It was an unprecedented event in Guatemala, and perhaps in all of Latin America. Alvaro Colom, Guatemala’s President, issued an official apology to the family of former Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. The apology was made 57 years after the US backed a coup d’état by Guatemalan officers that removed him from power. “As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime,” said Colom.

Among new measures announced by president Colom to redress this crime is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a new and more accurate version of the events that took place in the country and of Arbenz’s legacy, and the renaming of a national highway in his honor. “It was a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala, and we still haven’t recovered,” added Colom.

Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala in 1950 to implement a process of socioeconomic reforms that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) called “an intensely nationalistic program of progress colored by the touchy, anti-foreign inferiority complex of the ‘Banana Republic.’” Both the CIA and the intelligence community in the U.S. feared that Guatemala and the Arbenz government were rapidly falling under the sway of the Communists. Those fears were later proven to be unfounded.

Arbenz was overthrown in 1954 in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas which was planned and funded by the CIA and that opened the way for a 36-year civil war, according to President Colom. Arbenz died in Mexico in 1971, leaving his widow, children and later grandchildren to fight for his reputation and to try to gain back their confiscated property.

What the coup against Arbenz demonstrates is the complicity of not only the CIA but also of the highest levels of the U.S. government. According to declassified information on Guatemala, the first CIA effort to overthrow Arbenz was a collaboration of that agency with Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza to support a frustrated Guatemalan general named Carlos Castillo Armas in an operation codenamed PBFORTUNE which had been authorized by President Harry Truman in 1952.

When that operation was blown, a new operation, codenamed PBSUCCESS was authorized by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The operation had a budget of $2.7 million for “psychological welfare and political action” and “subversion”, among other components. According to a CIA study, up until the day that Arbenz was forced to resign “the option of assassination was still being considered.” The operation lasted from late 1953 to 1954.

According to Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh, senior analysts at the National Security Archives, “Although Arbenz and his top aides were able to flee the country, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed.” More than two decades later, Director of Central Intelligence William Colby prohibited any CIA involvement in assassination, confirmed later by an Executive Order.

Arbenz had raised fear in the U.S. because of a series of new policies such as the expropriation of unused, unfarmed land belonging to private corporations such as the United Fruit Company (UFC). Those policies were considered communist in nature. The United Fruit lobbied several levels of the U.S. government to take strong action against Arbenz (both CIA Director Allen Dulles and his brother were shareholders of that company.)

Land redistribution advocated by Arbenz intended to remedy the unequal situation in the country. In 1945, it was estimated that 2.2% of the country’s population controlled 70% of the arable land in the country, only 12% of which was being utilized. In March 1953 uncultivated lands owned by the UFC were to be expropriated under a compensation plan based on the company’s declared taxes and what the company said was the real value of the land. The government’s move triggered the U.S. government’s response.

An invasion led by Castillo Armas was mainly designed to provoke panic in the population and give the impression of insurmountable odds in order to bring Guatemalans to their side, including the military. Arbenz was particularly concerned that the military would strike a deal with the invading forces. When this proved to be the case he resigned.

Most historians agree that this was a serious blow to Guatemala’s democracy and the start of a civil conflict in the country that caused up to 250,000 deaths, according to some human rights activists’ estimates. It was also proved that the socialist movement that had gained influence during Arbenz’s presidency had no ties to the Soviet Union. The coup against Arbenz not only toppled a democratic government. It caused serious damage to Guatemala’s democracy and to the country’s chances for sustained development.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.