march 3

Perrigo

1) Operation PBSUCCESS

• covert CIA operation that overthrew the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954

2) Maya

• Indigenous people of Guatemala

3) Ladino

• Mized European and Mayan

4) Fincas

• Plantations with no worker’s rights, employed Mayans

5) United Fruit Company (UFC) 

• owned 550,000 acres of land in Guatemala, US company

6) International Railways of Central America

• Sister company of UFC, held monopolies with UFC og Gautemala’s most important assets

7) Labour Code of 1947

• gave workers rights to unionise and demand pay rises for the first time

8) Cold War (see “Topics for Reading,” p. 8)

9) PGT

• Gautemalan Labour Party - Marxist organization

10) Stalin; Stalin’s death

• Caused more countries to become left leaning

11) Napalm

• Highly flammable substance dropped on indigenous communities in Guatemala thought to have guerillas in them

12) President Carlos Arana

• Became president of Guatemala in 1970

• “If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetery in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so”

13) Kekchi massacre

• Indigenous Kekchi people were massacred at a protest, 1978

14) Gen. Lucas Garcia

• Came to power in 1978

• Techniques were basically genocide

15) Gen. Ríos Montt

• Came to power in coup after Garcia

• Same policies as Garcia, genocidal tendencies

16) FAR (Rebel Armed Forces)

• Established in 1961

• Guerilla organization

17) Civic-Action

• US idea that aimed to divide Indigenous communities by giving some greater political and economic benefits than others

18) Presidents Carter and Reagan and Guatemala

• Carter - cut off aid to Guatemala

• Reagan resumed funding

• Taiwan and Israel provided aid while US did not

The CIA in Guatemala—Immerman

1) Why did Latin America have great strategic importance for the US?

• Market for commercial exports

2) NSC-68

• Established cold war policy, strongly against communism, us vs. them mentality

3) John Foster Dulles

• Hard line anti-communist, US secretary of state under eisenhower

4) Arevalo

• Social reform, change, liberalism, democracy, universal suffrage, left-leaning

5) Francisco Arana (he was a president of Guatemala, different from Carlos Arana, above)

6) Jacobo Arbenz

• Minster of defense

• Opposed Arana

• wanted more health, education, and other social programs for the people

7) Arbenz’s program to transform Guatemala’s economy

8) Decree 900

9) Caribbean Legion