Jacobo Arbenz Guzman

Jacobo Arbenz was a nationalist military officer elected as president in 1951. In addition to continuing the progressive reforms begun under Arévalo, he set out to challenge the monopoly held by United Fruit in the Guatemalan economy. Though he was not himself a communist, his wife was and he accepted the support of other communist intellectuals. Additionally, the newly legal Communist Party won some 4 of the 50 seats in the National Legislature. These facts, along with limited land expropriations he enacted, were enough to convince Washington that he was 100% "Red" and a threat to American hegemony in the region.