The 20th Century

Finally, in the beginning at the 20th century, Guatemala had a government that wanted to put an end to the desparate poverty in their country. The president at the time was Jacobo Arbenz. The first thing this new government did was to take away the land that rich landowners weren't using to give it to the poor who had nothing. A lot of this land was in the hands of the United Fruit Company, a large company from the United States that takes the fruit it harvests in Guatemala to sell in the USA. Since the government of the United States was more interested in the success of their businesses than in the equality for the poor, it declared the Guatemalan government of Jocobo Arbenz a national threat and supported an invasion of the country and a political coup.

This was just one of many times the United States has invaded its neighboring Latin American countries. Remember that this country and its army has illegally interveened in the politics of Panama, Chile, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia and Haiti along with many others, which you should research yourself if you are interested in knowing more about how the government of the United States has abused small nations, always with the intention of gaining riches and wealth, although they always say its for a different reason.

When the inequality in Guatemala became unbearable, many people began to feel it was necessary to take bigger actions in the struggle for social justice. Some people thought that using guns and weapons was their best chance to gain the changes they needed and so followed the example of guerillas in other countries. Many youth took to the mountains to defend the poor people against the Guatemalan Army. The Guatemalan government, with the support of many rich countries, decided that masacering the poor and indigenous people was the best way to end the rebellion. There were many, many deaths and much suffering and destruction in the following 35 years. Hundreds of books and millions of pages still wouldn't be enough to portray all that the Guatemalan people suffered during this time.