The Wounds of 1954

Abstract

When contemplating the course of history in Central America in the second half of the twentieth century, and analyzing the region’s geopolitical relationship with the United States during this period, the coup d’état sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Guatemala in 1954 looms as a constant reminder of the long-term effects sparked by this controversial act of foreign intervention in local affairs. The traumatic events of 1954 serve as an astounding case of successful propaganda campaigns, calculated information manipulation, and psychological maneuvers in the media and the public sphere, culminating in the ouster of Guatemala’s elected leader. The orchestration of incendiary language, alarmist Cold War rhetoric, and graphic images in the media—which operated alongside public relations undertakings on behalf of large corporations invested in the area and on behalf of anticommunist diplomatic sectors in the United States—had the short-term strategic effect of rallying support for the opposition forces and damaging the morale of Guatemala’s government-elect. A more long-lasting effect of waging a significant component of the coup against President Jacobo Arbenz in the symbolic realm of alarmist words and images was the extreme polarization of Guatemalan society and the propagation of a particular version of history that fit into Cold War agendas, but ignored the more subtle and enduring impact of the fight against “communism” on the lives of the individuals affected by its consequences.

Off with your history.

(Rabindranath Tagore)¹