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Guatemala Leader Apologizes for 1954 CIA-Backed Coup
President "requests the forgiveness" of the family of Jacobo Arbenz, a leftist who was violently removed from power.
The Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, has issued an official apology to the family of the former president Jacobo Arbenz, 57 years after a US-backed coup violently removed him from power.
Wearing masks, members of a group called "Anonymous" pose for pictures during celebrations marking the Day of the Revolution in Guatemala City,Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. The Revolution Day marks the election of leftist President Jacobo Arbenz in 1951, toppled in 1954 in a CIA-backed coup. Guatemala's government has apologized to the family of Arbenz. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) Colom, who apologized under a settlement worked out with Arbenz's family by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Thursday the coup was a "crime [against] the Guatemalan society committed by the CIA and Guatemalans with bad intentions".
Speaking during a ceremony at the former government headquarters, in the presence of Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova, the only surviving son of the former president, Colom said: "As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military's commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime.
"It was above all a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala and we still haven't recovered."
Among the new measures announced by Colom's leftist government is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a retelling of Arbenz's legacy to the country and the renaming of a national highway in his honor.
'CIA-backed coup'
Arbenz was only the second freely elected president in Guatemala. Dubbed "the Soldier of the People”, he had promised to redistribute land to impoverished indigenous communities much to the ire of massive US agricultural investors in the country.
He was overthrown on June 27, 1954, in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas that was engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The coup helped trigger a 36-year civil war, according to Colom.
Indeed, the coup was followed by decades of political violence, military rule and a guerrilla movement formed by disaffected military officers that set off one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars from 1960 to 1996.
Arbenz, a former left-wing leader, was exiled on charges of being a communist. But his son dismissed the accusations, saying they were based only on land reforms that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company.
“Here started the injustice and I [call on] the United States to recognize their errors."
Castillo, the coup leader, was shot to death on 26 July 1957, while in power.
Arbenz died in exile in Mexico in 1971. His remains were not repatriated until 1995.
33 Comments so far
Show AllVery well stated. In conjunction with your incisive comment, it should also be pointed out that presidential candidate Barack H. Obama informed CNN correspondent Candy Crowley in 2008 that the United States should never have to apologize for the actions that it has committed against other countries. This comment by our leader is also indicative why Obama had stated in the past that he is not an advocate and a believer of what took place during the tumultuous times of the 1960s.
Obama's comment regarding the foreign policy of the United States would lead one to think that Obama apparently believes that the United States was justified in being involved in the Vietnam conflict despite the fact that about 3.4 million Vietnamese, according to former Secretary of Defense [sic] Robert McNamara, were slaughtered by the U.S. military.
Barack H. Obama-the personification of a true liberal interventionist which then translates into him being a war criminal today of the highest rank.
No, you are wrong. as I am not taking it out of context at all. As Paul Street points out in ZNet:
"Consistent with his claim (to CNN's Candy Crowley last summer, i.e. in 2008) that the U.S. should NOT apologize for its crimes (since the U.S. is obviously what he called "a force for good in the world"), moreover, Obama has refused to call even the Vietnam War - the vicious U.S. assault that ended 2-3 million Indochinese lives between 1962 and 1975 - anything worse than a "mistake." He even argued (in the foreign policy chapter of "The Audacity of Hope") that "the greatest casualty of that [Vietnam] war was the bond of trust between the American people and their government" (p.287) --- as if the deaths of millions of Indochinese and 58,000 U.S. GIs were secondary and as if popular American skepticism towards the designs of the U.S. foreign policy establishment isn't a sign of democratic health.
There is an intimate relationship between America 's failure to admit its transgressions abroad and its denial of savage disparities and oppressions at home. U.S. political culture's doctrinal faith in the United States ' "exceptional" magnificence feeds American's inability to acknowledge its criminality on the global stage.
Like imperial presidents of the past, Obama cannot let go of the standard and dangerous national-narcissist mantra: "We are Good, We are Great."
Your claim that Obama meant that "we should not be running around the planet doing things that require an apology" simply does not make any sense given the fact that while Bush was engaged in military conflicts in two countries-Afghanistan and Iraq-out hawkish president has surpassed Bush by dropping 500 lb. bombs and drone missiles on people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya. He is leaving military contractors in Iraq while sending soldiers to Uganda. All this simply proves that Obama is certainly not an agent of hope and change for those poor wretched people. On the contrary, what he is is a war apologist who deserves to be tried as a war criminal along with Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et al.
Those Politicians and Members of the media crowing about the death of Ghaddafi and his removal from power as somehow being an act of Justice make my stomach turn.
Not Even North Korea has committed the crimes against Humanity that the United States Government has.
The only difference is the USA has better PR.
Guatemala was only one crime among many and that the USA has NOT stopped committing such crimes to this day shows they never WILL stop. These thuggish acts are the best they can ever do and it seems, all that its Government aspires to.
The Germans at least turned their backs on their bloody History.
The World can not become a better place with the Government of the United States of America leading the way. That future is only darkness.
The Guatemalan secret police was trained and funded by the CIA. The Guatemalan military was also armed and supported by the United States. Many of its senior officers were trained at the infamous U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning.
The U.S. Army School of Americas was so infamous for training military officers of Central American and South American countries who went on the brutally oppress their nation's citizens that it changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Despite the name change the mission of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation remains the same as its forerunner the U.S. Army School of Americas. That mission is to promote United States hegemony in Central America and South America.
CONSPIRATOCRACY! If the 1% that run the place can't buy surrounding countries cheap, they'll cheat, rape and kill them until they submit while the media writes noble myths about 'ethical' US behavior in Orwellian lock step.
In our present times, Attorney General Eric Holder helped broker a deal for Chiquita after it was found to have funded right-wing death squads in Colombia. Given that our highest law enforcement official was a fixer for Chiquita, expect no apologies (or reparations) from team Obama.
Sam Zemurray soon became known as the "uncrowned king of Central America". He was given prime Honduran land along the Guatemalan border and given a permit to conduct business duty free. The Honduran government also gave Zemurray $500,000 to repay himself for what he claimed he spent in sponsoring the coup.
Zemurray subsequently merged his enterprises with the United Fruit Company and became it's managing director. Four decades later, the United Fruit Company would participate in the overthrow of Arbenz of Guatemala.
Eisenhower gave that speech AFTER his time was up in the WH. He gave that speech After 8 years of a CIA runamuck conducting multiple coups around the world for blatently corporate interests of people within his administration.
It's akin to Obummer giving us a speech about how dangerous the banksters are after 4 or 8 years givng them whatever the hell they wanted.
Hartmann is the worst of the so-called liberals drooling over Eisenhower when history tells a different story. Then again nice words backed by Zero Action seems to be what hartmann loves the most - aka Now is the Time to work for and vote back in the oilybomber - blah bla blah
That's in fact good news: makes it official that USA/CIA did - and do - overthrowing of duly elected governments.
Now for the next step in stopping such breaches of the UN charter - and common decency.