How Did The Cold War Affect Guatemala

Known for its cultural diversity, tropical climate and agricultural lands, Guatemala is also home to economic unbalance, political corruption and severe gang wars. Guatemala is a developing country with a population of sixteen million inhabitants, which makes it the most populated country in Central America. Approximately seventy six percent (twelve million) of the population of Guatemala lives under the poverty line and expresses no trust in the police. (Taft-Morales) Guatemala is considered one of the most dangerous nations in the world with a rate of 34 homicides per 100,000 people. (Taft-Morales) Much like many other under-developed or developing nations, Guatemala’s rich land and resources have caused it to become targeted as a colony
or a source for profit. This subsequently caused the presence of international corporations to become very prominent in Guatemala. The UFC (United Fruit Company) had an over whelming presence in Guatemala, due to its natural resources, and contributed to what Guatemala currently like.
The Cold War and US’s fight against communism also helped shape today’s Guatemalan society. Guatemala’s current state of political and civil unrest was caused and is allowed to continue due to three main factors: Spanish colonization, neocolonialism by the UFC, and US intervention leading to civil war. Much like other nations with under-developed economies, fragile governments and civil unrest; Guatemala has a history of colonization. The colonization of Central America by the Spanish empire led to the loss of cultural identity of the indigenous people, social segregation between ethnic groups, and weakening of the future government of Guatemala. In 1562 Spanish explorers came into Central American with some Spanish forces and began taking over and colonizing the land. (Course Pack 66) Spain wanted colonials in Central America for two main reasons, natural resources and inexpensive labour. (Course Pack 67) As Spanish rule grew across Central America the Spanish received what they had wanted from their colonies, hundreds of thousands of tons of natural resources were being harvested by lowly paid indigenous workers. (Course Pack 67) To further own the people of its colony, Spain
aimed to strip the indigenous of the regions of their traditions and culture. This was done by book burnings. An example of this is Fray Diego de Landa, who destroyed eight centuries of Mayan literature in order to force the Mayans to forget their culture. (Course Pack 71) Spain also pushed its values on to the people of its colonies in hopes that they will replace the peoples’ traditional values. The fact that sixty percent of the population of Guatemala is either Catholic or Protestant shows the effects of colonialism on peoples’ values and traditions. (Streeter) These labels that define one’s values so clearly and differently than others’ has created a social separation in Guatemala that is felt by many of its citizens in modern day Guatemala. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) These social boundaries contribute to the formation of gangs in Guatemala and cause unrest between villages. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) After Central America became free from Spanish rule the governments of these nation became independent, but not stable. The people of Guatemala were governed by Spanish powers which still had a presence in Guatemala. In the 1890s, the US began pushing out Spanish colonial powers and establishing US authority over resources and labor in Guatemala. (Streeter) The dictators that ruled Guatemala during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were generally very accommodating to US business and political interests. Unlike other Latin American nations such as Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba the US did not have to use military force to maintain control in Guatemala. (Streeter) The Guatemalan military worked under the US military. The Guatemalan government also exempted several US corporations from paying taxes, especially the UFC, privatized and sold off public utilities, and gave away vast areas of land. (Streeter) Neocolonialism in Guatemala was committed by the UFC, the company which invented “the concept and reality of the banana republic”. (Kurtz-Phelan) Neocolonialism and economic dominance in the twentieth century in Guatemala is a significant factor to Guatemala’s corruption, high rates of poverty and lack of self-sufficiency. The United Fruit Company was the most influential entity in Guatemalan economics, surpassing the Guatemalan government itself. The UFC was founded in 1899, from the merger of Minor C. Keith's banana-trading concerns with the Boston Fruit Company. The UFC owned much of the land in Guatemala and Central America and was the single largest employer in all of Central America. (Abbot) The UFC established railroads across Guatemala and set up Puerto Barrios, Guatemala’s only port at the time. UFC held a monopoly over these infrastructures and would use these tactics to limit competition and increase profits. (Kurtz-Phelan) This not only discouraged other international corporations from starting a business in Guatemala, but also the Guatemalans. The UFC’s monopoly would have been extremely difficult to keep up with because of all fees that it imposed. The UFC preyed on Guatemala for its corrupt and pliable government which allowed the company to support Jorge Ubico, the dictator of Guatemala from 1931 to 1944. (Kurtz-Phelan). Peter Chapman, the author of Bananas, wrote “United Fruit had possibly launched more exercises in ‘regime change’ on the banana’s behalf than had even been carried out in the name of oil”. (Kurtz-Phelan) Ubico created laws that allowed the use of lethal weapons for defence of property and leased vast areas of land to the UFC. Most of this land was stripped away from the villagers in rural communities and was defended UFC armed guards. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) (Kurtz-Phelan) This speaks to how much influence the UFC had in Guatemala and how it supported corrupt politicians in disregard to the people of the nation. These traces of corruption and fragility in the government are still very evident in modern day Guatemala. (Schlesinger) As unfortunate as the dictatorship was for the Guatemalans, the UFC’s treatment was what caused poverty rates to rise and self- sufficiency to plummet. The workers under the UFC would have very low wages and be subjected to long hours that would stop them from achieving higher education. (Abbot) The UFC also forced the production of Bananas on all of its workers and land. This type of agriculture strips the farmers of their self- sufficiency and forces farmers to become more flexible with the corporations’ demands, almost to the point of breaking. This shows how unstable rural areas of Guatemala would be after the collapse of the UFC, as the workers are left to employ themselves and get themselves out of poverty without having the proper education. However in order to break the chains of neocolonialism the Guatemalan began to challenge by the UFC in 1944, which ultimately led even worse conditions. Guatemala experienced the Ten Years of Spring from 1944 to 1954 where democratic rule replaces dictatorship and living standards rose.
However in 1954 the spring ended with a US orchestrated coup d'état which sent Guatemala spiraling into a civil war from 1960 to 1996. (Taft-Morales) The revolution to cause the Ten Years of Spring brought a sense of optimism to the people, while the Guatemalan civil war was the cause of 200,000 casualties, further segregation between ethnic populations and gang violence. (Schlesinger) (Miller) In 1944 the October Revolution took place in Guatemala City, and was led by university students and followed by the oppressed masses. Dictator Jorge Ubico was forced to give up his position and after revolutionaries enforced open elections, Juan José Arévalo became the president of Guatemala. Arévalo was followed by Jacobo Árbenz after a coup attempt in 1949, Árbenz continued Arévalo’s reform goals. (Schlesinger) During the Ten Years of Spring Guatemala experienced a labor movement, a change in foreign relations, and agrarian reform. (Schlesinger) These social reforms sought to give more power to the people and promote self- sufficiency. In these years Guatemalans gained a sense of optimism and the idea that they could change their own governments. This growing sense of optimism was not shared by the UFC which began to lose significant amounts of land to the agrarian reform of the new government. In order to gain back power from the Guatemalan
people the UFC began lobbying in the US. (Schlesinger) (Kurtz-Phelan) The UFC’s objective was to sell the idea that Guatemala was becoming a communist nation and might even join the Soviet-bloc. The following extract from the article “Ghosts of Guatemala’s Past” shows the relationship of the UFC and the US government: “Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allen, the C.I.A.’s director, were a receptive audience. In the cold war fervor of the times, Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers believed a strike against Arbenz [Árbenz] would roll back communism. And the Dulleses had their own personal sympathies for United Fruit: they had done legal work for the company, and counted executives there among their close friends.” (Schlesinger) This connection with the US government let the UFC get what they had wanted, and the US orchestrated a military coup which replaced Árbenz with Carlos Castillo Armas at the head of a military junta. (Miller) Armas reversed many of the reforms made by the presidents during the Ten Year Spring, giving the UFC back much of the people’s land. (Miller) This sparked outrage amongst the indigenous people that the land was given to, this is where the idea of revolution to change one’s government that was born from the October Revolution, resurfaced. In 1960 civil war broke out between the dictatorial military government and the leftist guerrilla groups. (Miller) (Schlesinger) This caused villages to become untrusting of their neighbouring villages and their governments. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) Rebels would attack farming villages and the government’s military would kill villagers that it suspected to be a part of the rebel groups. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) This created hostility between ethnical populations as the rebel groups were mostly made up of indigenous peoples. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) After many attempts of establishing a non-military democratic representation and the many military coups that lasted decades, peace agreements were reached in 1996 between the rebels and the government. (Miller) Traces of the civil war are still very prominent in Guatemala, as the government has not gained back the trust of the people and many gangs have stemmed from past rebel groups. (Hecho A Mano: Three Stories From Guatemala) (Miller) (Taft-Morales)