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The Agrarian Reform of Jacobo Arbenz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Piero Gleijeses
Piero Gleijeses
Affiliation:
Piero Gleijeses is Associate Professor of American Foreign Policy and Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Washington.
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Extract

The cry for land is, without any doubt, the loudest, the most dramatic and the most desperate sound in Guatemala.’ So wrote the Guatemalan bishops in 1988. In their country's long history, the bishops stated, only one president – Jacobo Arbenz – had addressed the issue of land reform.1 Inaugurated in 1951, Arbenz presided over the most successful agrarian reform in the history of Central America. The reports of the US embassy bear testimony to the fact that within eighteen months land was distributed to 100,000 peasant families, amid little violence and without adversely affecting production.2 Praise for initiating the reform does not belong, however, solely to Arbenz. As his wife observed, ‘Alone, he could not have done it’. Praise should also be given to the Communist party of Guatemala, whose leaders were Arbenz's closest personal and political friends.3

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , October 1989 , pp. 453 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

1 El clamor por la tierra. Pastoral letter of the Guatemalan bishops, Feb. 1988, p. 1.

2 See below fns. 61, 67, 68, 71, 75, 86–88.

3 For Arbenz's relations with the communist party, interviews with María Vilanova de Arbenz (quote), José Manuel Fortuny, Alfredo Guerra Borges, ‘Alejandro’, and Augusto Charnaud MacDonald were particularly useful. (For the positions they held during the Arbenz administration see the appended list of interviewees.) The issue of communist influence in the Arbenz government is discussed in Piero Gleijeses, The United States and the Guatemalan Revolution (Princeton, forthcoming).

4 See International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), The Economic Development of Guatemala (Baltimore, 1951).Google Scholar

5 For the 1950 incident, see ‘Red Shadow in Elections’, Newsweek, 13 11. 1950, p. 52Google Scholar (quote) and US Congress, House, Selective Executive Session Hearings of the Committee, 1951–6, The Middle East, Africa and Inter-American Affairs, Historical Series (Washington, DC, 1980), p. 399.Google Scholar For the 1951 incident, see US Department of State (DOS), memo conv., ‘Mr López Herrarte's impressions of the situation in Guatemala’, 18 Jan. 1951.

6 Aragón, Luis Cardoza y, La Revolución Guatemalteca (Mexico, 1955), p. 9.Google Scholar

7 DOS, Office of Intelligence and Research (OIR), ‘Agrarian Reform in Guatemala’, no. 6001, 5 march 1953 p.1.

8 See: Discursos del Doctor Juan José Arévalo y del Teniente Coronel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán en el Acto de Transmisión de la Presidencia de la República, 15 de marzo de 1951 (Guatemala, 1951); Expositión del Presidente de la República, Ciudadano Jacobo Arbenz, ante la opinión pública nacional y el Consejo Nacional de Economía sobre su programa de gobierno (Guatemala, 1951).Google Scholar

9 In March 1951 these parties were the Partido Acción Revolucionaria (PAR), the Frente Popular Libertador (FPL), the Renovación Nacional (RN) and the Partido Integridad Nacional (PIN). Over the next three years their number and their names changed because of mergers and schisms, but they retained their massive congressional majority.

There is no comprehensive study of the administration parties for the Arévalo– Arbenz period. Important primary sources can be found in the Guatemala Transcripts (GT), esp. Res 9, 12, 13, 66, 67, 68, 69. Despite a marked bias, reports from the US Embassy are valuable; for the Arbenz years, see, in particular, the Embassy's weekly Joint Weeka (JW). Of the Guatemalan newspapers, the most useful are the government daily, Diario de Centro América (DCA), and the opposition dailies El Imparcial (El I) and La Hora. Among published works, the most useful are Bishop, Edwin, The Guatemalan Labor Movement, 1944–1959 (Ann Arbor, 1959), pp. 109–58Google Scholar; Schneider, Ronald, Communism in Guatemala, 1944–1954 (New York, 1958), esp. pp. 218–49.Google Scholar Particularly helpful were interviews with José Manuel Fortuny, Manuel Galich, Augusto Charnaud MacDonald, Alfonso Bauer Paiz, Ernesto Capuano.

10 The major domestic constraint was the anticommunism of the army; the major international constraint was the anticommunism of the United States. (For Arbenz's and the PGT's future vision of Guatemala, interviews with María de Arbenz, Fortuny, Guerra Borges, ‘Alejandro’ and Charnaud were particularly useful. This theme is developed in Gleijeses, The United States and the Guatemalan Revolution.) The kitchen cabinet – and the kitchen cabinet alone – partook in Arbenz's major decisions, such as the agrarian reform, the importation of arms from Czechoslovakia and the resignation from the presidency. (Interviews with cabinet ministers, senior army officers and leading administration politicians confirmed that they were all in the dark as to these decisions.) The merits of the communist party are confirmed by an unlikely source – the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy in Guatemala in the Arbenz years: the communist leaders, he noted, ‘were very honest, very committed. This was the tragedy: the only people who were committed to hard work were those who were, by definition, our worst enemies’. (Interview with Bill Krieg. See also: DOS, Krieg to Fisher 29 Dec. 1953 and enclosed memo conv.; Joint Weeka no. 4, 1 Feb. 1954; The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Jan. 1953, p. 7; NYT, 1 March, 1953, iv: 6; 21 Feb. 1954, iv: 11; 1 May 1955, p. 17. Two anticommunist scholars – Ronald Schneider, Communism in Guatemala and Edwin Bishop, The Guatemalan Labor Movement – also attest to the singular integrity and the industriousness of the Guatemalan communists.)

11 Schneider, , Communism in Guatemala, pp. 195, 196, 197.Google Scholar

12 Silvert, Kalman, A Study in Government: Guatemala (New Orleans, 1954). P.12.Google Scholar

13 Interview with Charnaud.

14 See esp. Pearson, Neale, ‘The Confederación Nacional Campesina de Guatemala (CNCG) and Peasant Unionism in Guatemala, 1944–1954’, MA Thesis, Georgetown University, 1964, pp. 1–40Google Scholar; Suslow, Leo, Aspects of Social Reforms in Guatemala, 1944–1949 (Hamilton, New York, 1949), pp. 44–99Google Scholar; Bishop, , The Guatemalan Labor Movement, pp. 76–106Google Scholar; Bush, Archer, ‘Organized Labor in Guatemala, 1944–1949’, MA Thesis, Colgate University, 1950.Google Scholar

15 Interviews with María de Arbenz, Fortuny and Guerra Borges.

16 Interviews with Fortuny, María de Arbenz, Guerra Borges, Terencio Guillen, and Lilly Zachrisson de Vilanova (wife of Tonio).

17 Monteforte, M., Guatemala. Monografía sociológica (Mexico, 1959), p. 435, fn. 2.Google Scholar

18 Interviews with Fortuny (quote), María de Arbenz and Guerra Borges.

* PGT: Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo. The Guatemalan Communist Party adopted this name in December 1952. Previously it was called Partido Comunista de Guatemala. The communist party will be called the PGT throughout this essay.

19 Interviews with Guerra Borges (quote), María de Arbenz and Fortuny. Interview with Noriega Morales confirmed the others' accounts of his participation.

20 Informe del Ciudadano Presidente de la República, Coronel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán al Congreso Nacional en su primero periodo de sesiones ordinarias del año de 1953 (Guatemala, 1953), pp. viii–ix.Google Scholar

21 See ‘Proyecto entrega el Ejecutivo al Congreso’, El I, 10 May 1952, p. 1 and ‘Proyecto de reforma agraria al Congreso’, DCA, 10 May, 1952, p. 1. For the full text of the draft see ‘Ley de Reforma Agraria’, DCA, 12, 14, 15 and 16 May 1952 (all p. 4). For the discussions in the cabinet, interviews with the Ministers Jorge Luis Arriola (quote), Charnaud and Galich were helpful.

22 See Asociación General de Agricultores, Proyecto de Ley Agraria de la Asociación General de Agricultores (Guatemala, May 1952). For the government's response see Crítica al Proyecto de Ley Agraria de la Asociación General de Agricultores (Guatemala, 05 1952).Google Scholar

23 Quotes from AGA's communiqués of 18 June 1952 (‘La AGA al pueblo de Guatemala’) and of 19 June 1952 (‘La AGA ante la conciencia honrada del pueblo de Guatemala rechaza temerosas imputaciones’), La Hora, 18 06 1952, p. 10, and 19 06 1952, p. 10.Google Scholar These are only two of an avalanche of communiqués published by the association. Some titles are particularly evocative, for instance: ‘The Wolves Cast Off Their Sheep's Clothing’ (La Hora, 30 05 1952, p. 10)Google Scholar, and ‘Selling the Leather Before Killing the Cow’ (La Hora, 3 June 1952, p. 10).

24 For the Church's position, see Verbum and Actión Social Cristiana. The best studies of the church in the Arbenz years are Ricardo Bendaña, ‘Historia general de la Iglesia de América Latina, parte correspondiente a Guatemala, 1821–1976’ (unpubl. MS), and Frankel, Anita, Political Development in Guatemala, 1944–1954; The Impact of Foreign, Military, and Religious Elites (Ann Arbor, 1972).Google Scholar

25 JW 25, 20 June 1952, I:2 (quote). See also JW 23, 6 June 1952; JW 24, 13 June 1952; Schoenfeld to DOS, no. 1261, 10 June 1952. Interviews with Krieg and Elizabeth Hyman were particularly helpful.

26 Most useful were interviews with the following administration politicians: Galich (quote), Charnaud and Capuano.

27 For the text of Decree 900, see El Guatemalteco, 2a época, 17 June 1952, vol. cxxxv, no. 86, pp. 957–62. For the debates in Congress, see Actas del Congreso, Primer periodo ordinario de sesiones, 28 de febrero al 30 de mayo 1952 (Libro no. 15, 1952), and Sesiones extraordinarias, 12 de junio a 3 de julio, 1952 (Libro no. 16, 1952). For the changes introduced in Congress to the government's bill, see also Moreira, José Luis Paredes, Reforma agraria. Una experiencia en Guatemala (Guatemala, 1963), pp. 50–51.Google Scholar Of the press, DCA, El I and La Hora are particularly useful.

28 Articles 9–12. The Fincas Nacionales were: (1) the estates of the German community which had been expropriated by the dictator Jorge Ubico in June 1944; (2) the estates of Ubico and some of his generals which were confiscated in late 1944.

29 Article 39.

30 Article 6.

31 See ‘Conteståtión a la AGA’, DCA, 3 June 1952, p. 1 and ‘No hay contradicciones en el proyecto de ley de reforma agraria del Ejecutivo ni la AGA quiere hacer más “propietarios ”’, DCA, 6 June 1952, p. 8.

32 Quotes from interviews with María de Arbenz and Fortuny. By June 1959, only 22% of the land had been given in freehold. (See Moreira, José Luis Paredes, ‘Aspectos y resultados económicos de la reforma agraria en Guatemala’, Economía, Guatemala, no. 12, 12. 1966, p. 59.Google Scholar

33 Article 57.

34 Articles 52, 54–6, 59 (quote) and 60.

35 Even the US Embassy concluded that the law was ‘relatively moderate in form’ (‘Economic and Financial Review – 1953’, no. 953, 19 May 1954. P. 21).

36 Thomas and Melville, Marjorie, Guatemala: The Politics of Land Ownership (New York, 1971), p. 54.Google Scholar For the expropriation process, see articles 63–83 of Decree 900.

37 Interviews with Fortuny (quote), María de Arbenz and Guerra Borges.

38 Quotes from ‘Agrarian Reform in Guatemala’, no. 6001, 5 March 1953, pp. 7, 5, 4.

39 US Embassy, ‘Monthly Economic Report – Aug. 1952’, no. 212, 28 08. 1952, p. 1.Google Scholar

40 Pearson, , ‘The Confederatión Nacional Campesina’, p. 174Google Scholar (quote); ‘Guatemala Opens Roads’, NYT, 24 July 1952, p. 2.

41 Flores, Castillo, ‘lnforme del Secretario General al III Congreso Nacional Campesino’, 19 02. 1954, pp. 1–2, GT Box 11.Google Scholar

42 Fortuny, , ‘Sobre la Parcelación de “Concepción”’, Tribuna Popular, 26 08. 1953, p. 3 (quote) and 27 08. 1953, p. 3.Google Scholar

43 See ‘Positiva Realidad el Decreto 900’, DCA, 7 Aug. 1952, p. 1; JW 42, 16 Oct. 1952, 1:4; JW 47, 20 Nov. 1952, 1:2; ‘Acuérdase expropiación de las primeras fincas particulates’, DCA, 6 Jan. 1953, p. 1; ‘Expropiadas las primeras fincas de particulares’ (ed.), DCA, 7 Jan. 1953, p. 3.

44 The major primary sources on the implementation of the agrarian reform are: (a) the reports of the US Embassy, particularly the JW, the Labor Reports (Quarterly, Semi-Annual and Annual), and the Economic Reports (Monthly, Quarterly and Annual); (b) the Guatemalan press, esp. DCA, La Hora, El I, and the PGT's Octubre and Tribuna Popular; (c) the GT. The most important secondary sources on the implementation of the reform are by Moreira, José Luis Paredes: Reforma agraria: Aplicación del Decreto 900 (Guatemala, 1964)Google Scholar; ‘Aspectos y resultados’, pp. 26–61. On agricultural credit, see esp. Comité Interamericano de Desarrollo Agrícola (C1DA), Tenencia de la tierra y desarrollo socioeconómico del sector agrícola (Washington, DC, 1965), pp. 31–54.Google Scholar On other aspects of the agrarian reform, see: Pearson, , ‘The Confederación Nacional Campesina’ and ‘Guatemala: The Peasant Union Movement, 1944–1954’, in Landsberger, Henry (ed.), Latin American Peasant Movements (Ithaca and London, 1969), pp. 323–73Google Scholar; Soto, José M. Aybar de, Dependency and Intervention: The Case of Guatemala in 1954 (Boulder, 1979)Google Scholar; Añoveros, Jesús García, La Reforma Agraria de Arbenz en Guatemala (Madrid, 1987)Google Scholar and ‘El “caso Guatemala” (junio de 1954): la universidad y el campesinado’, Alero (Guatemala), no. 28 (Jan./Feb. 1978), pp. 133–234; Wasserstrom, Robert, ‘Revolution in Guatemala: Peasants and Politics Under the Arbenz Government’, Comparative Studies in Society and History (Oct. 1975), pp. 443–78Google Scholar; Handy, James, Class and Community in Rural Guatemala: Village Reaction to the Agrarian Reform Law, 1952–1954 Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, no. 59 (1985)Google Scholar and ‘“The Most Precious Fruit of the Revolution”: The Guatemalan Agrarian Reform, 1952–54’, Hispanic American Historical Review (11. 1988), pp. 675–705Google Scholar; Whetten, Nathan, Guatemala, The Land and the People (New Haven, 1961)Google Scholar and ‘Land Reform in a Modern World’, Rural Sociology, no. 19 (1954), pp. 329–36.Google Scholar

45 ‘Informe del Ciudadano Presidente de la República Coronel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán’, Noticias de Guatemala, 2 03. 1954, p. 3.Google Scholar

46 ‘Informe’, 19 Feb. 1954.

47 Quotes from Diego Lares Bocal to Castillo Flores, Tecpan, 31 March 1954, GT, Box 43, and Marcelino Tux, Secretario General Unión Campesina San Juan, to Castillo Flores, Senahu, 23 May 1954, Ibid., Box 44.

48 See GT, Boxes 11, 12, 42, and 43.

49 The incidents at San Pedro Ayampuc and San Vicente Pacaya occurred on 12 and 14 Feb. 1953; at San Pedro Yepocapa on 26 Aug. 1953; at San Juan La Ermita on 30 April 1954. See esp. DCA, El I, La Hora and Tribuna Popular.

50 “Guatemala's Land Law Halted”, NYT, 6 Feb. 1953, p. 20.Google Scholar

51 ‘Destituida hoy la corte’, El I, 6 Feb. 1953, p. 1 (quote p. 9, quoting Arbenz's 5 Feb. message to Congress).

52 ‘Destitución de la corte’ (ed.), El I, 6 Feb. 1953, p. 1.

53 The episode can be followed in DCA, El I and Prensa Libre. For the; Feb. session of Congress, see ‘Actas de la séptima sesión extraordinaria que el Congreso de la República celebró en la Ciudad de Guatemala, el cinco de febrero de mil novecientos cincuenta y tres…’, in Sesiones extraordinarias, enero-febrero 1953, Libro no. 12 (Guatemala).

54 Pearson, ‘The Confederación Nacional Campesina’, p. 171. The best source for statistical data is Paredes Moreira, Reforma agraria and Aplicación del Decreto 900.

55 ‘El capitán Montenegro defiende la obra del ex-presidente Castillo Armas’, La Hora, 1 Apr. 1958, p. 4; see also Moreira, Paredes, Aplicación del Decreto 900, pp. 76–7Google Scholar, and CIDA, Tenencia de la Tierra, p. 42.Google Scholar

5 6 IBRD, The Economic Development, p. 26.Google Scholar

57 Whetten, , Guatemala, p. 156.Google Scholar

58 See DCA: ‘Aprobado el anteproyecto del Banco Agrario’, 3 Feb. 1953, p. 1; ‘EI Banco Agrario Nacional’ (edit.), 4 Feb. 1953, p. 3; ‘Ultimos toques a la ley del Banco Agrario’, 11 Feb. 1953, p. 1; ‘Proyecto del Banco Agrario fué enviado al Congreso’, 12 Feb. 1953, p. 1; ‘Proyecto del Banco Agrario fué enviado ya al Congreso’, 13 Feb. 1953, p. 1. For the draft, see ‘Texto del proyecto de creación del Banco Nacional Agrario’, DCA, 16, 17 and 18 Feb. 1953 (all p. 8).

59 JW 28, 9 July 1953, 11:3. See also ‘Ley orgánica del Banco Agrario, aprobada’, DCA, 8 July 1953, p. 1; ‘“Publíquese y cúmplase” a la ley del Banco Nac. Agrario’, DCA, 9 July 1953, p. 1; ‘El Banco Nacional Agrario’ (edit.), DCA, 11 July 1953, p. 3.

60 CIDA, , Tenencia de la tierra, p. 43.Google Scholar (Moreira, Paredes, Reforma Agraria, p. 139Google Scholar, gives slightly different figures: $11,772,400 in loans and 53,950 successful applicants.) For per capita income in 1950, see Palacios, José Antonio, ‘Formas de redistribución del ingreso en Guatemala’, Trimestre Económico (Mexico, DF), 07–08. 1952, p. 430.Google Scholar

61 Based on a reading of the Embassy's reports. For the bank's organisation, see Informe mensual del Banco Nacional Agrario, no. 1, May 1954, pp. 1–4.

6 Quotes from interview with Guillermo Noriega Morales, who was a senior official of the BNA. For the figures, see CIDA, Tenencia de la tierra, p. 42.Google Scholar

63 Charite, Norman La et al. , Case Study in Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare: Guatemala, 1944–1954 (Washington, DC, 1964), p. 60.Google Scholar

64 See Soto, Aybar de, Dependency and Intervention, p. 195, fn. 98.Google Scholar

65 CIDA, Tenencia de la tierra, p. 42.Google Scholar

66 Pearson, , ‘Confederación Nacional Campesina’, pp. 187–8.Google Scholar

67 JW 34, 21 Aug. 1953, 11:1.

68 Quotes from ‘Economic and Financial Review – 1953’, p. 6. See also Moreira, Paredes, Reforma agraria, p. 61Google Scholar, table no. 15.

69 Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, The World Coffee Economy (Rome, 1961)Google Scholar, table 1A.

7 US Embassy: ‘Economic Summary – March 1954’ (no. 851, 12 April 1954, p. 1); ‘Economic Summary – April 1954’ (no. 919, 7 May 1954, P 1); ‘Economic Summary – May 1954’ (no. 995, 9 June 1954, p. 1).

71 Whetten, , Guatemala, p. 154Google Scholar (quoting landowners).

72 Under Arévalo, the administration of the Fincas Nacionales had been corrupt and inefficient. See Suslow, , Aspects of Social Reforms, pp. 65–8Google Scholar; IBRD, The Economic Development, pp. 36–7Google Scholar; Biechler, Michael, The Coffee Industry of Guatemala: A Geographic Analysis (Ann Arbor, 1970), pp. 49–50Google Scholar; Hendon, Robert, ‘Some Recent Economic Reforms in Guatemala’, MA Thesis, Colgate University, 1949, pp. 177–81Google Scholar; Whetten, , Guatemala, p. 128.Google Scholar A folder in the GT, Box 20, provides a glimpse of life on the Fincas Nacionales.

73 One issue of El Campesino (Jan./Feb./March 1954) is in the GT, Box 7.

74 Interviews with María de Arbenz, Fortuny, Guerra Borges and ‘Alejandro’.

75 JW 42, 16 Oct. 1953, 11:2.

76 Pearson, , ‘Guatemala’, p. 326.Google Scholar

77 See Ibid., pp. 344 6.

78 Moisés Saenz, quoted in Reina, Rubén, ‘Chinautla, a Guatemalan Indian Community’, in Adams, Richard (ed.), Community Culture and National Change (New Orleans, 1972), p. 98.Google Scholar

79 Pearson, , ‘Guatemala’, p. 326.Google Scholar

80 OIR, ‘Agrarian Reform in Guatemala’, no. 6001, 5 05 1953, p. 5.Google Scholar

81 On rural education under Arévalo see esp. Orellana, Carlos González, Historia de la educación en Guatemala (Guatemala, 1970), pp. 394–423.Google Scholar See also: Suslow, , Aspects of Social Reforms, pp. 18–27, 33–43Google Scholar; Noval, Joaquín, Tres problemas de la educación rural en Guatemala (Guatemala, 1959)Google Scholar; Jiménez, Ernesto, La educación rural en Guatemala (Guatemala, 1967), pp. 66–307Google Scholar; Casey, Dennis, ‘Indigenismo: the Guatemalan Experience’, PhD Diss., University of Kansas, 1979), pp. 299–356.Google Scholar

82 Quotes from Castillo Flores to the Secretarios de Uniones Campesinas del Departamento de lzabal, Guatemala, 2 June 1954, GT, Box 12 and from CNCG, Circular, 15 Feb. 1954, p. 1, Ibid., Box 11. For other relevant documents, see Ibid., Boxes 10–12.

83 “Expositión de la Federatión Campesina de Huehuetenango ante el Tercer Congreso Nacional Campesino”, GT, Box 12.

84 Stokes Newbold (a pseudonym of Adams, Richard), ‘Receptivity to Communist Fomented Agitation in Rural Guatemala’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 07 1957, p. 361.Google Scholar

85 Based on a thorough reading of El I and La Hora and a selective reading of El Espectador and Prensa Libre.

86 Quotes from JW 8, 20 Feb. 1953, 1:2 and JW 9, 27 Feb. 1953. 1:2

87 Quotes from JW 13, 27 March 1953, 1:1 and JW 17, 24 April 1953, 1:3.

88 JW 10, 12 March 1954, p. 3.

89 Pearson, , ‘Confederatión Nacional Campesina’, p. 180.Google Scholar

90 Guatemala, p. 158. Reports of such incidents can be found in the GT, esp. Boxes 10 and 12, in the government press and even, at times, in La Hora, whose owner, Clemente Marroquín Rojas, was the maverick of the Guatemalan right. (See, for instance: ‘CNC denuncia varios asesinatos’, 3 Jan. 1953, p. 1; ‘Se incendiaron terrenos que habían entregado a los agraristas’, 4 March 1953, p. 1;‘Cinco asesinatos cometidos en la Laguna de Retana motivan protesta renovada de dirigentes campesinos’, 10 June 1953, p. 1.)

91 See GT, Boxes 1, 5, 12, 20.

92 ‘Rogelio Cruz Wer a Señor Jefe de la Guardia Civil Departamental’, 2; Feb. 1953, GT, Box 14. The circular was leaked to El I. (See ‘Curiosa circular del Director de la Guardia Civil a jefes y subalternos’, El I, 7 Aug. 1953, p. 1; ‘Circular de la Guardia Civil’, El I, 8 Aug. 1953, p. 1.)

93 See GT, Boxes 10 and 12.

94 See ‘Texto de los documentos sobre expropiación a la United Fruit’, DCA, 19 09. 1953, p. 1Google Scholar; Department of State Bulletin, no. 29 (07–12. 1953), pp. 357–60Google Scholar and no. 30 (Jan.–June 1954), pp. 678–9; JW 9, 27 Feb. 1953, 1; JW 10, 6 March 1953, 1; JW 12, 19 March 1953, 1; JW 33, 14 Aug. 1953, 1; JW 8, 1 March 1954.

95 See the excellent discussion in Soto, Aybar de, Dependency and Intervention, pp. 200 4.Google Scholar

96 For Arbenz's public work programme interviews with María de Arbenz, Fortuny, Guerra Borges, Carlos Paz Tejada, Charnaud, Alfonso Bauer Paiz and Emesto Capuano were particularly helpful. For the World Bank report cited in the text, see IBRD, The Economic Development.

97 IBRD, The Economic Development, pp. 132–210.Google Scholar Quotes from pp. 132 and 201.

98 Griffith, William, ‘Santo Tomás, anhelado emporio del comercio en el Atlantico’, Anales de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia (Guatemala), 01./12. 1958, pp. 40–61 (quote, p. 40).Google Scholar

99 From 10 to 28 April 1953, DCA ran a series of articles on the plan which presented the government's views. For comments by the US Embassy, see JW 16–18, 17 April–1 May 1953.

100 JW 21, 22 May 1953, 11:2

101 See Santa, Rafael Piedra, ‘La construcción de ferrocarriles en Guatemala y los problemas financiered de la IRCA’, Economía (Guatemala), no. 15 (01.–03 1968), pp. 26–8.Google Scholar

102 See ‘Firmado contrato con la Morrison’, DCA, 3 July 1955, p. 1. The text of the contract was published in DCA, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 July 1953.

103 ‘Declaración de utilidad y necesidad públicas construcción del muelle de “Santo Tomas”’, DCA, 15; June 1953, p. 1 and ‘Declarada de utilidad pública la expropiación de terrenos en donde se construirá puerto Santo Tomás’, DCA, 8 July 1953, p. 1.

104 JW 28, 9 July 1953, 11:1–2. The port began operations in September 1955. (See ‘Decreto inaugural del puerto de Santo Tomás’, El I, 13 Sept. 1955, p. 1.)

105 See ‘Estudios técnicos para la construcción de la planta hidroeléctrica de Marinalá’, DCA, 1 June 1953, p. 1; Government Information Bureau, Guatemala, no. 7, 1 Aug. 1953. PP. 1–2.

106 ‘Economic and Financial Review– 1953’, p. 22.

107 JW 9, 5 March 1954, pp. 4–5.

108 See US Embassy, ‘Economic Summary – April 1954’, no. 919, 7 May 1954, p. 2 and US Embassy, ‘Economic and Financial Review– 1953’, pp. 6–7, 9–10.Google Scholar

109 See US Embassy, ‘Economic and Financial Review – 1953’, p. 10Google Scholar, and US Embassy. ‘Balance of Payments, Guatemala, 1953’, no. 918, 7 05 1954.Google Scholar Because of higher prices, the value of Guatemala's coffee exports soared from $33,670,000 in 1949 to $68,229,000 in 1953 and $71,380,000 in 1954. The effect was dramatic: Guatemala's balance of trade showed a small surplus in 1946 ($475,000); a deficit from 1947 to 1951 (1947: –$5,286,000; 1948: –$18,184,000; 1949: –$15,757,000; 1950: –$3,616,000; 1951: –$4,761,000). It showed a surplus in 1952 ( + $11,741,000) and in 1953 ( + $9,384,000). This surplus was achieved despite considerable increases in the cost of imports. See Guatemala's Anuario de comercio exterior and the Annual Economic Reports of the US Embassy for 1949–54.

110 ‘Economic and Financial Review–1953’, p. 16; see also the Embassy's Economic Summaries for Feb.–June 1954.

111 For the beginnings of the policy, see US Embassy, ‘Monthly Financial Statement – June 1951’, no. 78, 20 07 1951Google Scholar; for a useful summary see ‘Economic and Financial Review–1953’, pp. 14–15; for the effect on the lower strata of the urban population, see also above, fn. 108.

112 While there is no study on this subject, there is a wealth of material in the Guatemalan press and in the economic and labour reports of the US Embassy. A series of articles in DCA about Guatemala's first Conference on the High Cost of Living is particularly instructive; see esp: ‘Llamamiento a la conferencia contra el alto costo de la vida’, 30 July 1953, p. 1; ‘El alto costo de la vida’ (edit.), 7 and 21 Aug., both p. 3; ‘Ministro Fanjul inauguró la conferencia’, 28 Aug., p. 1; ‘Clausurada la conferencia del alto costo de la vida’, 29 Aug., p. 1; ‘Importantes resoluciones aprobadas’, 31 Aug., p. 1; ‘Resoluciones de la conferencia contra el alto costo de la vida’, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 17 Sept. 1953 (all p. 4).

113 ‘La Ley de inquilinato’, DCA, 18 11. 1953, p. 3.Google Scholar

114 On all three counts, the most striking example was the October 1955 Fair – a notorious fiasco that lost the state close to $ 1 million. See ‘La Feria de Octubre’ (edit.), DCA, 3 Aug. 1953, p. 3; ‘Propaganda y contrapropaganda a la Feria de Octubre en Estados Unidos’ (edit.), DCA, 22 Sept. 1953, p. 3; ‘La Feria de Octubre culminará en éxito’ (edit.), DCA, 14 Oct. 1953, p. 3; ‘La mala organizatión del coso originó el desorden de la Feria’, Tribuna Popular, 22 Oct. 1953, p. 8; ‘La Feria que quisimos conocer’ and ‘Una tarde en la Feria’, DCA, 12 Nov. 1953, pp. 2 and 4; ‘Lo recaudado en la Feria no es ni la 10a. parte de lo invertido’, La Hora, 18 Nov. 1953, p. 1. See also JW 43, 23 Oct. 1953, 11.

115 ‘Economic Development in Guatemala’, no. 793, 13 March 1953, p. 6.

116 See Adler, John, Schlesinger, Eugene and Olson, Ernest, Public Finance and Economic Development in Guatemala (Stanford, 1952), pp. 41–66.Google Scholar

117 ‘Desfeudalización de los impuestos’, DCA, 4 01. 1954, p. 1.Google Scholar

118 ‘Ley de impuesto sobre la renta conocida en primera lectura’, DCA, 29 05 1954, p. 1Google Scholar; ‘Las leyes a toda máquina’, El I, 29 05 1954, p. 11.Google Scholar

119 ‘Aprobado ayer el presupuesto’, DCA, 8 June 1954, P. 1. At $70,094,000 the 1954/5 budget was $4,496,000 lower than that of the previous year. As the US Embassy noted, it made ‘no provision for some of the grandiose highway plans previously publicized by the government’ and was realistic in its estimate of government income (JW 14, 9 April 1954, p. 4 [quote] and Wardlaw to DOS, no. 1027, 29 June 1954).

120 Interview with Fortuny.