|
Guatemala is
the most populous country in Central America, with 10 million people. It is run by an oligarchy of wealthy landowners and
big business interests that gain the country’s agricultural and commercial rewards at the expense of the rest of the
population. Guatemala has been controlled by military dictators and presidents. Ultimate control belongs to the Army. Guatemala
is a country without social or economic justice. There is a lack of equality in income distribution, and poverty is pervasive.
Half of the country’s children suffer from malnutrition because 60% have no access to safe drinking water and 40% have
no health care. Guatemala is a country in which everything grows, but people go hungry. Education in rural areas does not
exist, so 50% of the Guatemalan people are illiterate. Guatemala was controlled by the Army and their power was used violently
to control people, resulting in the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. The Guatemalan civil war lasted 30 years
with over 150,000 Guatemalans killed or disappeared and thousands were forced to flee to Mexico (A ‘killing field’).
A few reasons that caused the horrific civil war was when Arbenz, a president of Guatemala, redistributed United Fruit Company
land to the peasants, when the Eisenhower Administration, friends of the United Fruit Company, claimed Arbenz was communist,
and when the United Fruit Company help facilitate the takeover supported by the CIA after Arbenz was no longer president.
Let’s begin when Arbenz redistributed United Fruit Company land to the peasants. According to the website, “The
Odyssey United States Trek,” while Arbenz was President he enacted Decree 900, which proposed a redistribution of land
from wealthy plantation owners to 100,000 peasants. Some of the land that was included in the redistribution was owned by
the United Fruit Company. United Fruit Company was an American company and was the most important corporation in Guatemala.
Over 500,000 acres, which was owned by United Fruit Company was taken in the redistribution because only 50,000 of its 565,000
acres were actually in use. The Guatemalan government offered United Fruit Company $600,000 for its land; however the company
insisted that the land was worth close to $25,000,000. When Arbenz refused to pay this much, United Fruit Company turned to
its friends in the United States Government to assist. The foreign policy staff of President Eisenhower, the U.S. President
at the time, had several key members who were, or had been legally, financially, or politically involved with United Fruit
Company. According to Stephen Ambrose and Richard Immerman, authors of the book, “Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and
the Espionage Establishment,” Arbenz wanted to use this land for people who individually had small farms. He saw this
as a way to help the economy and help the indigenous people. He thought that he was going to make a great market and it would
be great for the country. He saw the unequal distribution of land a big economic problem for the country. There was some opposition
that he was faced with from this land reform. The land reform did not go over well with the United Fruit Company. United Fruit
Company felt as if they had the right to own most of Guatemala’s land. Not only was the Arbenz regime redistributing
land, the government was also competing with the United Fruit Company in the production and the export of bananas. This posed
a threat to the financial interests of the United Fruit Company (Armas, 217).
Second, the United
Fruit Company, a company with friends in the Eisenhower Administration claimed Arbenz was a communist. According to the website,
“The Odyssey United States Trek,” during the 1950s, relationships between the U.S. and the communist bloc were
very tense. In 1951, Jacobo Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala. He was only the second democratically elected president
in Guatemalan history. He pushed through progressive reforms and accepted support from communist friends. When United Fruit
launched a public relations campaign to portray Guatemala as a communist threat in Central America, the U.S. government took
notice and got nervous. The threat was becoming more real to the U.S. when Arbenz received an arms shipment from communist
Czechoslovakia, even after the U.S. refused to sell arms to Guatemala. Eisenhower's administration was convinced that they
needed to stage a CIA-backed coup to overthrow Arbenz and they were scared of the country going communist, policymakers in
the U.S. decided that Arbenz needed to be removed from office. The CIA enacted a "propaganda and destabilization" campaign
to get Arbenz out of office, including rumors that Arbenz was a communist. A number of private pilots to attack, bomb and
drop small notices on Guatemala City, were hired. The last thing was a number of radio broadcasts out of Honduras spreading
news of an army marching on toward the National Palace to overthrow Arbenz. All of these threats made Arbenz flee Guatemala,
in June, 1954.
Lastly, the United Fruit Company help facilitate the takeover supported by the
CIA once Arbenz was overthrown in presidency, according to the article, "Guatemala: land distribution history.(AGROENERGY
AND ALTERNATIVES)." the first six months after the takeover, most land expropriations were annulled and lands were returned
to their previous owners. Three decades of long dictatorship followed, causing the deaths of over 300,000 people. The Guatemalan
army, who supported and often bankrolled the death squads, had close ties with many US administrations, massacred peasants,
unionists, leaders of social organizations, and also invaded the lands of various communities. Many union members were massacred,
creating fear in workers with the sugar cane workers who fear repression if they organize. US support gave incentives for
export agriculture to the external market, helping large sugarcane producers and consolidated repression of workers as a warning'
against future land redistribution. According to the article, “Coming to terms with the past: remembering and forgetting
in Guatemala: Rachel Sieder considers the role of 'memory politics' in Guatemala's uncertain path to democracy as government
and society attempt to come to terms with the brutality of the counter-insurgency war,” when the CIA took over after
the Arbenz regime, which had begun to implement a program of land reform. The subsequent reversal of social reform, combined
with repression against former officials and peasant activists, led to the growth of an armed left-wing guerrilla movement
in 1961. According to the article, “A ‘killing field,” death squads were started during this period. The
US mission and its advisors prodded the military to take measures to establish a US base for counterinsurgency actions, in
order to maintain cheap labor for the landowners and US corporations, and to preserve the system. The American CIA was the
agent and terror was their weapon. They targeted guerrillas, peasants, students, labor leaders, and professionals, and the
Guatemalan military jailed thousands. Thousand more Guatemalans that were struggling to overcome poverty and injustice, were
murdered or disappeared by the police, the army and the death squads, which were all armed and trained by the CIA.
The civil war entails many different problems due to the power that everyone wanted or had. The United Fruit Company had a
lot of power and supported many groups, which led to the Guatemalan civil war and caused many Guatemalans death. There were
many presidents that were also involved in the civil war, but when the civil war began it started with Arbenz, a president
of Guatemala, redistributed United Fruit Company land to the peasants and it continued with when the Eisenhower Administration,
friends of the United Fruit Company, claimed Arbenz was communist, and when the United Fruit Company help facilitate the takeover
supported by the CIA after Arbenz was no longer president. With many parties involved, the measures people will take to attain
power are questionable at best.
|
