CIA In Guatemala

12 Pages 3043 Words

With initial impetus and some apprehension, Arevalo would make the policy changes promised.
Arevalo was a cautious reformer, when he took office he instituted a new constitution, passed legislation to improve the conditions of the labour force, namely those on foreign owned plantations and employees with the railway. Within the constitution he banished large estates and ‘…stated that private property had to have a social function.’ American historians have strongly argued that the Arevalo government ‘…saw Communists among [their] most fervent and active supporters….’ The land reforms brought in by Arevalo upset the then U.S. ambassador to Guatemala, Patterson: ‘I will do my utmost to see that you do not get a single pair of boots, a single cent from my government, unless you stop persecuting American companies.’ Patterson’s comments started an uneasy pattern of U.S. corporate protectionism in Guatemala.
The ambassadors comments were not to far from the truth, between 1946 and 1959 the new ‘…super power, which were pre-eminent in the world and completely unchallenged in the hemisphere’ , only gave Latin America two percent of U.S. foreign aid. The land reforms clearly meant to halt the creation of large corporate held lands, and it was not until Arbenz was president that the land reforms were drastic enough to warrant action. The United Fruit Company was clearly the largest landholder and economic force in Guatemala since 1900, and in 1944, two percent of the landowners held sixty percent of the land. As Arevalo programs were taking hold in Guatemalan life, the U.S. was trying to shore up support in the Americas for their fight against communism.
In 1947, the United States assembled the hemispheric nations in Brazil, to sign the Rio Pact, a permanent Pan American defence alliance. In 1948, meeting for the ninth time, the countries set up the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS). ...