1954, Guatemala, land reform, CIA & the United Fruit Company

[Tony Gosling]

Arbenz and Guatemala land reform

1954, Guatemala - CIA & the United Fruit Company, Jacobo Arbenz

Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala, committed 
two sins in the eyes of the Eisenhower 
administration. First, when he opened the system 
to all political parties he recognized the Communists too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbd5CTQCXto
Arbenz also embarked on a massive land reform 
program. Less than 3 per cent of the land owners 
held more than 70 per cent of the land. So Arbenz 
nationalized more than 1 ½ million acres, 
including land owned by his own family and turned 
it over to peasants. Much of that land belonged 
to the United Fruit Company, the giant American 
firm that was intent on keeping Guatemala, quite 
literally, a banana republic. United Fruit 
appealed to its close friends in Washington, 
including the Dulles brothers, who said that 
Arbenz was openly playing the Communist game. He had to go.
The National Security Act of 47 gave us the 
National Security Council. Never have we had a 
National Security Council so concerned about the 
nations security that were always looking for 
threats and looking how to orchestrate our 
society to oppose those threats. National 
Security was invented, almost, in 1947, and now 
it has become the prime mover of everything we do 
as measured against something we invented in 
1947." -- U.S. Navy Admiral Gene La Rocque in PBS 
Documentary "The Secret Government"
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