Search

Guatemala experienced a brief period of democratic, progressive governance beginning in the mid-1940’s until it was abruptly halted by a military coup in 1954. The military takeover enjoyed tactical support from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of its Cold War strategy to prevent communist penetration in the Americas. Washington was also responding to complaints of the U.S.-based United Fruit Company, whose banana investments in Guatemala were being challenged with demands for agrarian reform and higher wages. In the years following the 1954 coup, military rule sought to repress all forms of legal dissent, but this repression eventually resulted in the formation of underground, armed guerrilla groups that eventually united to form the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG).