Washington Unmakes Guatemala, 1954

by Matthew Ward, COHA Research Fellow

---

Appendix A: Timeline of Events

1 July 1944	Following mass protests against his rule, Guatemalan President Jorge Ubico resigns the presidency and hands power over to a provisional junta headed by General Federico Ponce Vaides.
19 October 1944	Ponce’s continuation of Ubico’s repressive style of rule leads a small group of army officers led by Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and Maj. Francisco Araña to attack the National Palace and seize control of the country. Arbenz and Araña form a provisional junta with prominent Guatemalan businessman Francisco Toriello and promise a liberal constitution and free democratic elections. The junta chooses Juan Jose Arévalo as their candidate.
19 December 1944	Arévalo is elected to the presidency.
15 March 1945	Arévalo inaugurated as president of Guatemala.
February 1947	Arévalo institutes the Labor Code.
18 July 1949	Col. Francisco Araña, Guatemalan armed forces chief, is assassinated.
15 May 1950	Thomas Corcoran, United Fruit Company lobbyist, meets with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, Thomas Mann, to suggest action to oust Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo.
3 September 1950	A CIA Case officer arrives in Guatemala City and establishes contact with an anti-Communist student group.
11 November 1950	Jacobo Arbenz elected president.
15 March 1951	Arbenz inaugurated.
22 August 1951	United Fruit Company warns employees that any increase in labor costs would make its operations in Guatemala uneconomic and force it to withdraw from the country.
15 September 1951	Windstorm flattens United Fruit’s principal Guatemalan banana farms at Tiquisate; United Fruit later announces it will not rehabilitate plantation until it has completed study of economics of Guatemalan operations.
26 September 1951	United Fruit suspends 3,742 Tiquisate employees, refuses to comply with order of Inspector General of Labor to reinstate the suspended employees.
30 October 1951	Walter Turnbull, Vice President of United Fruit, gives Arbenz ultimatum: United Fruit will not rehabilitate plantations without assurance of stable labor costs for three years and exemption from unfavorable labor laws or exchange controls.
5 November 1951	Director of Central Intelligence Dulles and King receive representatives of UFC, who offer intelligence, financial and material aid for any program the CIA might devise to overthrow the Arbenz administration.
19 December 1951	United Fruit announces reduction in passenger ship service to Guatemala.
2 January 1952	Labor Court of Appeals rules United Fruit must resume operations at Tiquisate and pay 3,742 employees back wages.
12 March 1952	Inspector General of the CIA, Stuart Hedden meets with UFC lawyer Thomas Corcoran and receives assurances that UFC supports Castillo Armas’ revolutionary movement.
22 March 1952	CIA Internal Memo indicates CIA is now intent to aid Castillo Armas.
25 March 1952	CIA Mexico City Office begins receiving weekly reports from Castillo Armas.
April 1952	President Somoza of Nicaragua visits Washington.
17 June 1952	Arbenz enacts Agrarian Reform Bill.
July 1952	President Somoza of Nicaragua returns to Managua aboard a U.S. military plane. During the flight he persuades Col. Cornelius Mara, assistant military aide to Truman, to present the plan to aid Castillo Armas to Truman.
10 July 1952	Allen Dulles meets with Mann to solicit State Department approval for Operation PBFORTUNE: a covert plan to overthrow Arbenz with the aid of Castillo Armas.
7 August 1952	Distribution of land under the Agrarian Reform law begins.
18 August 1952	Director of Central Intelligence gives approval for PBFORTUNE.
2 October 1952	Pan American Airways settles three-month-old strike in Guatemala by raising wages by 23 per cent.
3 October 1952	Following indiscreet approaches by various Latin American diplomats regarding the impending covert operation, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mann cables Secretary of State Acheson to inform him of these approaches and the State Department’s discovery that the plan contemplates the supply of arms to Castillo Armas, rather than the financial aid originally authorized by State.
8 October 1952	Acheson and Bruce summon Wisner and King and order them to halt PBFORTUNE.
December 1952	Eisenhower and Republicans win U.S. presidential election on the back of promises to “roll back” Communism.
11 December 1952	Guatemalan Communist party opens second party congress with senior Arbenz administration officials in attendance.
12 December 1952	Workers at United Fruit’s Tiquisate plantation file for expropriation of 55,000 acres of United Fruit land.
19 December 1952	Guatemalan Communist party, PGT, legalized.
5 February 1953	Congress impeaches the Supreme Court for “ignorance of the law which shows unfitness and manifest incapacity to administer justice” after the Court issued an injunction against further seizures of land.
25 February 1953	Guatemala confiscates 234,000 acres of United Fruit land.
18 March 1953	NSC 144/1, “United States Objectives and Courses with Respect to Latin America”, warns of a “drift in the area toward radical and nationalistic regimes”.
29 March 1953	Salama uprising. Abortive rebellion touches off suppression campaign against anti-Communists in Guatemala.
19 August 1953	Bureau of Inter-American Affairs drafts paper that argues against a policy of covert intervention in Guatemala.
11 September 1953	Col. J.C. King receives “General Plan of Action” for PBSUCCESS.
October 1953	John Peurifoy, newly-appointed U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, arrives in Guatemala City.
9 November 1953	José Manuel Fortuny flies to Prague to negotiate purchase of arms.
16 November 1953	DDP Frank Wisner approves plan and recommends acceptance by Director of Central Intelligence.
25 November 1953	A high-level meeting is held in the CIA to discuss keeping Cabot in the dark regarding PBSUCCESS.
9 December 1953	Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles approves general plan for PBSUCCESS and allocates $3 million for the program.
23 December 1954	CIA’S LINCOLN Station (PBSUCCESS headquarters in Florida) opens.
18 January 1954	Alfonso Martinez, head of the Agrarian Department, “flees” to Switzerland. Proceeds to Prague to conclude arms deal.
25 January 1954	Guatemalan government begins mass arrests of suspected subversives.
29 January 1954	Guatemalan white paper accuses United States of planning invasion. Reveals substantial details of PBSUCCESS.
2 February 1954	Sydney Gruson, New York Times correspondent, expelled from Guatemala by Guatemalan Foreign Minister Guillermo Toriello. Wisner and King meet to decide whether to abort PBSUCCESS due to white paper revelations.
19 February 1954	Operation WASHTUB—a plan to plant a phony Soviet arms cache in Nicaragua to demonstrate Guatemalan ties to Moscow—begins. It is accorded little credibility.
24 February 1954	Guatemala confiscates 173,000 acres of United Fruit land.
1 March 1954	Caracas meeting of the OAS opens.
4 March 1954	John Foster Dulles speaks to Caracas meeting.
5 March 1954	Guatemalan Foreign Minister Toriello rebuts U.S. charges.
13 March 1954	OAS votes 17 to 1 to condemn Communism in Guatemala.
21 March 1954	Paramilitary training program graduates 37 Guatemalan sabotage trainees.
9 April 1954	Guatemalan Archbishop Mariano Rossell y Arrellana issues a pastoral letter calling for a national crusade against Communism.
10 April 1954	Wisner briefs Assistant Secretary of State Henry Holland on PBSUCCESS. Holland, shocked, demands top-level review of project.
17 April 1954	John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles give the “full green light” to Operation PBSUCCESS.
20 April 1954	Paramilitary training program graduates 30 leadership trainees.
1 May 1954	La Voz de la Liberacion, or Operation SHERWOOD, begins broadcasts.
14 May 1954	Paramilitary training program graduates communications trainees.
15 May 1954	SS Alfhem docks in Puerto Barrios with cargo of Czech weapons.
20 May 1954	Commando raid on trainload of Alfhem weapons. One soldier and one saboteur killed. Further sabotage attempts on 21 and 25 May. All fail. Official Guatemalan radio goes off the air to replace transmitter. Does not restart broadcasts until mid-June. Nicaragua breaks diplomatic relations with Guatemala.
24 May 1954	U.S. Navy begins Operation HARDROCK BAKER, sea blockade of Guatemala.
29 May 1954	Arbenz rounds up subversives, netting nearly all of Castillo Armas’ clandestine apparatus.
31 May 1954	Arbenz offers to meet with Eisenhower to reduce tensions.
4 June 1954	Col. Rodolfo Mendoza of Guatemalan air force defects to El Salvador with private plane.
8 June 1954	Victor Manuel Gutierrez, secretary general of the Guatemalan trade union federation, CGTG, holds a special meeting of farm and labor unions to urge them to mobilize for self-defense.
15 June 1954	Sabotage teams launched. Invasion force moves to staging areas.
18 June 1954	At 1700 hours, Arbenz holds mass rally at railroad station. Buzzed by CIA planes. At 2020 hours, Castillo Armas crosses the border.
19 June 1954	At 0150 hours, bridge at Gualin blown up.
20 June 1954	Esquipulas captured. Rebels defeated at Gualin.
21 June 1954	Largest rebel force suffers disastrous defeat at Puerto Barrios.
25 June 1954	Matamoros Fortress bombed. Chiquimula captured. CIA planes strafe troop trains.
27 June 1954	Arbenz capitulates. Castillo Armas attacks Zacapa, is defeated and falls back to Chiquimula. Agency plane bombs British freighter at San Jose.
28 June 1954	Diaz, Sanchez, and Monzon form junta at 1145 hours. Refuse to negotiate with Castillo Armas. F-47 drops two bombs at 1530 hours.
29 June 1954	Monzon seizes junta, requests negotiations with Castillo Armas. Zacapa garrison arranges cease-fire with Castillo Armas.