Operation PBSuccess

The 1954 CIA operation that overthrew the elected government of Guatemala

Overview

Operation PBSuccess targeted President Jacobo Arbenz, whose land reform expropriated unused holdings of the United Fruit Company and who was accused in Washington of communist sympathies. The CIA trained a small rebel force under Carlos Castillo Armas, ran a propaganda station posing as an insurgent radio broadcast, and used aircraft to bomb Guatemala City. Arbenz resigned in June 1954 when the army refused to defend him. The apparent ease of the operation encouraged the agency to attempt a similar plan in Cuba in 1961, and Guatemala slid into decades of military rule and civil war.