The Guatemalan Civil War lasted for 36 years and took a terrible toll on all those involved in it. In this tiny country none were exempt from the affects of this war. There are many different perspectives from which this war can be viewed. In this essay we will we look at it from the perspective of the indigenous Maya, the European descendents called Ladinos, the major economic contributor to the country the United Fruit Company and the cabinet of President Eisenhowers administration.
Maya
The Guatemalan Civil War was a terrible thing to live through, even more terrible for the Maya. In the 1960s the Guatemalan Civil War began as a result of the democratic President of Guatemala, Arbenz being over thrown by a military coup backed by the United States government. In opposition to this throughout the country guerilla groups formed made up of young officers. This is when it took a turn for the worse. The people of Guatemala were being tortured, raped and even killed. It was a time full of violence, poverty, and destruction, especially for the Maya who make up half of Guatemalas population.
The Maya were subject to lots of violence during this time of war. They were being tortured, raped and killed. The army had what they called the ethnocidal. The army would sweep through and kill everyone who opposed them. This caused the death of 200,000 Guatemalans. This was just one method of how the Maya died. The army also had death squads, which were killing ambassadors.
The Maya, who once had everything, were now in the center of poverty. They lost their land, houses, and even their families. Their land was mostly taken away by what the army called the scorched earth policy. This policy subjected the Mayas villages, houses and land to be burned, leaving them with nothing. The army would go to the villages of their choice then they would burn the whole village down. This left many Maya without a place to sleep and without money. Many Maya lost their families due to the fires which left 1,000,000 Guatemalans homeless, many of whom where Mayan.
The Maya were also subject to lots of destruction. Villages, houses and crops were just a few of the things that were being destroyed. The army destroyed everything that the Maya owned. The army destroyed every possession they owned just because the Maya opposed them. As a result the Maya also lost their traditional values. They had to change the way they dressed and many other of their traditional values. They did this in fear for their lives.
So in conclusion, the Maya were subject to the horrifying results of this Civil War that they shouldnt have even been involved in. The result of the 36 year war was 1,000,000 people left homeless, 200,000 dead and 45,000 missing.
Ladinos
Most of the nonindiginous population of Guatemala is Ladino; people of solely European descent. Ladino is a Spanish word for Latin. The Ladinos represent only 40% of the population of Guatemala. They are a small but strong ethnic group which profess the sanctity of the family, and whose social life centers on the home (Webquest 2003). The Ladinos and the Mayans have for many years been at odds culturally which helped to contribute the Guatemalan Civil War
In Guatemala the majority of the plantation owners and the wealthy landowners are Ladino by ethnic heritage. Because they are more affluent than the poor Mayans they are more apt to collude with the military and the government to displace the poor peasants in an effort to gain their land for growing crops. Because the Ladinos are better off financially they are generally better equipped academically and monetarily to acquire land and often with government support.
The Ladinos and the Mayans have many similarities culturally. A high percentage of Ladinos have an Indian background, that is they are part Indian too and have had many of the same cultural ways and values as the Indians. As the Ladinos have become more socially evolved this has caused great tension and civil unrest between the two ethnic groups. The Ladinos have adapted to the European way of living. Whereas the Mayans are determined to maintain their cultural heritage the Ladinos are more willing to integrate the European lifestyle to their own and this has been a point of conflict between the two groups.
The United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company had a major role in the 1954 CIA led over throw of the Guatemalan government. It may even be said that it was because of the United Fruit Company that the democratically elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown and replaced by a right wing dictator. While the United Fruit Company had brought many benefits to the undeveloped country in Central America, it had done so at a steep cost to the millions of indigenous people that lived there.
The company that would later become known as the United Fruit Company got its start in the late 1800s by a man named Minor Keith who was working on building a railroad thru Costa Rica. In 1899 the Boston Fruit Company and the United Fruit Company merged to become the largest banana company in the world. In 1901 the right wing Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera gave the UFCO the right to manage the countrys postal service between Guatemala and the United States. In this deal the UFCO was given the right to buy up land at a nominal price and also gained control of virtually all of the countrys transportation and communication. The company was also able to exempt itself from paying almost any taxes for 99 years.
Due to the revenue that it brought to this poor country the UFCO had the unwavering support of the right wing dictators that terrorized the country. Under the leadership of Jose Ubico in just two days hundreds of citizens were murdered. In 1944 this dictator was overthrown by the people of Guatemala and the first democratic elections in this tiny nations history were held. The people elected Dr. Juan Jose Arevalo to be the leader or their country and hoped for changes that would benefit the average citizen.
Dr. Arevalo was a socialist and an educator who worked to make the changes that the poor workers and citizens of Guatemala desired. He built over 6,000 schools and made progress in both education and healthcare. He also put pressure on the UFCO to improve its working environment for the poor laborers who were employed by them. The company did concede to some improvements after a series of workers strikes, but after the government passed a Labor Code they called the new government Communistic and threaten to pull out of Guatemala.
In 1951 Jacobo Arbenz won the next presidential election in Guatemala and proceeded to make reforms that benefit the working poor in the country. Shortly after he is elected the Agrarian Reform Act is passed by the congress to redistribute land to the indigenous peoples. At this time in Guatemala 2.2 percent of the population owned 70% of the countrys land and only 10% of the land was available for 90% of the people. President Arbenz wanted to make some of that 90% of the land available to the Indians to farm. He proposed giving 209,842 acres of the undeveloped land that was owned by the UFCO back to the people to cultivate. The government was to compensate the UFCO for the land based on its value. Here is where a problem arose for the UFCO because as it had bought up the land it had always underestimated its value and now that it was to be recompensated for the land the government was basing its price on this undervalued price.
The UFCO now began its campaign to overthrow the democratically elected government. The company had many friends in high places in the United States government which made its job to discredit the Guatemalan government much easier. The head of the CIA Allen Dulles had served on the board at UFCO and President Eisenhowers private secretary Ann Whitmans husband Ed was the companys top public relations officer. The connections didnt stop there however; it seemed that the UFCO had a hand in almost every branch of the United States Government. UFCO lobbied the American Ambassador to Guatemala, who then told the U.S. Congress that the Guatemalan government was spreading Marxist tentacles in Central America. With this being at the height of the Cold War, the U.S. Government didnt need much persuading in its endeavor to stamp out communism. The CIA then orchestrated a coup launched from Nicaragua to overthrow the Guatemalan government. President Arbenz fled to Mexico and the CIA replaced him with another right wing dictator. The new dictator Carlos Castillo gave the UFCO back the land that it had lost and canceled the Agrarian Reform Act. As a part of the coup the CIA had put 70,000 people on a questionable individuals list and after Castillo cam to power several important leaders of the banana workers unions were mysteriously murdered in the next several months. However, after all of this the UFCO didnt benefit much after all. Several months after the coup the company was sited by the U.S. government for having violated an anti-trust legislation and was forced to sell its Guatemala holdings.
Throughout its stay in Guatemala the United Fruit Company did do many things to help this impoverished country. It brought economic development to the country and paid its full time employees better than anyone else. It also built housing and schools for the children of the employees and hospitals in the surrounding areas. It started research to find the cause of tropical diseases that plagued the area such as malaria and dengue fever. The companys laboratories also worked hard to stop diseases that affected the banana plants.
While the United Fruit Company did buy up much of the land of the indigenous Mayan people of the country it could be argued that they also brought resources and benefits to this poor country that it wouldnt have otherwise had. Did the benefits that they brought to the country outweigh the problems that they caused? I guess it depends on who you asked!
Cabinet Member
The Guatemalan Civil War was needed to restore hope and give back to the people of Guatemala what they deserve. The removal of Communistic President Arbenz was needed to bring in more jobs and strengthen the Guatemalan economy.
Newly elected President Jacobo Arbenz had to be removed because of his communistic intentions. Arbenz was getting support from communist groups throughout his presidency. Arbenz was also passing laws and labor codes that did not agree with the people of Guatemala and was a communist threat. Arbenz also withdrew from the five nation Organization of Central American States; he stated that Guatemala withdrew because of aggression from other neighbors. (Eisenhower on Guatemala, 1954 American Passages)
There was a great need to bring in more U.S. companies to strengthen the economy in Guatemala. With the land that was legally acquired by the UFC and other companies, it will create jobs and provide income to families. President Arbenz began a push for Agrarian reform and distributed land to land-less peasants. Taking land away from owners and giving it away was wrong. After the overthrow of Arbenzs government land was returned to their owners and the UFC.
The need for a U.S. backed coup was important to remove Arbenz from power and bring in a pro-American dictatorship in Guatemala.
Conclusion
There are many different perspectives from which to view the Guatemalan Civil War and each has its own unique outlook. The main factors for this war were either greed on the part of the United Fruit Company, the Ladinos and the Eisenhower administration or the desire to keep what is rightfully yours and have a safe and productive life as the Mayans wanted. In the end those who lost the most were, as is usually the case, those who had the least to begin with-the Mayans.
