Jacobo Arbenz In Guatemala

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Jacobo Arbenz Guzman is the son of a Swiss pharmacist who came to Guatemala. Arbenz was born in September of 1913 and died in January of 1971. He was educated at the National Academy Military Academy and was a soldier that participated in the campaign to overthrow the then dictator Jorge Ubico. Despite Ubico’s repressive rule in Guatemala, he was supported by the US government, which in return he allowed the United Fruit Company to use some of the most fertile portions of land for production. In 1944, the leftist army that Arbenz was involved with overthrew Ubico and reformed the government to a democratically leftist one. Arbenz was appointed by the first president Juan Jose Arevalo to be the minister of war. During this presidency, Arevalo focused on many social reforms such as labor fairness, minimum wages, increased education funding, a relatively moderate leader, but rather disliked by the US government. Arbenz succeeded in the 1950 elections and got …show more content…
Dulles became exceedingly concerned that Guatemala is slowly engaging a communist regime. Already Arbenz already was gaining support of the communist dictators of the East. This truly became apparent of Guatemala shifting to a “red” government when President Arbenz made a deal with the Soviets from Czechoslovakia in purchasing military armaments. Soon, the Eisenhower administration and congress approved to allow the CIA to plan a covert mission to overthrow the communist regime. The CIA and the involvement of US Ambassador John Peurifoy organized a counterrevolution called PBSuccess which included getting some of the military leaders of Guatemala to help in overthrowing the leader (some of them were exiles). Some of the counterrevolution included some psychological warfare. The covert mission PBSuccess was a success, when in June of 1954, Arbenz was forced to resign, and was succeeded by the Dictator Carlos Castillo