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In 1952, the government of Guatemala passed a land reform law which redistributed any unused land greater than 90 hectares in area from colonial settlers to poor landless natives, compensating landowners with government bonds. The U.S government organised a coup.
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Firstly, most of the unused land in Guatemala at the time was owned by the American United Fruit Company (UFC), which built railroads to transport its bananas and discouraged the government from building highways on this land, as this would cut into their transportation monopoly
Meanwhile, the Guatemalan Constitution stated that: "It is a primary function of the State to develop agricultural activities and industry in general, toward the end that the fruits of labor shall preferentially benefit those who produce them..."
Furthermore, the Guatemalan constitution recognised the existence of private property, but suggested that rights to property could be "waived in the social interest". This meant that land could then be expropriated from Spanish colonial settlers and foreign companies
The Guatemalan land reform process was only in effect for 18 months, but is widely seen as one of the most successful and progressive land redistribution efforts in post-colonial history
The initiative was short-lived because a few weeks after the bill was passed, the UFC started intensively lobbying the U.S. government to intervene and mounted a misinformation campaign to portray the Guatemalan government as a "communist threat to the free world"
Many high-ranking members of the U.S regime had links to the United Fruit Company and thus pressured the U.S president Dwight Eisenhower to take action against the Guatemalan government, which was sold to the American public as a dangerous communist threat
The U.S started by criticising the government of Guatemala and pressuring other nations to isolate it and distance themselves. They opened a radio station which broadcast anti-government propaganda and false news about violence in Guatemala perpetuated by the local government
In 1953, Eisenhower authorized the CIA to carry out Operation PBSUCCESS. The CIA armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men. This, along with American psychological warfare, and the fear of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army which then refused to fight
The president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz was forced to resign and the CIA installed a pro-business dictatorship under Castillo Armas who was the leader of the 480 CIA operatives. This coup led to almost 40 years of civil war in Guatemala
Author Stephen Kinzer talks about this in the documentary Coups R Us
