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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.
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33 Comments so far
Show AllOh, yeah. A lot of consolation that is. Now, let's see the true culprit, the US, apologize. Ha ha! That will be a cold day in hell.
And will the United Fruit Company provide reparations?
Yeah, everybody gets a free can of pineapple.
More appropriately, a Chiquita Banana. United Fruit renamed itself Chiquita a couple of decades ago.
Yep, just as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company changed their name to British Petroleum after they fomented a coup in Iran in 1953, just a year before the Guatemalan coup (and also with CIA help). Then under the new name tried to get back into the Iranian oil game a few years later.
BTW, I think that cynicism is a good thing up to a point--especially regarding the role of the U.S. in this disgusting little coup--but I also think that cynicism alone is an innapropriate response to this story. Reflect on how grave the consequences of this coup actually were for Guatemala: decades of instability and military dictatorship, culminating in genocide. The Yale Genocide Project actually includes the Guatemala of the early 1980's on its list of 20th century genocides. So to fail to see this apology as a significant and positive thing for Guatemalans themselves would suggest to me cynicism had given way to pure jadedness.
I dunno, my 2 cents.
The police walked in for jimmy jazz I said, he ain't here, but he sure went past Oh, you're looking for jimmy jazz
All this over a banana that in 10 years will probably be extinct.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jan/16/gm.science
Rev.
Very 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.
I don't think that's what he meant. I think you're taking it out of context. I think (though I could be wrong) he meant that we should not be running around the planet doing things that require an apology. He was 'our' guy when he was on the campaign trail, remember? Because he echoed our sentiments so well.
Of course, if you believe everything you hear on the campaign trail, you're a naif.
ErisX
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.
The CIA & Wall St different sides of the same imperialist coin.
Abolish the CIA!
When will CIA agents be held accountable for their multiple crimes against humanity?
All of the crimes it claimed Ghadaffi committed have been things the United States of America has done 10000 times over resulting in the deaths of millions of people the world over.
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.
Very true. And most government dictators were either installed by the US CIA or had their consent. As long as they played by their rules. Right, Saddam, Gaddafi, Pinochet?
Haiti and every othe country that has beed coup'd by the US have seen their lives turned in to a nightmare.
Libya, beware!
The Great Satan is an apt term.
Guess I left off OBL!
The damage to humanity inflicted by CIA under the interventionist policies is an affront to freedom. American people have been brainwashed for centuries.If you look inside the History books in our schools,nobody will find any of these atrocities. As GwNorth says in one of the comments we are facing a dark future for the whole world.
Truth before justice. In Guatemala the truth of the CIA action and its subsequent consequences has been officially acknowledged as fact. In discussing the activities of the CIA we can now state what happened in Guatemala as fact without the need to to give many details and connect dots in order to make the point.
How about President Alvaro Colom having the balls to hold the brutal succession of dictators-such as Carlos Castillo Armas who ruled Guatemala after the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman- accountable for the deaths of over 200,000 citizens of Guatelmala at the hands of the Guatemalan military and secret police?
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.
Well, yeah, but if Colom did that, he'd be dead in 24 hours. Remember who has most of the guns in Guatemala.
I agree with corvo - it's not necessarily that easy. In Chile, Pinochet only stepped down on the condition that there would be no high-level prosecutions for him or his thugs. He continually used the threat of another military coup to ensure that the "no prosecutions" promise was kept. I don't know the exact situation in Guatemala, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar.
New name for the USA!
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.
Yep, Guatemala was one the first victims in a string of U.S.-instigated coups that put bloody dictatorships into power, displacing elected leaders. In this case, United Fruit (Chiquita Banana) objected when Arbenz began buying back land that United Fruit held. The land valuation was set low by United Fruit to lower its tax share. The CIA essentially acted on behalf of a private corporation. I believe that's pretty close to the definition of fascism.
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.
And let's not forget the coup in Honduras under Obama's watch. And Madam Clinton is no peach either.
Let's also not forget that the American businessman Sam "the banana man" Zemurray in 1911 sponsored a coup that overthrew the government of Honduran President Miguel Davila. The United States supported the Zemurray sponsored overthrow of President Davila because Davila was not acting in the interests of American banking giants such as J.P. Morgan.
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.
Oh, the US will apologize someday. A couple presidents down the line. If the US still exists. Some president will mouth the platitude.
Sod off, troll.
Whatever, pal, your idiotic flip response shows you know nothing of life and culture in Guatemala, and you don't care, and you're proud of it. You're trying to be flip, but you come off as idiotic. Sod off, troll.
President John Kennedy and his brother Robert tried to wrest power from the Dulles brothers and the secret government of the CIA. How did that turn out?
Every time I hear someone say Eisenhower was a great guy because he called out the MIC I want to puke.
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
Par for the course for Thom Hartmann, whose version of American History is pretty consistently wrong. Every now and then he gets a fact about the Federalist Papers right, but his inability to interpret correctly what those lizard-brained plutocrats were up to grows annoying fast,
"Guatemala Leader Apologizes for 1954 CIA-Backed Coup"
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.