On 4/7/2019
Eugene’s Register Guard ran a story, “Explaining the Impact of Trump’s Threat
of Halting Aid” to Central American countries, including Guatemala.
The
article was based on an interview of a University of Oregon academic identified
as a specialist on Guatemala. She
mentioned the 1954 coup that removed President Jacob Arbenz from office. She made no mention of Carlos Castillo-Armas,
who, assisted by the CIA, rose to power in l954, or that Castillo-Armas was
assassinated three years later in the summer of l957. The academic implied that US interference in
Guatemalan politics in 1954 obliged us to continue to support Guatemala with
aid today.
This is a fuller story.
I was a student in San Carlos University
in Guatemala City during the summer of l957 when President Carlos Castillo-Armas was assassinated. I did not know in l957 that the eviction of former
president, Jacob Arbenz, and the subsequent assassination of President
Castillo-Armas—would lead to a civil war, a war that would bring fear,
political chaos, and economic hardship to Guatemala for decades.
In l957, most politically active Guatemalans
considered the assassination of Castillo-Armas the more unfortunate event. The socialist policies of Jacob Arbenz —who
was on his way to becoming a Guatemalan Castro— were driving the economy into
the ground. When it was clear Arbenz was
losing power, the market women of Guatemala City— the ultimate judges of what
was and what was not good for Guatemala’s economy—literally drove Arbenz out of
town. On the other hand, many Guatemalans
at that time saw Castillo-Armas as a sincere man of democratic and free-market
sympathies—and his death tragic.”
