Transcript 1950: Arévalo Presidency

Guatemala: 1954-1996
Human Rights Violations & U.S.
Intervention
MAP
TIMELINE
HISTORY OF GUATEMALA
MEMORY OF SILENCE
BISHOP’S ASSASSINATION
WORKS CITED
1944 - 1950: Arévalo
Presidency
1950 - 1954: Arbenz
Presidency
1954: CIA Sponsored
Coup
First democratic election in Guatemalan history
results in the presidency of Juan José Arévalo,
an Argentine-trained philosopher. Arévalo
dissolves many features of the preceding era,
such as the Vagrancy Laws, the repressive
labor codes and the secret police. He also
begins other progressive reforms such as
national literacy programs, farm cooperatives
and voter registration drives.
Following Arévalo, Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman
becomes president. Much to the anger of the
United Fruit Company, he enacts land
redistribution measures in the form of Decree
900.
Seeing too much Communist influence in the
Arbenz regime and a direct threat to their
corporate interests, policy makers in the United
States, including the Dulles Brothers, decide
that he has to be removed. Receiving little
domestic support to fight off the invaders,
Arbenz resigns and flees the country. John
Foster Dulles, brief biography
CIA vs communism ? “End of the Innocence” by
Mike Lehman
The US State Dept. initiates a propaganda and
destabilization campaign while the CIA leads a
small opposition army into Guatemala from
Honduras.
.
1954 - 1957: Castillo
Armas Presidency
Carlos Castillo Armas chosen by the United
States to replace Arbenz as President.
US Operation PBSUCCESS, 1
US Operation PBSUCCESS, 2
Assasination Proposals, by the US
1958: Ydigoras
Presidency
Col. Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes elected after the
Armas assassination. Increasing military
corruption and permission for anti-Castro
Cuban exiles to train in Guatemala result in
military revolt.
1962: Creation of the
FAR
Ex-military officers, Guatemalan communist
party members and students band together to
form the first Guatemalan guerrilla group: the
Armed Rebel Force (FAR).
United States begins counter-insurgency
training for the Guatemalan armed forces.
1966 - 1970:
Montenegro
Presidency
Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro elected and
provides a civilian facade under which counterinsurgency intensifies, wiping out the FAR.
US documents "counter insurgency"
The use of napalm and death squads initiated
during this period, resulting in some 30,000
deaths, most of these civilians.
1970 - 1974: Arana
Presidency
Col. Carlos Arana Osorio initiates a second wave of
"pacification" as president. 15,000 killed or
“disappeared” in first 3 years of his term.
Emergence of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP).
Practitioners of liberation theology begin to support
organization and resistance on the part of poor, rural
indigenous peoples.
1978 - 1982: Lucas
Garcia Presidency
Beginning in the era of Col. Romeo Lucas Garcia and
continuing into the next, repression in Guatemala
reaches its peak.
Creation of the Revolutionary Organization of People in
Arms (ORPA). Non-violent, popular organizing increases.
The Committee of Peasant Unity struggles for higher
wages and better working conditions.
1982 - 1983: Montt
Presidency
Despite pledges to respect human rights from the
military junta, led by Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, killings
continue at the rate of 1,000 per month.
“Catholic bishops declared in May 1982, “with
assassinations now falling into the category of genocide”
(Brown 183).
Main elements of Montt's intensive counter -insurgency
effort include civil defense patrols, model villages, and
a policy of "Scorched Earth".
US "scorched earth" document
Indian arming (EGP)
1982 - 1983: Montt
Presidency
The four existing guerrilla groups join forces in 1982 to
fight under one name, the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Unit.
“Explaining his approach on television, Rios Montt
forthrightly said that he had “declared a state of siege so
we could kill legally”—a reference to the death penalties
to be handed down by the secret tribunals he had
established to try those accused of political crimes”
(Brown 183).
1983 - 1986: Mejía
Víctores Presidency
The Mutual Support Group emerges as one of the most
vocal, and most targeted, human rights organizations in
Guatemala.
“One month after the August 8, 1983 coup […] 10
percent of Rabinal’s population of 30-35 thousand have
died by political violence” (Brown 187).
"Illusion of Democracy"
US sings Montt's praises
1986: Cerezo
Presidency
Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo elected as the first civilian
president since Montenegro.
Violence continues, as illustrated by the
assassination of anthropologist Myrna Mack
Chang.
1991: Serrano
Presidency
Peace talks begin; accord signed between
URNG and the government committing them to
internationally verified negotiations. In 1992,
Rigoberta Menchu Tum wins the Nobel Peace
Prize for her struggle in defense of indigenous
rights.
Rebel leader Commander Everardo, husband of
U.S. lawyer and human rights activist Jennifer
Harbury, is wounded in battle and captured by
the military for interrogation. He is then
tortured by the G-2 and killed by Col. Alpirez, a
CIA-paid "asset".
1993: De Leon Carpio
Presidency
Ramiro De Leon Carpio, former human rights
ombudsman for Guatemala, is elected
president.
1996: Arzú Presidency
Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen elected president. Arzú purges the
upper ranks of the Military of some of its more
corrupt members.
Peace talks, which originated in 1991,
culminate in late 1996 with the signing of the
final peace accords.
UN Human Rights documents, 1
UN 1995 Human Rights Commission report (
Independent Expert report in 1995
Works Cited
Guatemala: A Human Rights History of Guatemala. Amnesty International. 1 January
2003. <www.west.net/~tmiller/gh/> .
Brown, Cynthia. ed. With Friends Like These: The Americas Watch Report on Human Rights
and U.S. Policy in Latin America. New York: Pantheon, 1985.
Carlos Castillo Armas
Before the coup of 1954, Castillo Armas was a retired military officer working in
Honduras as a furniture salesman. He was chosen by the CIA to lead the National Liberation
Movement (MLN) into Guatemala to overthrow the Arbenz regime. With the resignation and
flight of Arbenz, Castillo Armas was flown into Guatemala on the personal plane of U.S.
Ambassador John Peurifoy. He was installed as President and given some $80 million from
Eisenhower over the next three years to boost his government. As president, he re-instituted
the mechanisms of repression, including the MLN's Committee Against Communism, which
compiled lists of thousands of union members and Arbenz supporters who were suspected
subversives. In 1957 Castillo Armas was assassinated by military rivals.
John Foster Dulles and Alan Dulles
Under the Republican Administration of Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles and his brother Alan
were placed in positions of great influence. John Foster was the Secretary of State and Alan sat as
the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both were essential Cold Warriors, convinced of an
international conspiracy to increase the communist sphere of influence and construct a beachhead in the Western Hemisphere. This virulent anti-communism and their own personal ties to
United Fruit made them perfect connections in the U.S. government to implement an ouster of
Jacobo Arbenz. Both Dulles brothers had been principle lawyers for the New York law firm that
represented United Fruit Company. John Foster Dulles had been involved in that law firm’s
international corporate accounts.
Jacobo Arbenz Guzman
Jacobo Arbenz was a nationalist military officer elected as president in 1951. In addition to
continuing the progressive reforms begun under Arévalo, he set out to challenge the monopoly
held by United Fruit in the Guatemalan economy. Though he was not himself a communist, his
wife was and he accepted the support of other communist intellectuals. Additionally, the newly
legal Communist Party won some 4 of the 50 seats in the National Legislature. These facts, along
with limited land expropriations he enacted, were enough to convince Washington that he was
100% "Red" and a threat to American hegemony in the region.
United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) has long exerted enormous
influence throughout Central America and within the United States Government.
It had grown to be the most important corporation in Guatemala. United Fruit
controlled roughly 40% of the most fertile land, owned a railroad, held a
monopoly on electricity production and ran the port facilities in Puerto Barrios,
Atlantic Coast.
Though United Fruit owned huge tracts of land, it paid little in the way of
property tax in Guatemala in part because they claimed their land was only worth
a fraction of it's real value on tax receipts. When Arbenz expropriated 400,000 of
their 500,000 acres, he offered them the $1.2 million they had claimed it was
worth. United Fruit demanded $16 million.
When Arbenz refused, they turned to their friends in the United States
Government to assist. Some, like Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American
Affairs John Moors Cabot had family ties to the company. Others, such as U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge, were major stockholders. The Dulles
Brothers had both worked as lawyers for United Fruit's legal firm. With
connections such as these, it was not difficult for UFCo. to convince the U.S.
Government of the need for action against Arbenz.
Model Villages
In order to bring communities in guerrilla territory under government control, "model
villages" were constructed, often on or close to the ruins of villages destroyed by military counterinsurgency. Though the government promised water, electricity, a school, a church and so on, these
facilities and services often went unprovided. Meanwhile, military detachments kept a close eye on the
activities of everyone, as no person was above suspicion of "subversion".
Civil Defense Patrols
The so-called Civil Defense Patrols were an integral part of military's counterinsurgency plans. All able-bodied males in a given village were forced to go on patrol for 24
hours, once each week. Ostensibly, this was to protect the villages from guerrilla attack. Often,
civil patrollers were forced to beat or kill neighbors, for fear of themselves being branded a
"subversive". Some of the worst human rights violations, including massacres of entire villages,
were committed by civil patrol members.
Though the Guatemalan Constitution of 1985 declared that un-paid, forced military service is
illegal, civil defense patrols have persisted, even through the present period.
A model village under military control
A civil patrol
Works Cited
Site #1 (MAP):
<http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/
map_collection/americas/guatemala.jpg>
MA
Site #2 (HISTORY OF WAR):
<http://www.west.net/~tmiller/gh/>
Site #3 (MEMORY OF SILENCE):
<http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/
english/>
Site #4 (BISHOP'S ASSASINATION):
<http://www.halcyon.com/blackbox/hw/
Bishop%>20Slain%20in%20Guatemala.
html>
Brown, Cynthia. With Friends Like These:
The America’s Watch Report on Human
Rights & U. S. Policy in Latin America.
New York: Pantheon, 1985.
Schlesinger, Stephen and Stephen Kinzer.
Bitter Fruit. New York: Doubleday,
1983.
Fried, Johnathan L., et al, eds. Guatemala in
Rebellion: Unfinished History. New
York: Grove. 1983.
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