Arbenz
Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán (September 14, 1913–January 27, 1971) was president of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954, when he was ousted in a coup d'etat backed by the United States and was replaced by a dictatorship.
After being elected and taking office on March 15, 1951, Arbenz attempted to nationalize the United Fruit Company (UFC), a US-based corporation which controlled much of the counry's agricultural land. According to international law, fair compensation must be given for nationalized foreign holdings. A compensation on $600,000 was calculated, based on the underestimated land values UFC had declared in order to avoid taxes, which the company didn't find sufficient.
In 1952 the Communist Guatemalan Labor Party was legalized; Communists subsequently gained considerable influence over important peasant organizations, labor unions, and the governing political party. To protect its interest in the country, the UFC and its banking supporters collaborated with the CIA to persuade the US administration that Arbenz was a Communist, or at best a socialist who was inviting a Communist takeover. The administration ordered the CIA to sponsor a coup d'état, code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, that toppled the government; Arbenz resigned on June 27, 1954 and was forced to flee. He initially sought exile in Cuba, and died in Mexico in 1971.
