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REGIONAL RELUCTANCE IN IRAQ: LEGACY OF ARBENZ COUP?

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The US may be paying today in Iraq for the government it overthrew a half-century ago in Guatemala. June 17 marked the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of the Jacobo Arbenz government, the first truly democratically elected government Guatemala had ever had until then (see NotiCen, 2003-05-22). As Arbenz's economy secretary, Alfonso Bauer Pais, told reporters recently, "In the history of Guatemala, with no exaggeration, there has never been a period that can compare to 1944-1954, because it began with attacking the vestiges of semi-feudalism...and maintained a position of dignity and sovereignty against the new imperialism." Bauer Pais is the last living member of the Arbenz government.

In 1954, the US was at the height of its anti-communist crusades, and Central America was the focus not only of the virulent policies of the day but also of the Dulles brothers, John Foster, the secretary of state, and Allen, chief of the CIA, the agency that engineered the coup. The Dulles brothers, stockholders in the United Fruit Company (UFCO), had a significant financial interest in seeing that pro-UFCO dictators remained in charge. Allen Dulles, prior to taking over at the CIA, was president of UFCO. John had been UFCO's lawyer.

The US intervention ended a period in Guatemala known as the "Ten Years of Spring," which began with the overthrow of the dictator Jorge Ubico and the election, first, of Juan Jose Arevalo in 1944, and then, in 1950, of Jacobo...

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