Viva Guatemala!

Flag of Guatemala

Guatemala is known to many as the small country that borders Mexico and Honduras with an amazing coffee export. Trust me, the coffee serves good in times of all-nighters. However, the country of Guatemala was filled with revolutionary cries back in the 1950’s. Now, why would a college student like me be into the revolution of Guatemala? Well, I am actually Guatemalan. My parents were both born in Guatemala City, and I have ventured to the country to see its wonders such as Lake Antigua and Volcan Pacaya. Now, I can attest that Guatemala is a very calm and peaceful place to be, but during the revolution, Guatemala was chaotic. 
 

It all began when Guatemala voted against the Declaration of Caracas, which stated that all Marxist revolutionary ideologies were alien to the western hemisphere, because Guatemala wanted Latin American solidarity against US pressures. To combat this, the US abandoned the 1933 Pledge of Nonintervention in the Latin American countries and sent proxies ( Guatemala exiles trained by the CIA). The person that I present next would the defining individual in the Guatemalan revolution. The second president to lead Guatemala would be an army officer by the name of Jacobo Arbenz. Now, being at the time, that Guatemala had millions of Mayan peasants, Arbenz used this to his advantage. He got their support and then undertook the biggest move which was the landreform law of June 1952, which attempted to take unused agricultural land fromlarge property owners and give it to landless rural workers. With the force of the proxies and an army, Carlos Castillo Armas, a general in the Guatemalan army who was working with the CIA,  invades from Honduras in June 1954. The military in Guatemala, who did not support Arbenz's radical policies, offered no resistance to the invasion. Arbenz then flees to Mexico and Armas is elected president. 

Now, one would think that this marks the end of a revolution in Guatemala, but sadly it was only the beginning. Fast forward to Guatemala today in 2013, and it is nothing but peaceful. A different kind of revolution has been unfolding since the 1980’s. The revolution of La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) against the county of Guatemala. The MS-13 first originated to protect Guatemalan and El Salvadoran immigrants from other rival gangs, but soon escalated to a war against Guatemala and the rival gangs that occupy Guatemala. My family that lives in Guatemala tells me that they live in fear of the gang. Sometimes, they even walk out their door to see headless bodies, dismembered body parts and blood fill the streets. The people who are being savagely murdered range from rival members, celebrities, government officials and even innocent civilians. I was even supposed to go to Guatemala for a Christmas visit, but when my family and I got to the airport to board our plane; the stewardess announced that out plane was cancelled. Apparently, there was a 15 body massacre a few miles from the airport, and due to safety hazards, the plane trip was cancelled. I feel extremely sad knowing that my home country is now known as a gang infested blood pool, when it is so much more lively and beautiful than that. Guatemala is currently undergoing efforts to reform its National Civil Police, but many speculate that there are spies and corruption in the government, so help is a long way away. I hope that the government and president do something really quick to send those thugs out of there so my family and I can return to my home.

References:

 http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ac12

 http://www.gangsorus.com/ms_13.html