Government Apology for 1954 Guatemala Coup Evades Media Attention

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Agence France-Presse put this out on the wire shortly after the ceremony of President Colom presenting the official letter of apology to the son of Jacobo Arbenz, and by Monday, CNN proclaimed that this would "re-ignite" the discussion about the ousted leader. The facts of the Guatemala coup have long been accepted by the academic mainstream, and the University of Iowa even offers an undergraduate course on the subject. The was the prototypical CIA coup in Latin America, and others would follow. Eventually the task of leadership was placed in the hands of graduates from the School of Americas (though it has since been renamed).

The past decade has seen a vast change in South America, one that began with Morales in Bolivia and Chavez in Venezuela. The goals of land reform and education to extend opportunities to the masses are gaining ground. But this is largely ignored by our media, so it is a not a surprise to see that this possible "conversation" is slow to start in North America.

The history of the Dulles brothers and their connection to the United Fruit company is largely unknown to the US public, but the destruction of Jacobo Arbenz was their wish at a time when the a former trustee of the corporation was director of the CIA, and his brother was Secretary of State. Secretary of State John Dulles championed the operation dubbed "PBSUCCESS", and his brother Allen, who had recently been a trustee of United Fruit, ordered the CIA to play it's roll. Arbenz was labeled a communist, and the mission would end the land reform that challenged the hegemony of United Fruit in Guatemala. This is how the CIA became known as "The Company". Men who work for Eli Popovich in Air America joked that they were actually on a mission for United Fruit, in the "Golden Triangle" of Asia.

It was a surprise to see the details of the coup so well summarized by CNN International Edition - here - http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/22/world/americas/guatemala-arbenz/?hpt=wo_bn8. The historic turnabout of the Government of Guatemala has gotten little play elsewhere. In Guatemala, textbooks will be rewritten, and the reputation of Arbenz will be restored. Quoting CNN:

"As president of the republic, as commander in chief of the army, I want to apologize to the Arbenz family for that great crime committed on the 27th of June of 1954," Colom said Thursday. "Guatemala changed that day, and we haven't yet recovered." The apology "doesn't have a lot of resonance in the United States -- though it should," said Stephen Schlesinger, an Adjunct Fellow at the Century Foundation and co-author of a book on the 1954 coup.

Meanwhile, in the US, will our State Department consider the oppression that has followed the recent coup in Honduras, and take responsibility for the errors of empire that have occurred during the past 6 decades? This historic event does not seem to have triggered an immediate response.

David Roknich
Radio Galesburg
http://realo.us