Event

Guatemala’s agrarian reform, 1952

Decree 900 of 17 June 1952 let the government redistribute idle land over 223 acres, paid for in 25-year bonds at declared tax value.

8 links, 7 backed by primary records

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Dates: 17 Jun 1952
Also known as: Decree 900

Connections 8

interventions

Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez 1951 with Fortuny and Pellecer drafted the land reform proposal in 1951, at Árbenz’s direction, the CIA history says Primary record 1
Government of Guatemala 17 Jun 1952 passed Decree 900, the Agrarian Reform Law, on 17 June 1952 Primary record 2
Jacobo Árbenz 17 Jun 1952 promulgated Decree 900 Primary record 2

involved

United Fruit Company its land was taken, by differing counts: 234,000 acres in February 1953 and 173,000 in February 1954 (CIA timeline); 209,842 acres at Tiquisate in March 1953 (Schlesinger and Kinzer) Primary record 1 3
United Fruit Company the dispute over value: Guatemala offered $627,572 in bonds at the company’s declared tax value; the company, and the State Department for it, demanded $15,854,849 for the Tiquisate land (Schlesinger and Kinzer); the CIA history says land appraised at just over $1 million that the company valued near $20 million Primary record 1 3 4
United Fruit Company expected to feel the impact more than any other entity in the country, given its land holdings Primary record 2
Jacobo Árbenz the State Department’s historians say he met Communists to draw up the law; the CIA history says only four Communists held seats in the 61-member congress Primary record 1 2

caused

The 1954 coup in Guatemala According to Bitter Fruit Scholarship & press 3
The authors’ reading. The CIA’s own historian answers that United Fruit “played only a contributing role in shaping policy.”

Timeline 4 dates

1951 Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez intervened in Guatemala’s agrarian reform, 1952
17 Jun 1952 Guatemala’s agrarian reform, 1952
17 Jun 1952 Government of Guatemala intervened in Guatemala’s agrarian reform, 1952
17 Jun 1952 Jacobo Árbenz intervened in Guatemala’s agrarian reform, 1952

Proof 4 sources

Operation PBSUCCESS: The United States and Guatemala, 1952–1954 (CIA History Staff, Nicholas Cullather; released 1997), Central Intelligence Agency, 1994. Primary record Archived copy
Fortuny, Pellecer, and Gutiérrez drafted a proposal in 1951 for a major restructuring of property ownership in Guatemala.
Guatemala confiscates 234,000 acres of United Fruit land.
Guatemala confiscates 173,000 acres of United Fruit land.
land appraised at just over $1 million. United Fruit claimed the actual value was near $20 million.
Only four Communists held seats in the 61-member congress, a body dominated by moderates.
Introduction, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Guatemala, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, 2003. Primary record
on June 17, 1952, the bill was passed and President Arbenz promulgated Decree 900, the Agrarian Reform Law.
in late 1951 he secretly met with them to draw up an agrarian reform law.
given its massive land holdings, it would feel the impact of the agrarian reform more than any other entity in the country.
Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Doubleday, 1982), Doubleday, 1982. Scholarship & press
a total of 209,842 acres of uncultivated land on the Tiquisate plantation
the government offered $627,572 in bonds, based on United Fruit's declared tax value of the land.
The note demanded $15,854,849 in compensation for the Tiquisate land
But the takeover of United Fruit land was probably the decisive factor pushing the Americans into action.
Dispatch From Operation PBSUCCESS Headquarters in Florida to PBSUCCESS Headquarters, CIA, 2 June 1954 (FRUS Guatemala 1952–1954, doc. 169), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, 2 Jun 1954. Primary record
it lent some credence to the Guatemalan communist-government claim that U.S. policy is being conducted in the interest of the “big capitalists.”

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