The Guatemalan movie "The Silence of Neto" (1994), filmed on location in Antigua Guatemala, takes place during the last months of the government of Árbenz. It follows the life of a fictional 12-year-old boy who is sheltered by the Árbenz family, set against a backdrop of the struggle in which the country is embroiled at the time. The story of Árbenz's life and subsequent overthrow in the CIA sponsored coup d'état has been the subject of several books, notably "PBSuccess: The CIA's covert operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz June–July 1954" by Mario Overall and Daniel Hagedorn (2016), "American Propaganda, Media, And The Fall Of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman" by Zachary Fisher (2014), as well as New York Times Best Seller "The Devil's Chessboard" by Author David Talbot (Harper Collins 2015).
In popular culture
Jacobo Árbenz
Jacobo Árbenz | In popular culture
The Guatemalan movie "The Silence of Neto" and some books like "American Propaganda, Media, And The Fall Of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman" by Zachary Fisher (2014), as well as New York Times Best Seller "The Devil's Chessboard" by Author David The Guatemalan movie "The Silence of Neto" (1994), takes place during the last months of the government of Árbenz and the story of Árbenz's life and subsequent overthrow in the CIA sponsored coup d'état has been the subject of several books Yes, films like The Silence of Neto and several books like PBSuccess: The CIA's covert operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jocobo Arbenz June-July 1954, The Devil's Chessboard etc were written. Yes, in"PBSuccess: The CIA's covert operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz June–July 1954".
what is operation pbfortune?
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It was a covert United States operation to overthrow the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz
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where did the place get its name?
user
The name "Guatemala" comes from the Nahuatl word "Cuauhtēmallān" , or "place of many trees".
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name a few literatures associated with nahuatl?
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Chalco written by Chimalpahin, from Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo, from Mexico-Tenochtitlan by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc and those of Texcoco by Fernando Alva Ixtlilxochitl
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when did the person against whom the operation was intended become president?
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March 15, 1951
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was he ever exiled?
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Yes, Árbenz and his family were the victims of a CIA-orchestrated and intense defamation campaign that led them to exile
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where did he spend his exile period?
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Paris, Prague, Montevideo, Uruguay
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is he alive?
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No, he died in 1970
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what was his ideology?
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To increase Guatemala's economic and political independence
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is there any pop culture reference on him?
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Although the Communist party was banned for much of the Guatemalan Revolution, the Guatemalan government welcomed large numbers of communist and socialist refugees fleeing the dictatorial governments of neighboring countries, and this influx strengthened the domestic movement. In addition, Árbenz had personal ties to some members of the communist Guatemalan Party of Labour, which was legalized during his government. The most prominent of these was José Manuel Fortuny. Fortuny played the role of friend and adviser to Árbenz through the three years of his government, from 1951 to 1954. Fortuny wrote several speeches for Árbenz, and in his role as agricultural secretary helped craft the landmark agrarian reform bill.
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
Historian Roberto Garcia Ferreira wrote in 2008 that Árbenz's legacy was still a matter of great dispute in Guatemala itself, while arguing that the image of Árbenz was significantly shaped by the CIA media campaign that followed the 1954 coup. Garcia Ferreira said that the revolutionary government represented one of the few periods in which "state authority was used to promote the interests of the nation's masses." Forster described Árbenz's legacy in the following terms: "In 1952 the Agrarian Reform Law swept the land, destroying forever the hegemony of the planters. Árbenz in effect legislated a new social order ...
Jacobo Árbenz | Legacy
That first meeting was followed by others until Árbenz invited Fortuny to his house for discussions that usually extended for hours. Like Árbenz, Fortuny was inspired by a fierce nationalism and a burning desire to improve the conditions of the Guatemalan people, and, like Árbenz, he sought answers in Marxist theory. This relationship would strongly influence Árbenz in the future. On December 16, 1945, Arévalo was incapacitated for a while after a car accident. The leaders of the Revolutionary Action Party (PAR), which was the party that supported the government, were afraid that Arana would take the opportunity to launch a coup and so struck a deal with him, which later came to be known as the "Pacto del Barranco" (Pact of the Ravine).
Jacobo Árbenz | Government of Juan José Arévalo
Despite his position in Árbenz's government, however, Fortuny never became a popular figure in Guatemala, and did not have a large popular following like some other communist leaders. The communist party remained numerically weak, without any representation in Árbenz's cabinet of ministers. A handful of communists were appointed to lower-level positions in the government. Árbenz read and admired the works of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin (before Khrushchev's report); officials in his government eulogized Stalin as a "great statesman and leader ... whose passing is mourned by all progressive men". The Guatemalan Congress paid tribute to Joseph Stalin with a "minute of silence" when Stalin died in 1953, a fact that was remarked upon by later observers.
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
Schlesinger described him as a democratic socialist. Nevertheless, some of his policies, particularly those involving agrarian reform, would be branded as "communist" by the Guatemalan upper class and the United Fruit Company. Historian Piero Gleijeses has argued that although Árbenz's policies were intentionally capitalist in nature, his personal views gradually shifted towards communism. His goal was to increase Guatemala's economic and political independence, and he believed that to do this Guatemala needed to build a strong domestic economy. He made an effort to reach out to the indigenous Mayan people, and sent government representatives to confer with them. From this effort he learned that the Maya held strongly to their ideals of dignity and self-determination; inspired in part by this, he stated in 1951 that "If the independence and prosperity of our people were incompatible, which for certain they are not, I am sure that the great majority of Guatemalans would prefer to be a poor nation, but free, and not a rich colony, but enslaved." Although the policies of the Árbenz government were based on a moderate form of capitalism, the communist movement did grow stronger during his presidency, partly because Arévalo released its imprisoned leaders in 1944, and also through the strength of its teachers' union.
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
In his inaugural address, Árbenz promised to convert Guatemala from "a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy into a modern capitalist state". He declared that he intended to reduce dependency on foreign markets and dampen the influence of foreign corporations over Guatemalan politics. He said that he would modernize Guatemala's infrastructure without the aid of foreign capital. Based on advice from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he set out to build more houses, ports, and roads. Árbenz also set out to reform Guatemala's economic institutions; he planned to construct factories, increase mining, expand transportation infrastructure, and expand the banking system.
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
The Guatemalan movie "The Silence of Neto" (1994), filmed on location in Antigua Guatemala, takes place during the last months of the government of Árbenz. It follows the life of a fictional 12-year-old boy who is sheltered by the Árbenz family, set against a backdrop of the struggle in which the country is embroiled at the time. The story of Árbenz's life and subsequent overthrow in the CIA sponsored coup d'état has been the subject of several books, notably "PBSuccess: The CIA's covert operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz June–July 1954" by Mario Overall and Daniel Hagedorn (2016), "American Propaganda, Media, And The Fall Of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman" by Zachary Fisher (2014), as well as New York Times Best Seller "The Devil's Chessboard" by Author David Talbot (Harper Collins 2015).
Jacobo Árbenz | In popular culture
The result of these laws was a tremendous resentment against him among agricultural laborers. Ubico was highly contemptuous of the country's indigenous people, once stating that they resembled donkeys. He gave away hectares of public land to the United Fruit Company, and allowed the US military to establish bases in Guatemala.
Jacobo Árbenz | Historical background
Arévalo described his ideology as "spiritual socialism". He was anti-communism and believed in a capitalist society regulated to ensure that its benefits went to the entire population. Arévalo's ideology was reflected in the new constitution that was ratified by the Guatemalan assembly soon after his inauguration, which was one of the most progressive in Latin America. It mandated suffrage for all but illiterate women, a decentralization of power, and provisions for a multiparty system. Communist parties were forbidden. Once in office, Arévalo implemented these and other reforms, including minimum wage laws, increased educational funding, and labor reforms. The benefits of these reforms were largely restricted to the upper-middle classes and did little for the peasant agricultural laborers who made up the majority of the population.
Jacobo Árbenz | Government of Juan José Arévalo
Through this entire period, coverage of Árbenz in the Guatemalan press was very negative, influenced largely by the CIA's campaign. The family then initiated a long journey in exile that would take them first to Mexico, then to Canada, where they went to pick up Arabella (the Árbenzs' oldest daughter), and then to Switzerland via the Netherlands and Paris. They hoped to obtain citizenship in Switzerland based on Árbenz's Swiss heritage. However, the former president did not wish to renounce his Guatemalan nationality, as he felt that such a gesture would have marked the end of his political career. Árbenz and his family were the victims of a CIA-orchestrated and intense defamation campaign that lasted from 1954 to 1960.
Jacobo Árbenz | Beginning of exile
After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, a representative of the Fidel Castro government asked Árbenz to come to Cuba, to which he readily agreed, sensing an opportunity to live with fewer restrictions on himself. He flew to Havana in July 1960, and, caught up in the spirit of the recent revolution, began to participate in public events. His presence so close to Guatemala once again increased the negative coverage he received in the Guatemalan press. He was offered the leadership of some revolutionary movements in Guatemala but refused, as he was pessimistic about the outcome. In 1965 Árbenz was invited to the Communist Congress in Helsinki.
Jacobo Árbenz | Daughter's suicide and death
Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; September 14, 1913January 27, 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th President of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1951, and the second democratically elected President of Guatemala, from 1951 to 1954. He was a major figure in the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution, which represented some of the few years of representative democracy in Guatemalan history. The landmark program of agrarian reform Árbenz enacted as president was very influential across Latin America. Árbenz was born in 1913 to a wealthy family, son of a Swiss German father and a Guatemalan mother.
Jacobo Árbenz | Introduction
He graduated with high honors from a military academy in 1935, and served in the army until 1944, quickly rising through the ranks. During this period, he witnessed the violent repression of agrarian laborers by the United States-backed dictator Jorge Ubico, and was personally required to escort chain-gangs of prisoners, an experience that contributed to his progressive views. In 1938 he met and married María Vilanova, who was a great ideological influence on him, as was José Manuel Fortuny, a Guatemalan communist. In October 1944 several civilian groups and progressive military factions led by Árbenz and Francisco Arana rebelled against Ubico's repressive policies.
Jacobo Árbenz | Introduction
The constitution and Arévalo's socialist ideology became the basis for much of the reform enacted under Arévalo and (later) Jacobo Árbenz. Although the US government would later portray the ideology of the revolution as radical communist, it did not in fact represent a major shift leftward, and was staunchly anti-communist. Arévalo's economic vision for the country was centered around private enterprise.
Guatemalan Revolution | Ideology
Árbenz had several supporters among the communist members of the legislature, but they were only a small part of the government coalition.
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
There are few early sources on the development of the religious veneration of the image and pilgrimage to its site. According to tradition, the image was found in a cave and had healing power. According to scholarly work, the image was sculpted by a Portuguese artist in 1594. In the late nineteenth century, the cult was buffeted by the political conflicts between conservatives who supported the Catholic Church and Guatemalan liberals, who were anticlerical, seeking to diminish the power of the Church. The Catholic hierarchy in Guatemala sought to increase its reach and to reinforce ideas that it symbolized a stance against leftists Juan José Arévalo and Jacobo Árbenz in the late 1940s and early 1950s who were considered socialists or communists.
Black Christ of Esquipulas | History
In October 1995, Árbenz's remains were eventually repatriated to Guatemala, accompanied by his widow María. The Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala awarded him with a posthumous decoration soon after.
Jacobo Árbenz | Daughter's suicide and death
Árbenz was born in Quetzaltenango, the second-largest city in Guatemala, in 1913. He was the son of a Swiss German pharmacist, Hans Jakob Arbenz Gröbli, who immigrated to Guatemala in 1901. His mother, Octavia Guzmán Caballeros, was a Ladino woman from a middle-class family who worked as a primary school teacher. His family was relatively wealthy and upper-class; his childhood has been described as "comfortable". At some point during his childhood, his father became addicted to morphine and began to neglect the family business. He eventually went bankrupt, forcing the family to move to a rural estate that a wealthy friend had set aside for them "out of charity".
Jacobo Árbenz | Early life
The revolutionary decade ... plays a central role in twentieth-century Guatemalan history because it was more comprehensive than any period of reform before or since." She added that even within the Guatemalan government, Árbenz "gave full compass to Indigenous, campesino, and labor demands" in contrast to Arévalo, who had remained suspicious of these movements. Similarly, Greg Grandin stated that the land reform decree "represented a fundamental shift in the power relations governing Guatemala". Árbenz himself once remarked that the agrarian reform law was "most precious fruit of the revolution and the fundamental base of the nation as a new country." However, to a large extent the legislative reforms of the Árbenz and Arévalo administrations were reversed by the US-backed military governments that followed.
Jacobo Árbenz | Legacy
The Arbenz story was also the subject of the multi award-winning 1997 documentary by Andreas Hoessli "Devils Don't Dream!"
Jacobo Árbenz | In popular culture
Several factors besides the lobbying campaign of the United Fruit Company led the United States to launch the coup that toppled Árbenz in 1954. The US government had grown more suspicious of the Guatemalan Revolution as the Cold War developed and the Guatemalan government clashed with US corporations on an increasing number of issues. The US was also concerned that it had been infiltrated by communists although historian Richard H. Immerman argued that during the early part of the Cold War, the US and the CIA were predisposed to see the revolutionary government as communist, despite Arévalo's ban of the communist party during his 1945–1951 presidency.
Jacobo Árbenz | Political motives
In his inaugural address, Árbenz promised to convert Guatemala from "a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy into a modern capitalist state." He declared that he intended to reduce dependency on foreign markets and dampen the influence of foreign corporations over Guatemalan politics. He also stated that he would modernize Guatemala's infrastructure and do so without the aid of foreign capital. Based on his plan of government, he did the following: Árbenz was a Christian socialist and governed as a European-style democratic socialist, and took great inspiration from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. According to historian Stephen Schlesinger, while Árbenz did have a few communists in lower-level positions in his administration, he "was not a dictator, he was not a crypto-communist." Nevertheless, some of his policies, particularly those involving agrarian reform, would be branded as "communist" by the upper classes of Guatemala and the United Fruit Company.
History of Guatemala | Presidency of Jacobo Árbenz Guzman (1951–1954)
José Manuel Fortuny Arana (22 May 1916 – 2005) was an important communist leader in Latin America. He became well known for his friendship with Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, and was one of the main advisers in his government, which lasted from 1951–54. Árbenz was overthrown by a coup engineered by the United States in 1954, an event which drove Fortuny into exile, along with many of his comrades.
José Manuel Fortuny | Introduction
Díaz chose a corps of officers who were all known to be men of personal integrity, and who were loyal to Árbenz. By June 21, Guatemalan soldiers had gathered at Zacapa under the command of Colonel Víctor M. León, who was believed to be loyal to Árbenz. The leaders of the communist party also began to have their suspicions, and sent a member to investigate. He returned on June 25, reporting that the army was highly demoralized, and would not fight. PGT Secretary General Alvarado Monzón informed Árbenz, who quickly sent another investigator of his own, who brought back a message asking Árbenz to resign.
Jacobo Árbenz | Operation PBSuccess
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (10 September 1904 – 8 October 1990) was a professor of philosophy who became Guatemala's first democratically elected president in 1945. He was elected following a popular uprising against the United States-backed dictator Jorge Ubico that began the Guatemalan Revolution. He remained in office until 1951, surviving 25 coup attempts. He did not contest the election of 1951, instead choosing to hand over power to Jacobo Árbenz. As president, he enacted several social reform policies, including an increase in the minimum wage and a series of literacy programs. He also oversaw the drafting of a new constitution in 1945.
Juan José Arévalo | Introduction
Arana did not wish to turn over power to a civilian administration. He initially tried to persuade Árbenz and Toriello to postpone the election, and after Arévalo was elected, he asked them to declare the results invalid. Árbenz and Toriello insisted that Arévalo be allowed to take power, which Arana reluctantly agreed to, on the condition that Arana's position as the commander of the military be unchallenged. Arévalo had no choice but to agree to this, and so the new Guatemalan constitution, adopted in 1945, created a new position of "Commander of the Armed Forces", a position that was more powerful than that of the defense minister.
Jacobo Árbenz | October revolution
Árbenz was born in 1913 into a middle-class family of Swiss heritage. In 1935 he had graduated from the Escuela Politécnica, Guatemala's national military academy, with excellent grades, and had subsequently become an officer in the Guatemalan army under Ubico. As an officer, Árbenz himself had been required to escort chain-gangs of prisoners. This process had radicalized him, and he had begun to form links to the labor movement. In 1938 he had met and married María Villanova, who was also interested in social reform, and who became a significant influence on him and a national figure in her own right.
Guatemalan Revolution | Árbenz's personal background
Another strong influence on him was José Manuel Fortuny, a well-known Guatemalan communist, who was one of his main advisers during his government. In 1944, disgusted with Ubico's authoritarian regime, he and his fellow officers had begun plotting against the government. When Ubico resigned in 1944, Árbenz had witnessed Ponce Vaides intimidate the congress into naming him president. Highly offended by this, Árbenz plotted against Ponce Vaides, and was one of the military leaders of the coup that toppled him, in addition to having been one of the few officers in the revolution who had formed and maintained connections to the popular civilian movement.
Guatemalan Revolution | Árbenz's personal background
He occasionally compared himself to Adolf Hitler. He dressed ostentatiously and surrounded himself with statues and paintings of Napoleon, regularly commenting on the similarities between their appearances. He militarized numerous political and social institutions—including the post office, schools, and symphony orchestras—and placed military officers in charge of many government posts.
Guatemala | Jorge Ubico regime (1931–1944)
Árbenz's role as defense minister had already made him a strong candidate for the presidency, and his firm support of the government during the 1949 uprising further increased his prestige. In 1950, the economically moderate Partido de Integridad Nacional (PIN) announced that Árbenz would be its presidential candidate in the upcoming election. This announcement was quickly followed by endorsements from most parties on the left, including the influential PAR, as well as from labor unions. Árbenz had only a couple of significant challengers in the election, in a field of ten candidates. One of these was Jorge García Granados, who was supported by some members of the upper-middle class who felt the revolution had gone too far.
Guatemalan Revolution | Election
Fortuny played the role of friend and adviser to Árbenz through the three years of his government, from 1951 to 1954. Fortuny wrote several speeches for Árbenz, and in his role as agricultural secretary, he was involved in crafting Árbenz' landmark agrarian reform bill. Despite his position in Árbenz' government, however, Fortuny never became a popular figure in Guatemala, and did not have the sort of popular following that Gutierrez had. In 1952, Fortuny contested an election for the national Congress, but was heavily defeated. His manner was occasionally seen as offensive, and he was seen as putting the interests of the communist movement before those of the Guatemalan working class.
José Manuel Fortuny | Árbenz government
Land reform was the centerpiece of Árbenz's election campaign. The revolutionary organizations that had helped put Árbenz in power kept constant pressure on him to live up to his campaign promises regarding land reform. Agrarian reform was one of the areas of policy which the Arévalo administration had not ventured into; when Árbenz took office, only 2% of the population owned 70% of the land. Historian Jim Handy described Árbenz's economic and political ideals as "decidedly pragmatic and capitalist in temper". According to historian Stephen Schlesinger, while Árbenz did have a few communists in lower-level positions in his administration, he "was not a dictator, he was not a crypto-communist".
Jacobo Árbenz | Inauguration and ideology
The coup leaders formed a junta which swiftly called for open elections. These elections were won in a landslide by Juan José Arévalo, a progressive professor of philosophy who had become the face of the popular movement. He implemented a moderate program of social reform, including a widely successful literacy campaign and a largely free election process, although illiterate women were not given the vote and communist parties were banned.
Guatemalan Revolution | Introduction
On October 20, the next day, Ponce Vaides surrendered unconditionally. Árbenz and Arana both fought with distinction during the revolt, and despite the idealistic rhetoric of the revolution, both were also offered material rewards: Árbenz was promoted from captain to lieutenant colonel, and Arana from major to full colonel. The junta promised free and open elections to the presidency and the congress, as well as for a constituent assembly. The resignation of Ponce Vaides and the creation of the junta has been considered by scholars to be the beginning of the Guatemalan Revolution. However, the revolutionary junta did not immediately threaten the interests of the landed elite.
Jacobo Árbenz | October revolution
Under his leadership, the communist party remained numerically weak, without any representation in Árbenz' cabinet. Fortuny resigned along with Árbenz following the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, and went into exile.
José Manuel Fortuny | Árbenz government
The October revolution of 1944 in Guatemala led to the election of Juan José Arévalo as President of Guatemala, who initiated reforms based on liberal capitalism. Arévalo was an anti-communist, and cracked down on the communist Guatemalan Party of Labour ("Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo", PGT). The US government was nonetheless suspicious that he was under the influence of the Soviet Union. Arévalo's defense minister Jacobo Árbenz was elected president in 1950. Influenced partly by McCarthyism, the US government was predisposed to see communist influence in Árbenz's government, particularly after the legalization of the PGT. Árbenz also had personal ties to some PGT members.
Operation PBHistory | Background and origins
"This new democratic nation, multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual, luxuriant and varied as it is the nature of the population of our country, was born out of the historical synthesis of cultures, wills, opinions and feelings of all Guatemalans united in a single national élan which transcends the system of values inherited from the past." (From the acceptance speech of the UNESCO Peace Prize, 1997).
Rolando Morán | Quote
In addition to political support, Árbenz had great personal appeal. He was described as having "an engaging personality and a vibrant voice". Árbenz's wife María also campaigned with him; despite her wealthy upbringing she had made an effort to speak for the interests of the Mayan peasantry and had become a national figure in her own right. Árbenz's two daughters also occasionally made public appearances with him. The election was held on November 15, 1950, with Árbenz winning more than 60% of the vote, in elections that were largely free and fair with the exception of the disenfranchisement of illiterate female voters.
Jacobo Árbenz | 1950 election
During the revolutionary government of colonel Jacobo Árbenz, the opposition - mainly formed by Guatemalan landlords and United Fruit Company executives - was completely against any reform that the government of Juan José Arévalo had established: social security, creation of commercial and public labor unions, democracy and freedom of press, among others. At the election of Árbenz in 1950, the Guatemalan elite was desperate, but most of its members hoped that the new president would back out of the policies of his predecessor, whom they accused of communism. Árbenz' image convinced them of that: the Guatemalan colonel was married to María Cristina Vilanova, a lady from the Salvadorian elite.
Salamá | Anticommunist rebellion in 1953
Arana's supporters left to form the "FPL Ortodoxo," or the Orthodox FPL. In the 1950 election, the remainder of the FPL formally endorsed Víctor Manuel Giordani, but some party members defected to support Jorge García Granados, another moderate civilian, while still others supported Jacobo Árbenz, the defence minister and the administration's candidate. This infighting furthered the decline of the FPL.
Popular Liberation Front (Guatemala) | Introduction
Knowing that he could not fight on without the support of the army, Jacobo Árbenz resigned on 27 June 1954, handing over power to Colonel Carlos Enrique Diaz. US ambassador John Peurifoy then mediated negotiations held in El Salvador between the army leadership and Castillo Armas which led to Armas being included in the ruling military junta on 7 July 1954, and was named provisional president a few days later. The US recognized the new government on 13 July. Elections were held in early October, from which all political parties were barred from participating, and Castillo Armas was the only candidate, winning the election with 99% of the vote.
Guatemalan Revolution | Invasion
Categorized as a dedicated democrat and nationalist, Juan José Arévalo defined his political philosophy as "spiritual socialism". The ideology was directed towards the moral development of Guatemalans with the intent to "liberate man psychologically". Arévalo, the revolution’s intellectual pillar, positioned his theoretical doctrine as integral to the construction of a progressive and peaceful Guatemalan society. Governments are capable of initiating the formation of an ideal society by allowing citizens the freedom to pursue their own opinions, property and way of life. The revolution's first president asserted that safeguarding the free will of citizens generates popular support for governmental institutions, which ensure the security of the individual and collective equally.
Juan José Arévalo | Spiritual socialism (Arevalismo)
Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova (born 13 November 1946) is a politician in Guatemala. He is the son of former progressive Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who was overthrown in a CIA sponsored coup d'état in 1954. Arbenz Vilanova fled the country following the ouster of his father's government and spent almost 50 years in exile – in Mexico, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Soviet Union, Uruguay, Cuba and El Salvador, but mostly in Costa Rica – before deciding to return during the administration of Alfonso Portillo. After unsuccessfully trying to form his own political party to fight the 2003 presidential election, he was accepted as the candidate of the Christian Democracy party (DCG) after two earlier DCG presidential candidates withdrew.
Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova | Introduction
Gaitán's reply was, "Well, we want to do the opposite: we want to give the land back to the Natives".
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán | Legacy: Gaitán as a popular myth
Ultimately, the depiction of Cofresí fits within the same swashbuckler archetype seen in modern media, but precedes the genre's popularization in film by several years. The use of an ax or hatchet is seen frequently in oral tradition, to the point that the weapon is even named "Arturo" and described as an "inseparable friend". The axe is actually associated with Cabo Rojo, due to a territory dispute where its residents defended their land with said tool, and has since become the symbolic representation of its inhabitants. Its inclusion in the myths is likely meant to reflect the municipality's cultural identity.
Roberto Cofresí in popular culture | Oral tradition
Another was Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, who had been a general under Ubico, and who had the support of the hardline opponents of the revolution. During his campaign, Árbenz promised to continue and expand the reforms begun under Arévalo. The election was held on 15 November 1950, and Árbenz won more than 60% of the vote, in elections that were free and fair with the exception of the disenfranchisement of illiterate female voters. Árbenz was inaugurated as president on 15 March 1951.
Guatemalan Revolution | Election
Undersecretary of State Bedell Smith later became a director of the UFC, while the wife of the UFC public relations director was Eisenhower's personal assistant. These connections made the Eisenhower administration more willing to overthrow the Guatemalan government.
Jacobo Árbenz | Political motives
After resigning due to the coup organized by the United Fruit Company and the United States Department of State, the Árbenz family remained for 73 days at the Mexican embassy in Guatemala, which was crowded with almost 300 exiles. When they were finally allowed to leave the country, Jacobo Arbenz was publicly humiliated at the airport because the liberationist authorities made the former president strip before the cameras, claiming that he was carrying jewelry he had bought for his wife at Tiffany's in New York City, using funds from the presidency; no jewelry was found during the hour-long interrogation. The Arbenz family embarked into exile, going first to México, then to Canada, where they went to pick up Arabella who was attending school there, and then on to Switzerland via the Netherlands.
Arabella Árbenz | Family humiliation and exile
He could only be removed by Congress, and even then only if he was found to have broken the law. When Arévalo was inaugurated as president, Arana stepped into this new position, and Árbenz was sworn in as defense minister.
Jacobo Árbenz | October revolution
The elections were broadly free and fair, except that women who could not read were still disenfranchised. Although Ydígoras had the support of landowners, he lacked popular support, and did not have the backing of major political parties as Árbenz did. Árbenz eventually won the election with 258,987 votes to 72,796 for Ydígoras, out of a total of 404,739. The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) considered Ydígoras as a candidate to lead the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, because he had support among the Guatemalan opposition. However, he was rejected for his role in the Jorge Ubico regime, as well as his European visage, which was unlikely to appeal to the mostly mixed-race "mestizo" population.
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes | Early life and military career
Former presidents of Guatemala Manuel Estrada Cabrera and Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán were from the department of Quetzaltenango. Manuel Estrada was born in the city of Quetzaltenango on 21 November 1857, Jacobo Árbenz was born in the same city on 14 September 1913. Quetzaltenango Department also produced the musicians Jesús Castillo, writer of the "Quiché Winak" opera, and his brother Ricardo Castillo, as well as the classical musician Mariano Valverde. Another famous musician was Francisco "Paco" Pérez, who wrote the "Luna de Xelajú" waltz. Guatemalan historian Adrián Inés Chávez, who produced a Spanish translation of the Popul Vuh, was also from the department.
Quetzaltenango Department | People of note
In Switzerland, the Swiss authorities requested that Arbenz renounce his Guatemalan nationality, so as to prevent him from conducting resistance activities. The ousted president refused this request, as he felt that such a gesture would have marked the end of his political career. Furthermore, Arbenz could not seek political asylum, because Switzerland had not yet ratified the 1951 agreement of the newly created United Nations Refugees Convention, which was designed to protect people fleeing from communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Árbenz and his family were instead the victims of a CIA-orchestrated defamation campaign that lasted from 1954 to 1960, which only abated when the Cuban revolution triumphed in 1959, and that included a close friend of Árbenz, who turned out to be a double agent working for the CIA: Carlos Manuel Pellecer.
Arabella Árbenz | Family humiliation and exile
During the government of Jacobo Arbenz, there was communist influence in Guatemala. This was carried out in part through the arrival of Soviet agents who came to Guatemala to create a communist core, a phenomenon that also occurred in other Latin American countries. The arrival of Communists revolutionaries like Ernesto Guevara also increased the influence of communists in Guatemala at this time. Communism was attractive for some Guatemalan politicians who had relations with Russia. Communism's greatest influence, though, was to poor people because communism was intended to eliminate private property and take away land from the United Fruit Company. The CIA twice attempted to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz from power.
Russian Guatemalan | Communist influence
Arevalismo did emphasize the importance of civil freedoms as the essential groundwork for human development, but the political principle maintained that "Individual liberty must be exercised within the limits of social order". Democracy, according to Arévalo, was a social structure that required the restriction of civil rights in the event individual liberties conflict with national security and the will of the majority. The limit on civil rights appears contradictory to the notion of a Guatemalan government that expresses the free will of the people. However, the ambiguity is associated with Arévalo's dismissal of classical liberalism as an applicable guideline for Guatemalan governments.
Juan José Arévalo | Spiritual socialism (Arevalismo)
This led to a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1954, known as Operation PBSuccess, which saw Arbenz toppled and forced into exile by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. Despite most Guatemalans' attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and the military began to believe that Arbenz represented a communist threat and supported his overthrow, hoping that a successor government would continue the more moderate reforms started by Arevalo.
History of Guatemala | Operation PBSuccess
After being unable to obtain citizenship in Switzerland, the Árbenz family moved to Paris, where the French government gave them permission to live for a year, on the condition that they did not participate in any political activity, then to Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. After only three months, he moved to Moscow, which came as a relief to him from the harsh treatment he received in Czechoslovakia. While traveling in the Soviet Union and its vassal states, he was constantly criticized in the press in Guatemala and the US, on the grounds that he was showing his true communist colors by going there.
Jacobo Árbenz | Europe and Uruguay
General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes (17 October 1895 – 27 October 1982) was the conservative President of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. He had previously served as the governor of the province of San Marcos.
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes | Introduction
The group wound up joining the Communist Party "en masse", and in 1949 Alvarado the group was appointed to the Central Committee of the party and later to its Political Commission. On 17 June 1954, the democratically elected government of reformist Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in a CIA engineered coup d'état that ended the Guatemalan Revolution. It was carried out by reactionary expatriates who entered Guatemala from Honduran territory, with US support and coordination. After the fall of the democratic government, one of the first measures passed by the new regime was the banning of the Party of Labor. Alvarado was then forced into exile, first in Ecuador and later in Mexico.
Huberto Alvarado Arellano | Introduction
Those who know this artistic composition of Anderson think that it is a work of great intellectual depth, with much feeling and nostalgia, to such a degree that some of the songs that comprise it, such as Morazán's complaint that politics has distanced his love from Mary Josefa, his wife, caused tears in the auditorium, in 1992. Other titles deal with the popular march directed to save the Federal Republic in 1829 ("Two thousand men marking Guatemala"), the claim of the hero not to be considered only as a military man but as a statesman ("Do not draw me with that sword ") And the most intense and final, which is the testament of the hero, where he claims the injustice of his execution in Costa Rica, urges the young people to save the republic and declare their love for Central America.
Guillermo Anderson | Ese mortal llamado Morazán
He came from a well-to-do family and was not a politically relevant figure. However, it is known that he had conservative tendencies and came to public office under conservative governments. His works can be qualified under various literary genres, although they were mainly dedicated to story-telling, novels and more specifically historical novels. His main theme was life in the colonial Guatemala. His ""novelas costumbristas"" are about the customs of Guatemalan people during colonial times and during the first years after Guatemalan independence.
José Milla y Vidaurre | Introduction
Arévalo's rejection of Western oriented liberal individualism and apparent socialist inclinations led conservative sectors of the press to denounce the revolutionary president as a communist. Arévalo opposed classical Marxism's materialist tendency and affirmed that "Communism is contrary to human nature, for it is contrary to the psychology of man". Spiritual socialism’s anti-communist stance was apparent through Arévalo's suppression of various communist influenced initiatives operating in Guatemala. The president exiled several communist activists, declined to legalize the Communist Party of Guatemala, removed government officials with ties to the communist newspaper and shut down the Marxist instruction facility known as Escuela Claridad.
Juan José Arévalo | Spiritual socialism (Arevalismo)
Regardless of the aforementioned measures, Arévalo endured nearly 30 attempted coups from members of the Guatemalan military due to his perceived empathy for communists. He responded to anti-communists' attacks in a speech to the U.S. Congress in which he said, referring to World War II, "I fear the West has won the battle, but in its blind attacks on social welfare will lose the war to fascism."
Juan José Arévalo | Spiritual socialism (Arevalismo)
His "Christian Socialist" policies were inspired to a large extent by the U.S. New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Arévalo built new health centers, increased funding for education, and drafted a more liberal labor law, while criminalizing unions in workplaces with less than 500 workers, and cracking down on communists. Although Arévalo was popular among nationalists, he had enemies in the church and the military, and faced at least 25 coup attempts during his presidency. Arévalo was constitutionally prohibited from contesting the 1950 elections. The largely free and fair elections were won by Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, Arévalo's defense minister.
Guatemala | Guatemalan Revolution (1944–1954)
Before his presidency, Arévalo had been an exiled university professor. He returned to Guatemala to help in the reconstruction efforts of the new post-Ubíco government, especially in the areas of social security. He also helped draft a new constitution which granted the people civil rights and liberties they had never previously known. His philosophy of "spiritual socialism," referred to as "Arevalismo", may be considered less an economic system than a movement toward the liberation of the imagination of oppressed Latin America. In the post-World War II period, the governments of the United States and other countries misinterpreted Arevalismo as communism, serving as a cause for unease and alarm, which garnered support from neighboring satellite "caudillos" such as Anastasio Somoza García.
Juan José Arévalo | Biography
Juan José Arévalo Bermejo was born into a middle-class family in 1904. He became a primary school teacher for a brief while, and then earned a scholarship to a university in Argentina, where he earned a doctorate in the philosophy of education. He returned to Guatemala in 1934, and sought a position in the Ministry of Education. However, he was denied the position he wished for, and felt uncomfortable under the dictatorship of Ubico. He left the country and held a faculty position in Argentina until 1944, when he returned to Guatemala. In July 1944 the "Renovación Nacional," the teachers' party, had been formed, and Arévalo was named its candidate.
Guatemalan Revolution | Election of Arévalo
Huberto Alvarado Arellano (1927–1974) was a Guatemalan poet, essayist, and communist political figure. He was born in 1927 and died in 1974 at the hands of paramilitary death squads. His interest in politics stemmed from his experiences in the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944-1945, which were marked by his immersion in leftist politics. He was soon named Secretary General of the Guatemalan Alliance of Democratic Youth. At the same time, Alvarado engaged in notable cultural and literary production, mainly through the "Saker-ti" ("Dawn" in Kaqchikel) group, of which he had been a founder. Saker-Tí was a collective of young writers committed to democratic values and to revaluing Guatemala's native cultural legacy.
Huberto Alvarado Arellano | Introduction
He then eventually throws the ball out his window, and the ball transforms into the Sombrerón. Thus again, Asturias is showing that humans "are capable to breaking the ties that bind them to the undesirable". This legend, like Leyenda del Cadejo, corresponds to the Spanish colonial period in Guatemala, and is written in a simple colloquial tongue. It focuses on the Spanish and a Christian aspects of Guatemala and it takes place in the city of Antigua.
Leyendas de Guatemala | Leyenda del Sombrerón
In the elections that followed, Juan José Arévalo was elected president, and began a highly popular program of social reform. Árbenz was appointed Minister of Defense, and played a crucial role in putting down a military coup in 1949. After the death of Arana, Árbenz contested the presidential elections that were held in 1950 and without significant opposition defeated Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, his nearest challenger, by a margin of over 50%. He took office on March 15, 1951, and continued the social reform policies of his predecessor. These reforms included an expanded right to vote, the ability of workers to organize, legitimizing political parties, and allowing public debate.
Jacobo Árbenz | Introduction
In addition to Arbenz success, Guatemalan Communist Party moved forward its activities into public. After Jacobo Arbenz came to power in 1951, he extended political freedom, allowing communists in Guatemala to participate in politics. This move by Arbenz let many opponents in Ubico's regime to recognize themselves as communists. By 1952, Arbenz supported a land reform, and took unused agricultural land, about , from owners who had large properties, and made it available to rural workers and farmers. These lands were to be taken from the United Fruit Company with compensation; however, the UFC believed the compensation was not enough.
History of Guatemala | Operation PBSuccess
The narrator then tells two anecdotes, one about Brother Pedro de Betancourt and another about Fray Payo Enriquez de Rivera. Both stories emphasize transformation and contrasting elements. Asturias' main argument is that Guatemala is a nation built on nations and that change is possible. Asturias makes references to the main cities and sites of Guatemala, such as Guatemala City and Antigua, which were formed during the colonial era of Guatemala. He also mentions the Guatemalan sites of Quiriguá, Tikal, as well as Palenque and Copán, which although they are not part of modern-day Guatemala, were part of the "Maya Empire".
Leyendas de Guatemala | Guatemala
After Árbenz's resignation, his family remained for 73 days at the Mexican embassy in Guatemala City, which was crowded with almost 300 exiles. During this period, the CIA initiated a new set of operations against Árbenz, intended to discredit the former president and damage his reputation. The CIA obtained some of Árbenz's personal papers, and released parts of them after doctoring the documents. The CIA also promoted the notion that individuals in exile, such as Árbenz, should be prosecuted in Guatemala. When they were finally allowed to leave the country, Árbenz was publicly humiliated at the airport when the authorities made the former president strip before the cameras, claiming that he was carrying jewelry he had bought for his wife, María Cristina Vilanova, at Tiffany's in New York City, using funds from the presidency; no jewelry was found but the interrogation lasted for an hour.
Jacobo Árbenz | Beginning of exile
Death of colonel Francisco Javier Arana is of critical importance for the history of Guatemala, because it was a turning point for the country's revolution in the 1940s: his death not only cleared the path for colonel Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán's election as President of Guatemala in 1950 but also caused an acute crisis for president Juan José Arévalo Bermejo, who was faced with the Army's faction loyal to colonel Arana, and to civilian groups that took advantage to protest against the government. On 15 July 1949, colonel Francisco Javier Arana, Army Chief of Staff, presented president Juan José Arévalo with an ultimatum: if he wanted to finish the term for which he was elected, he had to fire several members of his cabinet and appoint friends of the colonel.
Amatitlán | Death of colonel Francisco Javier Arana
As Gaitan was not able to have a proper funeral because of the chaotic public disorder, his relatives were forced to bury him in his own house, now known as House Museum Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, where his remains are still resting. Subsequently, the bipartisan violence would spread to other regions during the period known as La Violencia. A popular story, perhaps apocryphal, relates that during a debate with the Conservative candidate for president, Gaitán asked him how he made his living. "From the land", the other candidate replied. "Ah, and how did you get this land?" asked Gaitán. "I inherited it from my father!" "And where did he get it from?" "He inherited it from his father!" The question is repeated once or twice more, and then the Conservative candidate concedes, "We took it from the Natives".
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán | Legacy: Gaitán as a popular myth
The writer, more than any other, should convey his thought somehow guiding the society (...) I think there lies the success of my tales for children, because without political propaganda they convey the problems that we should be aware of and the ones we should try to fix". For an extensive period during his youth, he undertook numerous trips with his puppet theater that he had created. He chose the most remote places in the country and armed with his puppets, boxes of books, and a few personal possessions, he launched a heroic affair of spreading culture within a country where the majority of its population, the indigenous people, had been denied access not only to any kind of information but also their civil rights.
Antonio Paredes Candia | Youth
His death led to the repudiation of Guatemalan society, who lost one of its best leaders.
Jorge Carpio Nicolle | The Politician
Peurifoy promised to arrange a truce, and the plotters went to Árbenz and informed him of their decision. Árbenz, utterly exhausted and seeking to preserve at least a measure of the democratic reforms that he had brought, agreed. After informing his cabinet of his decision, he left the presidential palace at 8 pm on June 27, 1954, having taped a resignation speech that was broadcast an hour later. In it, he stated that he was resigning in order to eliminate the "pretext for the invasion," and that he wished to preserve the gains of the October Revolution. He walked to the nearby Mexican Embassy, seeking political asylum.
Jacobo Árbenz | Operation PBSuccess
Árbenz's role as defense minister had already made him a strong candidate for the presidency, and his firm support of the government during the 1949 uprising further increased his prestige. In 1950 the economically moderate Partido de Integridad Nacional (PIN) announced that Árbenz would be its presidential candidate in the upcoming election. The announcement was quickly followed by endorsements from most parties on the left, including the influential PAR, as well as from labor unions. Árbenz carefully chose the PIN as the party to nominate him. Based on the advice of his friends and colleagues, he believed it would make his candidacy appear more moderate.
Jacobo Árbenz | 1950 election
Baleztena's interest in feasts and customs is peculiar as it combined three different approaches: this of a scientist (anthropologist, historian, ethnographer, who pursues impartial scholarly studies), this of a politician (who shapes popular customs as vehicles of propagating own set of values), and this of a participant (who genuinely enjoys the feasts, contributes to them and takes part in them). Some scholars classify his approach as "costumbrismo nostálgico", which exalted religiosity and viewed modernising changes with anxiety. Some consider it a strategy of disseminating authoritarian discourse, which by means of cultural identification mobilised the society along conservative lines, a process similar to those employed by the Nazis in the Weimar Republic.
Ignacio Baleztena Ascárate | Man of feasts
The famous Bahian writer Jorge Amado drew on this as an inspiration for creating his character Pedro Archanjo, the central figure of his 1969 novel "Tenda dos Milagres" ("Tent of Miracles").
Manuel Raimundo Querino | In popular culture
Postcolonial Guatemalan identity is influenced by a mixture of Mayan and European culture. Asturias, himself a mestizo, proposed a hybrid national soul for Guatemala (ladino in its language, Mayan in its mythology). His quest to create an authentic Guatemalan national identity is central to his first published novel, "Leyendas de Guatemala," and is a pervasive theme throughout his works. When asked by interviewer Günter W. Lorenz how he perceives his role as a Latin American writer, he responds, “...I felt it was my calling and my duty to write about America, which would someday be of interest to the world.” Later in the interview Asturias identifies himself as a spokesman for Guatemala, saying, "...Among the Indians there's a belief in the Gran Lengua (Big Tongue).
Miguel Ángel Asturias | Identity
When Árbenz was elected in 1951, Guatemala had a high GDP but extremely unequal distribution of land: 2% of the population controlled 72% of the arable land. Only 12% of this land was under cultivation. Much of the population without land was poor, and had associated health problems. Indigenous people had been treated as subordinate for hundreds of years, and had become increasingly impoverished and dependent on wages from plantation work. Indigenous people were also required to serve as migrant laborers through legal coercion, as Guatemala's coffee industry expanded rapidly from the 1870s through the 1930s. After Juan Jose Arévalo won the 1944 election, Guatemala created a reformist constitution in 1945.
Decree 900 | Background
Guatemalan novelist and historian José Milla (1822–82) wrote several "costumbrista" works and created the character of "Juan Chapín", the emblematic Guatemalan. Other Central American "costumbristas" are José María Peralta Lagos (1875–1944, El Salvador), Ramón Rosa (1848–93, Honduras), Carlos Alberto Uclés (1854–1942, Honduras), and a distinguished line of Costa Rican writers: Manuel de Jesús Jiménez (1854–1916), Manuel González Zeledón (1864–1936), the verse writer Aquileo Echeverría (1866–1909), and, in the 20th century, Joaquín García Monge (1881–1958).
Costumbrismo | Central America
Fearing the possibility of a revolution, the landed elite lent their support to Jorge Ubico y Castañeda, who had built a reputation for ruthlessness and efficiency as a provincial governor. Ubico won the election that followed in 1931, in which he was the only candidate.
Guatemalan Revolution | Early 20th Century
In Guatemalan literature, "I, Rigoberta Menchú" (1983), brings oral history into the written form through the "testimonio" genre. "I, Rigoberta Menchú" is compiled by Venezuelan anthropologist Burgos-Debray, based on a series of interviews she conducted with Menchú. The Menchú-controversy arose when historian David Stoll took issue with Menchú's claim that “this is a story of all poor Guatemalans”. In "Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans" (1999), Stoll argues that the details in Menchú's "testimonio" are inconsistent with his own fieldwork and interviews he conducted with other Mayas. According to Guatemalan novelist and critic Arturo Arias, this controversy highlights a tension in oral history.
Oral history | Controversies
Arévalo identified his ideology as "spiritual socialism". He held the belief that the only way to alleviate the backwardness of most Guatemalans was through a paternalistic government. He was strongly opposed to classical Marxism, and believed in a capitalist society that was regulated to ensure that its benefits went to the entire population. Arévalo's ideology was reflected in the new constitution that the Guatemalan assembly ratified soon after his inauguration, which was one of the most progressive in Latin America. It mandated suffrage for all but illiterate women, a decentralization of power, and provisions for a multiparty system. Communist parties were, however, forbidden.
Guatemalan Revolution | Ideology
He walked to the nearby Mexican Embassy, seeking political asylum. Two months later he was granted safe passage out of the country, and flew to exile in Mexico.
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état | Árbenz's resignation
Árbenz got more than three times as many votes as the runner-up, Ydígoras Fuentes. Fuentes claimed electoral fraud had benefited Árbenz, but scholars have pointed out that while fraud may possibly have given Árbenz some of his votes, it was not the reason that he won the election. Árbenz's promise of land reform played a large role in ensuring his victory. The election of Árbenz alarmed US State Department officials, who stated that Arana "has always represented the only positive conservative element in the Arévalo administration" and that his death would "strengthen materially", and that "developments forecast sharp leftist trend within the government." Árbenz was inaugurated as president on March 15, 1951.
Jacobo Árbenz | 1950 election
Once the Mexican Revolution came to an end, the socialist government deprived him and his family of their properties. His former house is now the Town Hall of his homeplace, Zumpango del Río.
Jacobo Harrotian | Legacy
Colom stated, "It was a crime to Guatemalan society and it was an act of aggression to a government starting its democratic spring." The agreement established several forms of reparation for the next of kin of Árbenz Guzmán. Among other measures, the state: The official statement issued by the government recognized its responsibility for "failing to comply with its obligation to guarantee, respect, and protect the human rights of the victims to a fair trial, to property, to equal protection before the law, and to judicial protection, which are protected in the American Convention on Human Rights and which were violated against former President Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzman, his wife, María Cristina Villanova, and his children, Juan Jacobo, María Leonora, and Arabella, all surnamed Árbenz Villanova."
Jacobo Árbenz | Guatemalan government apology
The Cultural Center in Mayagüez now bears his name.
Baudilio Vega Berríos | Legacy
The Arbenz family then embarked into exile, taking them first to México, then to Canada, where they went to pick up daughter Arabella, and then on to Switzerland via the Netherlands. As a condition for entry, the Swiss authorities asked Arbenz to renounce his Guatemalan nationality, to prevent the ousted president from continuing his resistance in Switzerland. Arbenz refused this request, as he felt that such a gesture would mark the end of his political career. Furthermore, he could not benefit from political asylum, because Switzerland had not yet ratified the 1951 Agreement of the newly created United Nations High Commission for Refugees, designed to protect people fleeing from communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
Maria Cristina Vilanova | Humiliation and exile
The Guatemala that exists today was founded on top of a substratus of Mayan culture. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, this civilization was very advanced politically, economically, and socially. This rich Mayan culture has had an undeniable influence on Asturias' literary works. He believed in the sacredness of the Mayan traditions and worked to bring life back into its culture by integrating the Indian imagery and tradition into his novels. Asturias studied at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris at that time) with Georges Raynaud, an expert in the culture of the Quiché Maya. In 1926, he finished a translation of the "Popol Vuh", the sacred book of the Mayas.
Miguel Ángel Asturias | Mayan influence
The People's Party () was a political party in Guatemala. The party was led by Jorge García Granados, and functioned as his personal political vehicle. García had been a leader in the 1944 October Revolution. The party opposed the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. It disappeared after the 1954 coup.
People's Party (Guatemala) | Introduction
Guatemala is a multiethnic, pluricultural and multilingual nation and has been plagued by violence and exclusion directed at the poorest and most vulnerable, specifically the indigenous (Mayan) communities. A colonial legacy left power in the hands of an elite minority, much like many other Latin American countries. Repression was omnipresent — specifically with regards to insurgent groups. In 1954 Guatemala's democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz was overthrown by a U.S.backed right-wing military dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas, in a military coup d'état. The 36 year Guatemalan civil war began in the early 1960s with a military rebellion by left-wing insurgency groups against the new regime.
Historical Clarification Commission | Historical context of the conflict
Although his reforms were based on liberalism and capitalism, he was viewed with suspicion by the United States government, which would later portray him as a communist. When Árbenz was sworn in as defense minister under President Arévalo, he became the first to hold the portfolio, since it had previously been known as the "Ministry of War". In the fall of 1947, Árbenz, as defense minister, objected to the deportation of several workers after they had been accused of being communists. Well-known communist José Manuel Fortuny was intrigued by this action and decided to visit him, and found Árbenz to be different from the stereotypical Central American military officer.
Jacobo Árbenz | Government of Juan José Arévalo
The Communist Party was never the center of the communist movement in Guatemala until Jacobo Árbenz came to power in 1951. Prior to 1951, communism lived within the urban labor forces in small study groups during 1944 to 1953 which it had a tremendous influence on these urban labor forces. Despite its small size within Guatemala, many leaders were extremely vocal about their beliefs (for instance, in their protests and, more importantly, their literature). In 1949, in Congress, the Communist Party only had less than forty members, however, by 1953 it went up to nearly four thousand. Before Arbenz come to power in 1951, the communist movement preferred to carry out many of their activities through the so-called mass organization.
History of Guatemala | Operation PBSuccess
Following years of campaigning, the Arbenz Family took the Guatemalan Government to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. It accepted the complaint in 2006, leading to five years of stop-and-start negotiations. In May 2011 the Guatemalan government signed an agreement with Árbenz's surviving family to restore his legacy and publicly apologize for the government's role in ousting him. This included a financial settlement to the family, as well as the family's insistence on social reparations and policies for the future of the Guatemalan people, a first for a judgement of this kind from the OAS. The formal apology was made at the National Palace by Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on October 20, 2011, to Jacobo Árbenz Vilanova, the son of the former president, and a Guatemalan politician.
Jacobo Árbenz | Guatemalan government apology
By that time, they were already a National Monument of Guatemala.
Naj Tunich | Introduction
In 1926 both nations resident diplomatic missions were elevated to embassies. In 1954, reformist Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz was ousted in an American backed coup d'état and replaced by a military junta; because of his disputes and opposition against the United Fruit Company. This incident was known as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. After resigning from the presidency, Árbenz and his family and several other political allies; were allowed to seek asylum in the Mexican embassy. After several weeks in the embassy, Árbenz, his family and political followers were allowed to leave the country for Mexico where he died in 1971.
Guatemala–Mexico relations | History
Therefore, they wore specific symbols on their clothes and headdresses to identify themselves as Creoles and patriots.
Joaquín de Agüero | Legacy