Jacobo Arbenz Guzman Biography

Birth of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman

Arbenz assumes the presidency after Guatemalas first-ever universal-suffrage election, marking the first peaceful transition of power in Guatemalas history

Campaigns as a reformer and wins 60% of the vote by promising to make Guatemala an economically independent, capitalist state that would shed its colonial-era dependence on the US. Arbenz assumes the presidency after Guatemalas first-ever universal-suffrage election, marking the first peaceful transition of power in Guatemalas history

Campaigns as a reformer and wins 60% of the vote by promising to make Guatemala an economically independent, capitalist state that would shed its colonial-era dependence on the US

Appointed President of Guatemala

Guatemala becomes a founder member of the Union of Central American States

Enacts an agrarian reform program modeled on the 1862 Homestead Act in the US, the new law gives the Government power to expropriate only uncultivated portions of large plantations

Enacts an agrarian reform program modeled on the 1862 Homestead Act in the US, the new law gives the Government power to expropriate only uncultivated portions of large plantations

Supports Operation PBSUCCESS, the CIA-backed overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala.

Death of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman