arravlo's labor reforms.
Speaker 1: He finally resigned his position so that he could run
Speaker 1: for president once Arrablo's term was up, and he also
Speaker 1: threatens to launch a coup, telling the president that he
Speaker 1: would be overthrown from office if he did not dismiss
Speaker 1: his whole cabinet and replace them with men of Rana's choosing.
Speaker 1: After he did this, Arrablow informed his advisers of this plot,
Speaker 1: and they all agreed that Rana should be exiled. What
Speaker 1: happened next is actually not entirely clear, but on July
Speaker 1: eighteenth nine, Arana was ambushed and killed. Arravloh had given
Speaker 1: the order that he be apprehended, and Arana's key rival
Speaker 1: for the presidency, Colonel Hacobo our Ben's gooseman, also knew
Speaker 1: about the order, but it is not clear whether Arrevalo
Speaker 1: ordered Aaranna captured or killed, who fired the first shot,
Speaker 1: when it happened, or exactly what our bends knew about
Speaker 1: what was going on. Regardless, though this was an incredibly
Speaker 1: fragile moment for Guatemala's new democracy, an uprising spread through
Speaker 1: Guatemala City, which involved Arona's military supporters. About a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty people were killed and two hundred were wounded
Speaker 1: before the government regained control. The United States also became
Speaker 1: a lot more wary of Guatemala's government and of Jacoba
Speaker 1: are Ben's. So did United Fruit Company, and the following May,
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company lobbyist Thomas Corcoran held his first meeting
Speaker 1: to discuss a US overthrow of the Arbla presidency. Carcron
Speaker 1: later became United Fruit Companies liaison to the CIA. On
Speaker 1: November eleventh, ninety Cobo Arben's was elected president of Guatemala.
Speaker 1: He got sixty five percent of the vote. He took
Speaker 1: office in nineteen fifty one, and he started trying to
Speaker 1: build on Arrevalo's earlier work and to solidify the changes
Speaker 1: that had already been made. His administration also started trying
Speaker 1: to get out from under United Fruit Companies multiple monopolies
Speaker 1: by building a newport and a new highway to it
Speaker 1: and a new electric plant. Yeah. So, even though there
Speaker 1: had been all of this questionable like possible assassination previously,
Speaker 1: like the fact that there was supposed to be a
Speaker 1: democratic election and that it did happen and there was
Speaker 1: a peaceful transition of power, it was like still a
Speaker 1: really important moment in Guamal in history. Our Ben's also
Speaker 1: started trying to make the land reform that Arrablo had
Speaker 1: started to go even further. Many of Arrablo's new policies
Speaker 1: and programs had mostly affected the Guatemalan middle class, they
Speaker 1: had not as much affected the lives of the country's
Speaker 1: poorest agriculture role workers. Are Beans thought the key to
Speaker 1: improving these people's circumstances was a land redistribution program, which
Speaker 1: would put more of the country's uncultivated land directly into
Speaker 1: the hands of people who could farm it themselves. At
Speaker 1: this point, sev of the land in Guatemala was controlled
Speaker 1: by two percent of the population. Of all the land
Speaker 1: that was being controlled by major landowners, only one quarter
Speaker 1: of it was actually being used to grow anything. United
Speaker 1: Fruit Company was the largest single landowner in Guatemala, controlling
Speaker 1: the arable land but only cultivating ten to fifteen percent
Speaker 1: of it. On top of that, in retaliation for the
Speaker 1: changes in the Guatemalan government, United Fruit Company had started
Speaker 1: laying off workers and refusing to rebuild banana plantations that
Speaker 1: had been damaged in storms unless the government restored its
Speaker 1: earlier concessions. In addition to being Guatemala's single largest landowner,
Speaker 1: it was also Guatemala's largest single employer. Two thirds of
Speaker 1: Guatemala's population was involved in agriculture in some way as well.
Speaker 1: So this whole pattern of landownership where huge landowners were
Speaker 1: owning a lot of land but not growing anything on it,
Speaker 1: was contributing to all kinds of problems, including poverty and malnutrition.
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company and others claimed that they needed this
Speaker 1: additional uncultivated land is basically a backup in case of
Speaker 1: a major crop failure, but their critics claimed that this
Speaker 1: uncultivated surplus was way more than they could possibly ever need.
Speaker 1: Our Bendzes plan to fix this was Decree nine hundred,
Speaker 1: which went into effect on June ninety two. Landowners who
Speaker 1: had more than six hundred acres of uncultivated land were
Speaker 1: required to sell it to the Guatemalan government in exchange
Speaker 1: for twenty five year interest bearing bonds. The tax value
Speaker 1: of the land as of May nineteen fifty two was
Speaker 1: used to determine the selling price, so smaller farms under
Speaker 1: two hundred twenty three acres were exempt from this, and
Speaker 1: so were farms that were between two hundred twenty three
Speaker 1: and six hundred seventy acres that were at least two
Speaker 1: thirds cultivated. Farms that were fully cultivated were also unaffected,
Speaker 1: no matter how large the farm was. The terms of
Speaker 1: this law actually required our Bends to relinquish some of
Speaker 1: his own land, and someone else affected was Guierramotorreo, who
Speaker 1: became our Ben's as foreign minister. Government owned land used
Speaker 1: to grow coffee was also completely redistributed during this program
Speaker 1: as well. The relinquished land would then be distributed to
Speaker 1: landless people in forty two point five acre plots, either
Speaker 1: so they would own it outright or so that they
Speaker 1: would hold it for their lifetime. In the latter case,
Speaker 1: the land couldn't pass directly to their heirs, but their
Speaker 1: descendants would get preferential treatment when decisions were made about
Speaker 1: the land after their deaths. People who owned the land
Speaker 1: outright would pay five percent of their annual crop value
Speaker 1: to the government, and people who held it in a
Speaker 1: lifetime tenure would pay threeper Since this law also established
Speaker 1: committees that people who thought they were entitled to land
Speaker 1: could petition and the committee would review their case and
Speaker 1: make a decision. Every case had to be decided within
Speaker 1: six weeks of submission, which was totally different from operating
Speaker 1: under the more dictatorial government where you could ask for
Speaker 1: something and then it would just never happen or be addressed.
Speaker 1: A subsequent law also established a National Agrarian Bank to
Speaker 1: issue fixed rate loans to land recipients to help them
Speaker 1: get their farms started. While this program was in effect,
Speaker 1: one point five million acres of land were distributed to
Speaker 1: about one hundred thousand families in Guatemala. This was probably
Speaker 1: between twenty and of the people who were eligible. The
Speaker 1: National Agrarian Bank and its newly established credit agency had
Speaker 1: approved more than eleven million dollars in loans, an average
Speaker 1: of two hundred twenty five dollars per applicant. In the
Speaker 1: fall of nineteen fifties three, the Guatemalan Embassy reported that
Speaker 1: its corn production had increased by rice by seventy two
Speaker 1: and wheat, with much of the increase attributed to the
Speaker 1: small farms started thanks to Decree nine hundred hit. It's
Speaker 1: harder to track actually how this affected overall domestic crops
Speaker 1: and export crops because this this did not last very long.
Speaker 1: This program didn't, so it does seem like that like
Speaker 1: there were more crops that stayed in the country domestically
Speaker 1: and fewer crops that were exported for that first year,
Speaker 1: but some of that was also accounted for because of
Speaker 1: weather that affected coffee production. Like it's really complicated, but overall,
Speaker 1: it does seem like people were using this land for
Speaker 1: what it was supposed to be for, which was growing
Speaker 1: crops for themselves. In addition, more than half of Guatemala's
Speaker 1: population was indigenous at this point, with most but not
Speaker 1: all of them belonging to one of more than twenty
Speaker 1: different Maya groups. Indigenous people made up the large majority
Speaker 1: of landless rural people, so this program was returning land
Speaker 1: to Guatemala's native people for the first time since the
Speaker 1: Spanish conquest. As was the case with earlier new programs,
Speaker 1: this wasn't perfect. There were cases of people who wanted
Speaker 1: more land than they were allotted, or who had not
Speaker 1: been allotted land, commandeering land they weren't entitled to. There
Speaker 1: were also over zealous committees that seemed to want to
Speaker 1: settle the score after decades of being exploited by large
Speaker 1: landowners who allotted more land than was really allowed, And
Speaker 1: it does appear that Guatemala's Ladino population received disproportionately more
Speaker 1: land allotments than other ethnic groups overall, though this system
Speaker 1: gave previously landless people the opportunity to try to become
Speaker 1: self sufficient farmers, and in nineteen fifty four, the Guatemalan
Speaker 1: government also rolled out a literacy program in these same
Speaker 1: rural areas, hoping to help the people who had received
Speaker 1: this land become better able to manage it themselves long term.
Speaker 1: Two thirds of the land that was seized during all
Speaker 1: this belonged to United Fruit Company, which felt like it
Speaker 1: was being unfairly targeted by Decree nine hundred. On top
Speaker 1: of that, the payment that was offered to United Fruit
Speaker 1: was far less than the market value of the land.
Speaker 1: Sources reported it as either six thirty thousand dollars or
Speaker 1: about a million dollars. This was because the company had
Speaker 1: been artificially undervaluing its land for tax purposes, and reported
Speaker 1: tax value was what was being used to determine the payment. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: the US government, on behalf of United Fruit Company, demanded
Speaker 1: a much higher payment of fifteen point nine million. Yes,
Speaker 1: so basically United Fruit Company was mad about a problem
Speaker 1: they made for themselves in this situation. Yeah, they finally
Speaker 1: like their loophole finally got discovered and caught and exploited
Speaker 1: by someone else. Not even exploited, but like applied in
Speaker 1: another way and then and then it hurt. Yes, so
Speaker 1: as had been the case with so many of the
Speaker 1: array below administration's reforms. The United States and United Fruit
Speaker 1: Company criticized this whole land distribution program as communism, and
Speaker 1: to be clear, this policy was influenced by Guatemala's communist party,
Speaker 1: which was called the Guatemalan Workers Party or PGT, which
Speaker 1: lines up with how that translates into Spanish. One of
Speaker 1: the advisors who had helped draft Decree nine hundred was
Speaker 1: Jose Menuel Fortuny, who was our Ben's friend and also
Speaker 1: the PGT general secretary. Decree nine hundred had also been
Speaker 1: passed with the support of the Communist Party, which our
Speaker 1: Ben's had legalized after becoming president. Our Bends maintained that
Speaker 1: the communist presence in the Guatemalan government was small and
Speaker 1: that he himself was dedicated to capitalism and democracy. One
Speaker 1: of the stated goals of Decree nine hundred was to
Speaker 1: allow previously landless people to become part of the capitalist
Speaker 1: economy and to improve Guatemala's capitalist economy overall. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't appeared that the PGT had connections to the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1: Communism in Latin America at this point was more focused
Speaker 1: on upending dictatorships and getting out from under foreign capitalist interests,
Speaker 1: not on becoming Soviet allies. Yeah, the United States didn't
Speaker 1: really care about this nuance regarding being a Soviet ally
Speaker 1: versus being influenced by communism now and then also complicating
Speaker 1: US perceptions of this law. In February of nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: the Guatemalan Supreme Court found one of the laws provisions unconstitutional.
Speaker 1: The law outlined a dispute resolution process that ended with
Speaker 1: the President of the Republic instead of with the courts.
Speaker 1: So when the Supreme Court ordered that the land redistributions
Speaker 1: stop until lower courts could hear the cases of land
Speaker 1: that had been allegedly expropriated illegally, Congress impeached the judges
Speaker 1: that had made that ruling, and then their replacements reversed
Speaker 1: the decision. Admittedly, this was squirrely. Critics in the United
Speaker 1: States pointed to it is evidence that our benz Is
Speaker 1: administration was really a totalitarian regime. Regardless. In the midst
Speaker 1: of all of this, United Fruit Company had started advocating
Speaker 1: for the US Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow the urban's
Speaker 1: government and replace it with an administration that would be
Speaker 1: more sensitive to American influence and United Fruit Companies business.
Speaker 1: We'll get to this whole CIA situation after a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Like we said back before the break, a huge motivator
Speaker 1: for the CIA's que and Guatemala was the idea that
Speaker 1: Guatemala was about to fall under a very sinister communist influence,
Speaker 1: and a huge source of that idea was publicist and
Speaker 1: propagandist Edward Burnet's folks have asked us to do an
Speaker 1: episode on him. We might at some point. When folks
Speaker 1: first started asking, one of our one of our other
Speaker 1: shows on our network had just done a three partner
Speaker 1: and that seemed a little excessive to have like that
Speaker 1: much on the same network. But that was years ago now.
Speaker 1: His relationship with the United Fruit Company went back to
Speaker 1: about nineteen forty, and at first he had been focused
Speaker 1: on trying to improve the company's image in the Latin
Speaker 1: American countries where it was operating because outside of the
Speaker 1: wealthy elite that were benefiting the most from United Fruit
Speaker 1: Companies presence, people understandably did not have a very good
Speaker 1: opinion of it and called it a variety of disparaging nicknames,
Speaker 1: including the octopus. Vernees really wasn't all that successful at
Speaker 1: shifting ordinary people's opinions of United Fruit Company in Central America,
Speaker 1: but he was masterful at selling the idea that Guatemala
Speaker 1: was under an immediate communist threat to the United States.
Speaker 1: For example, he brought journalists to Guatemala to conduct interviews
Speaker 1: with a handpicked selection of United Fruit Company officials who
Speaker 1: talked all about how the country was about to collapse
Speaker 1: under communism. He had arranged a whole press junket in
Speaker 1: one with all of the interview us arranged through the
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company. They did none of the people he
Speaker 1: arranged to come in talk to anyone else. They got
Speaker 1: all their opinions from United Fruit. The CIA's first attempts
Speaker 1: to overthrow the Guatemalan government took place in nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: two under the administration of President Harry Truman, who's Truman doctor,
Speaker 1: and you might remember from part one. It was known
Speaker 1: as Operation Fortune or Operation PB Fortune because of the
Speaker 1: little prefix that goes in the beginnings of CIA code names.
Speaker 1: This plan involved collaborating with Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Samosa to
Speaker 1: arm a rebellion led by disgruntled General Carlos Castillo Armas.
Speaker 1: Castillo Armas had tried to lead a rebellion back in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty and after escaping from prison afterward he had
Speaker 1: become something of a folk hero. The CIA wound up
Speaker 1: abandoning this operation afterward of it became public. Dwight D.
Speaker 1: Eisenhower was inaugurated as President of the United States on
Speaker 1: January twentieth, nineteen fifties three, and the next day he
Speaker 1: pointed John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State. If you don't
Speaker 1: remember that name from part one. He was one of
Speaker 1: the people who helped United Fruit Company negotiate multiple monopolies
Speaker 1: and other concessions in Guatemala during the nineteen thirties while
Speaker 1: working for the company's law firm Sullivan and Cromwell. This
Speaker 1: was one of many connections between United Fruit Company and
Speaker 1: high placed figures in the US government. Dulles's brother, Alan Dulles,
Speaker 1: was the director of the CIA between nineteen fifty three
Speaker 1: and nineteen sixty one, and he had previously served on
Speaker 1: United Fruits Board of Directors during the years that we're
Speaker 1: talking about today. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Was a senator
Speaker 1: from Massachusetts and then an ambassador to the United Nations.
Speaker 1: The Lodge family was a major investor in United Fruit Company,
Speaker 1: and he was nicknamed the Senator from United Fruit. These
Speaker 1: are just examples, so sometimes you'll see this whole thing
Speaker 1: framed as United Fruit Company got the CIA to overthrow
Speaker 1: the Guatemalan government, But really the United States was operating
Speaker 1: under the idea that if one nation in a region
Speaker 1: became communist, all of its neighbors would follow, something Eisenhower
Speaker 1: described in terms of Southeast Asia in his Domino Theory
Speaker 1: speech the same year as the coup in Guatemala. So
Speaker 1: without the supposed threat of communism, the CIA might not
Speaker 1: have gotten involved in Guatemala, and with the supposed threat
Speaker 1: of communism, the CIA probably would have gotten involved even
Speaker 1: if United Fruit Company had not been part of the equation.
Speaker 1: It is totally fair to note that a lot of
Speaker 1: the paranoia about communism in Guatemala was coming from public
Speaker 1: relations operations paid for by United Fruit though, yeah, jose
Speaker 1: Mn Wealth Fortuni later said they would have overthrown us
Speaker 1: even if we had grown no bananas, which I think
Speaker 1: is accurate. So the CIA operation to orchestrate a coup
Speaker 1: in Guatemala was authorized in August of ninety three. It
Speaker 1: was code named Operations Success their Operation PP Success, and
Speaker 1: it was led by Colonel Albert Hainey. This time, the
Speaker 1: idea was to create what looked like an uprising from
Speaker 1: within Guatemala, but with the uprising really being organized and
Speaker 1: directed by the CIA, with the fighting force that the
Speaker 1: CIA recruited and trained mostly from Guatemalan's living in exile
Speaker 1: in Nicaragua. The CIA established a dummy company to supply
Speaker 1: weapons to this supposed liberation army. A dummy charitable foundation
Speaker 1: was also established to donate aircraft for a liberation air force,
Speaker 1: also organized by the CIA and flown by American pilots.
Speaker 1: An anti government radio station called the Voice of Liberation
Speaker 1: started broadcasting propaganda and disinformation, reinforcing the idea that there
Speaker 1: was a huge popular uprising in the works from inside
Speaker 1: of Guatemala. This is basically psychological warfare. The Voice of
Speaker 1: Liberation broadcast claimed to be transmitting from a secret location
Speaker 1: in Guatemala, but the only time it was actually doing that,
Speaker 1: it was broadcasting from inside the US embassy. Most of
Speaker 1: the time the signals were really coming from Nicaragua. And
Speaker 1: occasionally from Dominican Republic or from Honduras. Several of these
Speaker 1: other governments were also opposed to the Urban's administration, both
Speaker 1: because of the reforms that he was rolling out, which
Speaker 1: sort of threatened the elite elsewhere, and also because he
Speaker 1: welcomed exiled revolutionaries from these other countries into Guatemala. The
Speaker 1: CIA once again chose Carlos Castio Armas as the leader
Speaker 1: of this uprising. They sneaked him into Florida to meet
Speaker 1: with CIA Western Hemisphere chief J. C. King, where they
Speaker 1: went over the plan and what they expected in return,
Speaker 1: basically that Castio Armas returned all of the land that
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company had surrendered and rolled back other policies
Speaker 1: from the Urbans and Arrevalo administrations. In January of nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four, a Panamanian courier informed our bands of this plot,
Speaker 1: including handing over a bunch of liberation army documents. On
Speaker 1: January twenty nine, Guatemala newspapers sted publishing a lot of
Speaker 1: this material, and at this point the United States denied
Speaker 1: all involvement and called the reports ridiculous and untrue. But
Speaker 1: in reality, the United States was just waiting for a
Speaker 1: clear reason to start their invasion. That whole progression of
Speaker 1: foreign policy that we talked about in Part one had
Speaker 1: led up to the idea that members of the Organization
Speaker 1: of American States could interfere in in other's affairs if
Speaker 1: it was under the threat of quote communism or any
Speaker 1: totalitarian doctrine. To cover its basis, the US needed evidence
Speaker 1: of that threat. Meanwhile, the tenth Inter American Conference was
Speaker 1: held in Caracas, Venezuela in March of nineteen fifty four.
Speaker 1: On March twenty eight, the conference adopted the Caracas Declaration
Speaker 1: of Solidarity, which condemned quote, activities of the International Communist
Speaker 1: Movement as constituting intervention in American affairs. It also declared
Speaker 1: quote that the domination or control of the political institutions
Speaker 1: of any American state by the intern National Communist Movement
Speaker 1: extending to this hemisphere the political system of an extra
Speaker 1: continental power, would constitute a threat to the sovereignty and
Speaker 1: political independence of the American States, endangering the piece of America,
Speaker 1: and would call for a meeting of consultation to consider
Speaker 1: the adoption of appropriate action in accordance with existing treaties.
Speaker 1: This declaration was intended to single out Guatemala, but without
Speaker 1: naming Guatemala, and of the nations in attendance, Guatemala was
Speaker 1: the only one to vote against it. To the US,
Speaker 1: this confirmed that communists had taken control of Guatemala, but
Speaker 1: it still wasn't evidence of an actual threat. Then, on
Speaker 1: May fifteenth, nineteen fifty four, a shipment of arms arrived
Speaker 1: in Guatemala, including rifles, ammunition, artillery, and anti tank weaponry.
Speaker 1: They had been purchased from Czechoslovakia, which was a communist
Speaker 1: country and part of the Soviet Bloc. Guatemala had previously
Speaker 1: tried to buy arms from the United States, which had
Speaker 1: refused under the grounds that Guatemala had not signed the
Speaker 1: Rio Security Pact of nineteen forty seven. From there, Guatemala
Speaker 1: had tried to buy weapons from several other countries as well,
Speaker 1: all of them had refused, some of which under heavy
Speaker 1: pressure from the United States to do so. There were
Speaker 1: figures in Guatemala who felt like the US didn't pressure
Speaker 1: Czechoslovakia into saying no because they were hoping for this
Speaker 1: kind of evidence. Basically, though Guatemala had gone to Czechoslovakia
Speaker 1: as a last resort, US intelligence had learned about the
Speaker 1: potential deal in nineteen fifties three, but allowed it to
Speaker 1: go forward, hoping to intercept the shipment en route and
Speaker 1: use it as evidence of Soviet collusion. Part of that
Speaker 1: plan involved using the shipment as evidence that Our Bends
Speaker 1: was arming a militia to fight against the Guatemalan Army.
Speaker 1: Our Bends maintained that he was just resupplying the Guatemalan army,
Speaker 1: but the United States cited this as proof that the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union was propping up a communist regime. The US
Speaker 1: did not successfully intercept this shipment on the way as
Speaker 1: they had hoped it basically the last track of it.
Speaker 1: But also these weapons weren't that useful once they arrived
Speaker 1: in Guatemala. A lot of the rifles didn't work. There
Speaker 1: were not any tanks in Central America. For these anti
Speaker 1: tank weapons to be used against the artillery. Pieces needed
Speaker 1: an extensive network of improved roads to really be useful,
Speaker 1: and Guatemala didn't really have that at this point. None
Speaker 1: of that really mattered. The fact that it had come
Speaker 1: from Czechoslovakia was the evidence that the United States wanted
Speaker 1: to justify this queue. And we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: how all of this finally played out. After we pause
Speaker 1: for another sponsor break. The United States stepped up this
Speaker 1: operation on May seventeenth, with Eisenhower blockading Guatemala and the
Speaker 1: Liberation Army organizing from Honduras. They used as one of
Speaker 1: their base of operations. United Fruit Company Company Town Flyover
Speaker 1: started on with planes dropping leaflets warning the Guatemalan public
Speaker 1: of these supposed secret plans and encouraging the Guatemalan military
Speaker 1: to turn on the president. The Voice of Liberation broadcast
Speaker 1: false reports about an increasingly large army of rebels that
Speaker 1: was taking on new recruits as it moved. Our Ben's
Speaker 1: demanded that horn Duras put a stop to the Liberation
Speaker 1: Army's organization within its borders, and the United States started
Speaker 1: using the pretext of sending military aid to horn Duras
Speaker 1: and Mexico to funnel weapons towards this manufactured uprising. By
Speaker 1: early June, the CIA's ongoing efforts to destabilize the Guatemalan
Speaker 1: government had led to increasing unrest, including plots against the
Speaker 1: government from within. On June three, military officers tried to
Speaker 1: convince our Bends that for the good of the country,
Speaker 1: he should purge all communists from his administration, but he refused.
Speaker 1: Five days later, our Bends suspended civil Liberties site the
Speaker 1: National Emergency. Throughout all of this, government officials and the
Speaker 1: media and the United States were warning of an insidious
Speaker 1: communist threat in Guatemala, with John Foster Dulls calling the
Speaker 1: Guatemalan government a quote communist type reign of terror. The
Speaker 1: actual invasion began on June eighteenth, four after all the
Speaker 1: ongoing propaganda efforts. The CIA was expecting the Guatemalan people
Speaker 1: to rise up and side with the invasion, but that
Speaker 1: didn't really happen. The Liberation Army faced repeated defeats. Three
Speaker 1: additional aircraft were deployed to provide more air support, but
Speaker 1: two of them were shot down. Arvins placed the army
Speaker 1: and the police on alert, but he didn't actually deploy them.
Speaker 1: He was afraid that if he did, it would just
Speaker 1: look like the US propaganda was right about what was
Speaker 1: happening in Guatemala. Foreign Minister Guerrero Torreo recommended that Guatemala
Speaker 1: go through formal channels to address this. He met with
Speaker 1: John Parafoy, who was the US ambassador to Guatemala, who
Speaker 1: of course knew exactly what was going on. He also
Speaker 1: contacted the U N Security Council and the Inter American
Speaker 1: Peace Committee of the Organization of American States for support.
Speaker 1: Torrieo denounced the accusations that Guatemala had become a communist
Speaker 1: country and asked for a ceasefire and for Honduran and
Speaker 1: Nicaraguan forces to be removed from Guatemala. On the US
Speaker 1: planes flying over Guatemala progressed from dropping leaflets to also
Speaker 1: strafing and dropping bombs on Guatemalan buildings, including gas and
Speaker 1: oil storage depots. Guatemala didn't have much of an air
Speaker 1: force that could respond. All of its planes had been
Speaker 1: built before ninety six, and our Bends ultimately grounded them
Speaker 1: out of concerns over whether the pilots were still loyal
Speaker 1: to him. On that night of the nineteenth, are Bens
Speaker 1: gave a radio address calling what was happening an armed invasion,
Speaker 1: and he said, quote, our only crime consisted of decreeing
Speaker 1: our own laws and applying them to all without exception.
Speaker 1: Our crime is having enacted an agrarian reform which affected
Speaker 1: the interests of the United Fruit Company. Our crime is
Speaker 1: wanting to have our own route to the Atlantic, our
Speaker 1: own electric power, and our own docs and ports. Our
Speaker 1: crime is our patriotic wish to advance, to progress, to
Speaker 1: win economic independence to match our political independence. We are
Speaker 1: condemned because we have given our peasant population land and rights.
Speaker 1: The air attacks continued and our bends declared martial law.
Speaker 1: On June twenty, Guatemala continued appealing to the United Nations
Speaker 1: for aid, where Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, whose family owned
Speaker 1: stock in United Fruit, was head of the Security Council.
Speaker 1: After a lengthy debate, the U n Security Council determined
Speaker 1: that this was a matter for the Organization of American States, which,
Speaker 1: as we noted earlier, was heavily influenced by the United States.
Speaker 1: The Soviet Union voted against this, correctly concluding that the
Speaker 1: US was involved in what was happening in Guatemala. After
Speaker 1: days of bombings and attacks and ongoing propaganda both within
Speaker 1: and outside of Guatemala, the United States started publicly supporting
Speaker 1: Custio Armas and the Liberation Army. The Voice of Liberation
Speaker 1: sorted broadcasting reports of all kinds of successful attacks by
Speaker 1: the Liberation Army which weren't actually happening. It also reported
Speaker 1: that Castile Armas's force was growing at an astounding rate,
Speaker 1: even though he was in command of about four hundred
Speaker 1: people at the most. The international news media also picked
Speaker 1: up these stories and reported them as fact. In the
Speaker 1: midst of all of this, an American plane bombed a
Speaker 1: British freighter at the request of Nicaragua, which claimed it
Speaker 1: was carrying gasoline to refuel our benz Is military. It
Speaker 1: turned out to be carrying only bananas and cotton, and
Speaker 1: the CIA paid off its insurer. As it became clear
Speaker 1: that the United States was backing Caustio Armas and the
Speaker 1: Liberation Army, a wave of anti American sentiment started to
Speaker 1: row within and outside of Guatemala, including in numerous nations
Speaker 1: in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Argentinean revolutionary
Speaker 1: che Guvara had traveled to Guatemala to see the ongoing
Speaker 1: reforms that were going on there, and he was actually
Speaker 1: there when this que took place. His first wife, Hilda Gaya,
Speaker 1: later said quote it was Guatemala which finally convinced him
Speaker 1: of the necessity for armed struggle and for taking the
Speaker 1: initiative against imperialism. By June, our Ben's was losing the
Speaker 1: support of the Guatemala military. He recognized that there was
Speaker 1: no way he could go up against the United States directly.
Speaker 1: He resigned on June, and his radio address announcing this,
Speaker 1: our Ben's pointed out the roles of the United States
Speaker 1: and the United Fruit Company and all of this, saying quote,
Speaker 1: I took over the presidency with great faith in the
Speaker 1: democratic system, in liberty, and in the possibility of achieving
Speaker 1: economic independence for Guatemala. I continue to believe that this
Speaker 1: program is just. I have not violated my faith in
Speaker 1: democratic liberties and the independence of Guatemala, and in all
Speaker 1: the good which is the future of humanity. One day,
Speaker 1: the obscured forces which today oppressed the backward in colonial
Speaker 1: world will be defeated. I will continue to be, despite everything,
Speaker 1: a fighter for the liberty and progress of my country.
Speaker 1: He took refuge in the Mexican embassy. From there he
Speaker 1: was offered refuge in Czechoslovakia, and then he traveled to
Speaker 1: several other countries before returning to Mexico and dying there
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy one. Arbenza's speech was a totally different
Speaker 1: tone from the one that was delivered by U S
Speaker 1: Secretary of State Dullest on June nineteen fifty four, and
Speaker 1: that speech set in part quote, they exposed the evil
Speaker 1: purpose of the Kremlin to destroy the inter American system,
Speaker 1: and they test the ability of the American states to
Speaker 1: maintain the peaceful integrity of this hemisphere. For several years now,
Speaker 1: international communism has been probing here and there for nesting
Speaker 1: places in the Americas. It finally chose Guatemala as a
Speaker 1: spot which it could turn into an official base from
Speaker 1: which to breed subversion which would extend to the other
Speaker 1: American republics. This intrusion of Soviet despotism was, of course,
Speaker 1: a direct challenge to the Monroe Doctrine, the first and
Speaker 1: most fundamental of our foreign policies. Later in the same speech,
Speaker 1: Dellis said, quote, it was not the power of the
Speaker 1: Urbans government that concerned us, but the power behind it.
Speaker 1: If world communism captured any American state, however small, a
Speaker 1: new and periless front it established, which will increase the
Speaker 1: dangers of the entire free world and require even greater
Speaker 1: sacrifices from the American people. There is continued to be
Speaker 1: debate about exactly what role communism played in the Outer
Speaker 1: Bends administration. At the time, the Guatemalan Workers Party was
Speaker 1: the nation's smallest political party, and the number of Communist
Speaker 1: Party members in the Guatemalan government was also small. For example,
Speaker 1: of the fifty six members of Congress, four of them
Speaker 1: were Communists. At the same time, several of those positions
Speaker 1: were particularly influential, including the President's personal secretary and the
Speaker 1: President of Congress. There were also members of the party
Speaker 1: in prominent positions outside of the government, including some of
Speaker 1: Guatemala's largest labor unions. Regardless, though, what was happening in
Speaker 1: Guatemala doesn't really align with the propaganda that became part
Speaker 1: of the justification for this intervention. When he stepped down
Speaker 1: our bends handed over power to Colonel Carlos Enrique Diaz,
Speaker 1: who was chief of the Guatemalan Armed Forces of the Republic,
Speaker 1: Diaz became part of a three man ruling junto, with
Speaker 1: Diaz announcing that he was committed to continuing his predecessor's work,
Speaker 1: so the CIA started trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: remove him from power as well. Ultimately, disputes arose among
Speaker 1: the stunto, which was then replaced with a whole different
Speaker 1: three man team. It was a very chaotic few days.
Speaker 1: This team traveled to El Salvador to negotiate a piece
Speaker 1: with Castillo Armas, who ultimately became the next president of Guatemala.
Speaker 1: Castillo Armas denounced communism and promised that he would not
Speaker 1: roll back the social gains of the previous administration. Then,
Speaker 1: on October tenth, nineteen fifty four, he was elected president
Speaker 1: while running unopposed. Once he was in power, he repealed
Speaker 1: the nineteen constitution. He abolished the previous administration's land reforms,
Speaker 1: returning all the expropriated land back to the United Fruit
Speaker 1: Company and other landowners. He rolled back the earlier expansions
Speaker 1: of voting rights, and he restored the Catholic Church's right
Speaker 1: to own property and teach religion in public schools. Castillo
Speaker 1: Armas also outlawed labor organizations and political parties, and restored
Speaker 1: Jorgeo Bico's chief of secret police to his former position.
Speaker 1: Seven prominent labor organizers were also murdered on July one,
Speaker 1: at the United States request. Castillo Armas also established a
Speaker 1: National Committee of Defense against Communism in Guatemala. In ninetifty eight,
Speaker 1: Castio Armas was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
Speaker 1: His successor was General Miguel Idiros Fuentes, a rebellion to
Speaker 1: overthrow his dictatorial regime in nineteen sixty was the start
Speaker 1: of the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted for thirty six years.
Speaker 1: In spite of the ongoing civil rights abuses of the
Speaker 1: Fuentist regime and his predecessor, Castile or Masses, and the
Speaker 1: abuses of the Guatemalan military, the United States backed the
Speaker 1: military throughout this civil war through varying degrees through the
Speaker 1: various presidential administrations that were in power during the thirty
Speaker 1: six years that it went on. This all circles back
Speaker 1: to the idea of it being acceptable to intervene in
Speaker 1: another American nations affairs if there's a threat within or
Speaker 1: without of communist or authoritarian influence. The United States made
Speaker 1: it a policy for decades to back these kinds of
Speaker 1: dictatorial regimes, regardless of their human or civil rights record,
Speaker 1: as long as those regimes were anti communist. More than
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand people were killed during the Guatemalan Civil War,
Speaker 1: and is in a country with a population of only
Speaker 1: about ten million at the end of the war. According
Speaker 1: to a United Nations Historical Clarification Commission, three percent of
Speaker 1: those killed were indigenous Maya killed at the hands of
Speaker 1: the Guatemalan military or militia which were being supported, supplied,
Speaker 1: and trained by the United States. Even though the war
Speaker 1: officially ended in violence and instability continued to be issues
Speaker 1: in Guatemala today. President Bill Clinton was in Guatemala not
Speaker 1: long after this Historical Clarification Commission report was published and said, quote,
Speaker 1: it is important that I state clearly that support for
Speaker 1: military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and
Speaker 1: widespread repression of the kind described and the report was wrong,
Speaker 1: and the United States must not repeat that mistake. We
Speaker 1: must and we will instead continue to support the peace
Speaker 1: and reconciliation process in Guatemala. Guatemalan President Alvado Colombe offered
Speaker 1: his own statement in twenty eleven, say quote, that day
Speaker 1: changed Guatemala and we have not recuperated from it yet.
Speaker 1: It was a crime to Guatemalan society, and it was
Speaker 1: an act of aggression to a government starting its democratic spring.
Speaker 1: The ongoing economic, social, and political issues affecting Guatemala today
Speaker 1: are a direct result of all of this. And like
Speaker 1: we said at various points on this show, this kind
Speaker 1: of US intervention was not unique to Guatemala, especially during
Speaker 1: the Cold War, when the US made numerous other interventions
Speaker 1: in other Latin American countries as well, including providing weapons, training,
Speaker 1: and other support to dictorial regimes. Uh And what was
Speaker 1: unique though, to Guatemala was the directions, scope and overall
Speaker 1: success of all these reforms before the US intervened. In
Speaker 1: other words, the migrant crisis that is currently happening at
Speaker 1: the United States southern border is directly connected to decades
Speaker 1: of US interventions in Latin America, including this one. Also,
Speaker 1: United Fruit Company went through an antitrust suit and ultimately
Speaker 1: sold its land in Guatemala to Del Monte. After a
Speaker 1: couple of corporate transitions, United Fruit Company is now Taquda
Speaker 1: Brands International. The company's history page traces its roots back
Speaker 1: to United Fruit Company, but the timeline of its history
Speaker 1: on the company's website skips the nineteen fifties entirely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a few years ago, there was a Stuff You Should
Speaker 1: Know live show that was about the history of not
Speaker 1: the history was about how public relations work, I think
Speaker 1: is what they called it. And I saw that live
Speaker 1: show here, and when they mentioned Taquita, some people cheered.
Speaker 1: Josh Clark was like, you're gonna want to take that
Speaker 1: back if you don't know any of this history. Everybody
Speaker 1: loves the banana, you know what I mean, Like everybody
Speaker 1: loves a little cartoon banana lady. I understand that impulse,
Speaker 1: but it is made without the full picture. Absolutely yeah,
Speaker 1: because the next thing that they talked about was this
Speaker 1: whole overthrow of the Guatemalan government at the hands of
Speaker 1: the United States Central Intelligence Agency, not necessarily influenced but
Speaker 1: definitely strongly advocated for by United Fruit Company, whose policies
Speaker 1: were the start of the land reforms that got everybody's
Speaker 1: attention in the first place. Anyway, that's a not the
Speaker 1: most fun episode, though it is important information. But I'm
Speaker 1: hoping you have maybe slightly more delightful listener mail. I
Speaker 1: have listener mail that is from Lauren. It does not
Speaker 1: hark back to a more fun episode, but it's content
Speaker 1: is is interesting and and cool. So Lauren writes, Dear
Speaker 1: Tracy and Holly, I just wanted to write and say
Speaker 1: thank you for your awesome podcast. I love the quality
Speaker 1: and variety of your shows and your excellent presentation style,
Speaker 1: and I've recommended you to a lot of my friends.
Speaker 1: I was really interested in your recent the Litamide shows.
Speaker 1: I'm a medical historian and was previously a curator of
Speaker 1: a medical museum where I cared for a large collection
Speaker 1: of disability prosthetics. We were working with Leicester University to
Speaker 1: discuss how we could better We're with the disabled community
Speaker 1: to represent their stories, not just approach the collection from
Speaker 1: a medical model of disability. As part of our project,
Speaker 1: we hosted a performance of Cabinet of Curiosities, How Disability
Speaker 1: Was Kept in a Box, which was developed by the
Speaker 1: wonderful artist and actor Matt Fraser, who has the litamied
Speaker 1: induced Folk Amelia. Matt worked with medical museums in the
Speaker 1: UK to explore the disability histories which he brought out
Speaker 1: in the performance. There's a performance available on the Museum
Speaker 1: Association website. Lauren gives us a link and it's well
Speaker 1: worth a watch. It is such a wonderful piece. But
Speaker 1: the one part which struck me was the video mat
Speaker 1: chaired of a child who was put in a pair
Speaker 1: of gas powered prosthetic legs and arms. It's at about
Speaker 1: fifty three minutes, and the performance and the vulnerability of
Speaker 1: placing this young person in such a device, it really
Speaker 1: caused me to question how I interpreted such prosthetic devices.
Speaker 1: For audiences in the museum. Obviously, there are people who
Speaker 1: thrive and rely on prosthetics. However, the medical model of
Speaker 1: disability attempting to fix people can also create new problems.
Speaker 1: This new state of course in your show, which is
Speaker 1: great to hear. I just thought you guys might find
Speaker 1: the show interesting. Thank you both again for such a
Speaker 1: great podcast. I'll be continuing to listen and welcome any
Speaker 1: future medical shows in the future with very best wishes. Lauren.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for this email. Lauren. I have
Speaker 1: not had the chance to watch this whole video yet,
Speaker 1: but we are going to put it into the show
Speaker 1: notes for folks who may be interested to be able
Speaker 1: to check it out. Thank you so much for sending
Speaker 1: it and for sending this email. I love to hear
Speaker 1: from museum curators and other people who whose work involves
Speaker 1: similarly to what we do, attempting to put historical things
Speaker 1: into context for the general public. Yes, I also uh
Speaker 1: love Matt Freezer. I was introduced to him he was
Speaker 1: on the season of American Horror Story that was called
Speaker 1: Freak Show, and he was amazing, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to see everything he does because he's such
Speaker 1: a good actor. Um, so I'm glad that he's getting
Speaker 1: a little more love. I well watched that season of
Speaker 1: American Horror Story, and I did not connect the person
Speaker 1: in the name. Um. Even having started to watch the video,
Speaker 1: I didn't put it all together. Uh, so, thank you, Lauren.
Speaker 1: In spite of the various op eds that seem to
Speaker 1: be written like every couple or three weeks and start
Speaker 1: floating around Twitter, historians are doing a lot of work
Speaker 1: engaging with the public everybody, historians and museum curators and
Speaker 1: archivists and all kinds of folks. Uh, you're thinking about
Speaker 1: writing an op ed about how historians aren't engaging with
Speaker 1: the public, maybe like Google that they read the things
Speaker 1: that people have already said about it, and then the
Speaker 1: many responses about how that's not actually all that accurate.
Speaker 1: I think some of that, too, is that people have
Speaker 1: one idea of what a historian is in their head,
Speaker 1: and they think if that person isn't somehow in the
Speaker 1: public eye, that historians aren't out there doing the world. Uh.
Speaker 1: We have an upcoming interview that I'm hoping will help
Speaker 1: to spell some of this. Oh nice, I'm very happy
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, Holly's in my work is deeply reliant
Speaker 1: on the work of historians who are putting things out
Speaker 1: for the public all the time. Yes, so you would
Speaker 1: like to write to us about this or any other
Speaker 1: podcast or a history podcast at how Stuff Works dot com.
Speaker 1: We're also all over social media Missed in History. You
Speaker 1: will find us there at Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter,
Speaker 1: and you can come to our website, which is Missed
Speaker 1: in History dot com. The show notes for this episode
Speaker 1: will include the link that we just talked about, as
Speaker 1: well as all of the sources for this episode, which
Speaker 1: include C I A D classified documents acknowledging all this stuff.
Speaker 1: We did not make it up. You can also subscribe
Speaker 1: to our show on Apple podcasts, the I heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio's
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.