Guatemala

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27396, 8 July 1954, Page 10

Guatemala

After two weeks of confusion and contradictions, it is a little easier to see what is happening in Guatemala; but much more information is needed for the whole story of the upheaval to be known. The revolt | led by Colonel Castillo Armas has achieved its chief purpose—the ousting of the regime of the former President Arbenz. The fighting was not heavy. Indeed, the services of the Guatemalan Army seem to have been withheld from the defence of the Arbenz regime. Had they been engaged, a revolution that depended on ill-trained, armed peasants for its I fighting strength could scarcely have ■succeeded. Apparently a section of the Guatemalan Army chiefs put some pressure on President Arbenz [soon after the revolutionaries i crossed the border from Honduras; and the president responded by resigning and seeking sanctuary in the Mexican Embassy. This section of the Army chiefs proclaimed that it would “ resist the rebels but that, apparently, was not according to plan. A second section appeared, took charge, and announced that negotiations for a cease fire would be started forthwith. A cease fire was quickly made effective and a new Government was announced; it would be a military junta and would include Colonel Armas, the invading revolutionaries’ leader. Colonel Armas may]

feel that his relatively small share of power ill rewards his donkey-work; and some adjustments may have to be made before the new regime settles down.

If no more than the foregoing were involved in the upheaval in Guatemala the whole affair could be seen as merely a variant of the game of ins and outs that is familiar in the history of Latin-American republics. But in this case a revolution of the traditional kind has become involved in issues of worldwide importance. First, it is connected with the cold war. Both the United States and Britain have expressed concern about , the activities of the Leftist Government of Guatemala—a Government which, if not professedly Communist, had Communist sympathies and earned. the approbation and support of Communist countries. Britain has been concerned about Guatemala’s claims to neighbouring British Honduras, and especially concerned about Guatemalan interference in politics in British Honduras. The United States has been worried, lest international communism obtain a foothold in the Western hemisphere on Guatemalan territory, which is uncomfortably close to the Panama Canal. The United States has let its concern be known to the other Latin-American States, and recently has drawn world attention to shipments of arms from Poland to Guatemala. Some observers feel that the United States has taken unnecessary alarm at the presence of Communists in Guatemala; others think that although the danger was no more than potential, the alarm of the United States was well founded. But the fact that the United States had made its interest in Guatemala plain before the revolt led many persons throughout the world to believe that it was American-inspired, and to regard the United States as Colonel Armas’s sponsor. There was no reliable evidence of that, and there still is none. But inferences that were readily drawn embarrassed the United States in its relations with the other LatinAmerican republics, and put it in a difficult position in the United Nations after the Guatemalan delegate had brought before the Security Council a specific complaint that Honduras and Nicaragua had beeh helping Colonel Armas’s attempt to overthrow the Government of Guatemala. The Russians swiftly jumped at the chance of accusing the United States of interfering in another country’s internal affairs. The Russians supported Guatemala’s request for observers from the Security Council; but two Latin-American countries Honduras and Nicaragua—urged that the Inter-American Peace Commission of the Organisation of American States was the proper organ to investigate the whole affair. The Organisation of American States was set up eight years ago at Bogota, and is expressly designed to deal with a situation of this sort. Moreover, it is one of the “regional agencies” through which members of the United Nations are enjoined in the Charter “to make “ every effort to achieve peaceful “ settlement of local disputes . . .

“ before referring them to the “Security Council”. But because Russia has no representation on this regional organisation, Russia’s sixtieth veto was used to prevent the state of affairs in Guatemala from being referred to the Organisation of American States. Later, Russia tried to get the question of Guatemala included in a Security Council agenda, and thus ensure a debate on the subject. The Security Council divided oddly on this question, New Zealand, Lebanon, and Denmark voting with Russia for adopting the agenda, Brazil, Colombia, Nationalist China, and Turkey voting with the United States against the agenda; the two other permanent members, Britain and France, abstained from voting. Obviously, there was uneasiness among some of the staunchest friends of the United States about giving in to the American viewpoint and so appearing to consent to the Security Council abdicating its responsibilities. As it happens, the turn of events in Guatemala may ease the United Nations’ position; presumably the new Government of Guatemala will take early steps to withdraw the complaint against Honduras and Nicaragua. But it is unfortunate that the United States has been made to appear responsible for the Security Council’s impotence to make any useful contribution towards settling a local outbreak. The Americans resisted intervention by the Security Council and preferred the Organisation of American States—as they were entitled to—because they feared Russian meddling in Latin America; but the Russians will say that the Americans acted as they did because of a wish to hide the facts. The United States will salvage a little both for the United Nations and itself if it arranges for the Organisation of American States to provide, while interest is still keen, a full and clear report of the whole Guatemalan affair.