REPORT ON COMMUNISM IN CENTRAL AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500490348-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 100
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 7, 1999
• Sequence Number: 348
• Publication Date: May 10, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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U.S. Officials Only
COUFIL) NT'E:.I,
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT 25X1A
SUBJECT iRe-,ort on Communism in Central America
PLACE ACQUIRED ______-
Car SOURCE) . 25X1A
DATE ACQUIRED (by SOURCE)
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chief political adviser and the parer behind the throne is Romulo flotanoourt,
the exiled fO1'mer President of Venezuela and a self-avowed Red. Ever since
Figueres took oath of office, there has been a steady migration of skilled
Communist agitators from Guatemala to Costa Rica, whore they are organizing
labor uniorA among workers.
President Figueres has already notified the United States Ambassador of
his plans to nationalize the U.S-- -owned electrical company. Although he ineiate,
officially, that he does not intend to rationalize the United Fruit Company
holdings, he is attempting to r g.itiate a new contract with the company which
is close to being confiscatory. Moreover, he has privately assured has peifonal
friends and many officials that this is simply the first step to total national-
ization which is his ultimate goal.
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Ambassador Hill has repeatedly and rigorously informed Figueres that our
government will :not tolerate nationalization of United States investments, and
there is some indication, that, as a result of Mr. Hill's firm stand, Figueres
may, temporarily modify his tactics.
Nevertheless, President Somoza of Nicaragua, a shrewd and well-informed
person on Latin American affairs, believes that if the situation is permitted
to drift, the Red encirclement of Central America -- including his own country --
will be complete, within 12 to 18 months.
With varying degrees of emphasis, practically all of the authorities
consulted concur with President Somoza's view.
The Red encirclement tactic was apparent to many Latin American govern-
ments as long as 18 months ago. Several of these governments have been in
frequent consultation with one another about the situation.
Less than a year ago, President Somoza discussed the situation with the
then Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, Edward G. Miller.
He advised Mr. Miller of the deep concern throughout Latin America at the condi-
tions in Guatemala. He expressed concern and resentment at the way Red agitators
were moving freely from Guatemala into other Latin American countries, often
under *he protection of official Guatemalan passports. He described Accurately
ment of the three friendly countries (including his own.)
President'Somoza bluntly advised Mr. Miller that the only solution to the
situation was to throw the Communists out of Guatemala.
He told him that eight Latin-American countries, including his own, were
prepared to support a coup. (These are: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, and Colombia.) He outlined the
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prepared 4, supply the necessary money, arms, equipment and "volunteers" to
assist the anti-Communist Guatemalan revolutionaries. President Somoza told
Mr. Miller that they neither needed nor wanted the official help of the United
States government, that anti-Amerioan sentiment, fostered by the Communists
throughout Central America, was so strong that official aid on our part might
be regarded as 'Yanqui Imperial
paign has subsided a little, on the part of the Peroniata, ainee the recent
'thoneymoon" between Peron and the United States. We can anticipate a reaumpns
tion of intense activities along this line on a "f!iendly" basis, pointing
out that there is no longer open hostility with the United States but under'
mining from within by pushing and needling the natives towards the goal of
"soonotaie independence" and ridding themselves of the "imperialist" corpora..
tione doing business within their countries.
Although outlawed, the Communists in Costa Rica gingerly. regrouped
their ranks and resumed operations. They organized women, youth and student
fronts and renewed work among the labor anionso These fronts were organized
by some of the sixty leaders of national and regional scale who were Jailed
after Figueroa assumed power.
The Communists published their weekly newspaper "Trabajo"
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tT,abor) in mimeographed forms
They published "TEA", organ of the Revolutionary Youth League and
"NOSOTRASr, organ of the Carmen Tyra Women's Union. Carmen Lyra was the top
feminine Communist in Central America until her death in exile in Mexico on
May l49 1949. A i.ative Costa Rican, she was famous for her child en's books&
1949s'
After Ulate assumed office as constitutional President on November 8,
he permitted the exiled Communist leaders to return home from Mexico..
He soon came under tire from several, priest of the Roman Catholic Chvich,
of which he is a devout member, because of this. He mode short shrift of
the controversy when he wrotes
"I swore to uphold the constitution. Our constitution prohibits the
exileof any Costa Rican citizen. I am certain that you would not want me
to violate either m oath or the spirit and letter of the constitution
written by'our legislators and which I took am oath to defend."
Mora, still Secretary General of the Communist Party of Costa Rica,
returned home. He was followed by Carlos Luis Fallas, a member of the Central
Committees and Rodolfo Gazman, Moscow-trained labor loaders
Fallas was the first to deliver a lecture after his return. It dealt
with.'-the proposed Nicaraguan Canal. In Marchjp 1950, in Montevideo, Uruguay,
w
at a. meeting of the Southern Labor Conference of the CTAL, Vicente Lombardo
Toledano of Mexico, the Voice of Soviet Rrssia for Latin America, laid down
the party line on this subject. He called for a fight to combat the plans
of the United States to build such a canal,
Fallas spoke behind closed doors on April 20, 1950, under the sponsor..
ship 'of the Carman Lyra Woman! a Front. His topic W403 "The Nicaraguan
Canal and our Sovereignty."
Fallas said in part,
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ir+ any manner whatsoever and no matter what may be the conditions that the
United Staten imposes on ue, due to the world situation and taking into
aocotsnt the foreign policy of the United Statesy signifies without doubt
the slavery and debasement of the Costa Rican people and of all the peoples
of Central America.
"Without distinction of political factions, religious creed or social
status, all honest and patriotic Costa Ricans should form a Cited-front
against the threat which the Nicaraguan Canal signifies for our independence."
In its reorganizational work in the underground., the Communist Party ,
of Costa Rica is still smarting under the severe criticism it received from
Luiz Carlos Prestes.4 -misinform director for South America and Secretary
General of the outlawed Brazilian Communist Party
Prestos sent his criticism to Costa Rica through one of the party's
underground couriers after an exhaustive study of the 19118 civil war. A
comprehensive reply was sent to Prestes in his secret hideout by party
leaders who had remained in Costa Rica* They blamed both party leadership
and the CTAL for their failure:
'!We did not do everything possible to secure international support,"
they told Prestos. "It was aggravated by the slowness and inefficiency of
the CTAL to foster international mass action. We especially neglected the
organization of labor cells. Repression has shown us in practice what we
already knew in theory. Labor cells are stronger and more resistant than
Intellectual cells ?1?
The party is trying to strengthen its organization. Oscar Vargas,
Secretary of Organizationp reported at the National Congress of the party
late in 3.9521
"The party comes above all. If it is well organizedj.if it is ideologi..
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ca.lly well equipped, it can successfully confront legality and illegality
without losing contact with the masses. The party is a school of revolu-
tionaries to destroy capitalism and build socialism and not a charitable
1.netitution nor an agency to secure well paid public, office. Now is the
time for vigilance to prevent the penetration of hangers-on and riffaraff .
We are approaching the final stage of oapitalism and hence the enemy avails
himself of every means to demoralize us.
nThe key to our movement of national, liberation, as we were just
shown by the Chinese Communist Party, lies in the organization and laying the
foundation for an alliance between the laboring classes and rural workers
under the leadership of the working class through its party. This is fundsm
mental to guarantee victory for the revolution.
"The platform of National Liberation and of Agrarian Reform of Van-
guardia Popular should cover the pr:blem decisively in a revolutionary
manner without timidity, looking towards the alliance of the rural populaw
tion with the working classes. We shall not be able to develop a mass rural
movement on a national scale as long as we pretend to inter,aet them in
public land.. They are not interested in them because they are little or
no good. They are only interested in land already opened up to oultiva..
Liono it is along these lines that we should present our demands for
Agrarian Reform.n
The By-Laws of the Communist Party of Costa Rica were amended to
prohibit any par`-r member from leaving Costa Rica without the written per-
mission of the party.
The party tried to stage a comeback in the 1953 presidential election
campaign in Costs Rica. It backed the opposition candidate, Fernando Castro
Cervantes, 72p a millionaire cattle man. Castro Cervantes did not disavow
the support.
The Congress of Costa Rica, a unicameral house, passed a bill almost
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on the eve of the and of the campaign, which outlawed the Communist Party
which had attempted to register ui a the name of the Partido Progreeiata
Indepandiente (independent Progressive Party) with the short letters of 7:i'I.
President Ulate signed the bill into lair reluctantly forty-eight hours before
the elections were held because he feels that Communism should be combatted
by an enlightened citizenry which should fight it militantly at the pollee
The PPI leaders, who had nominated five candidates for Congress,
ordered its partisans to continue to campaign for the election of Castro
Cervantes, whom it supported to the very end.
The PPI held a rally in Morazan Park in San Jose on the night of July
22, 1953 to annou..ce publicly its support of Castro Cervantes. Only 500
persons attended. The party candidates for congress spoke. The star of the
evening was Joaquin Garcia Monge, who has a reputation throughout Latin
America as Editor and Publisher of nReportorio Americano,'r an intellectual
literary publication, and as a university professor.
Three of the other four candidates were also professors. They were
Carlos LuLe Saenz, Juan Jose Carazo and Rafael Angel Llubere. Saenz fought
in the Spar.ah Civil War. The fifth candidate was a labor leader Don
Bernaru. Garcia.
The Communist Party of Costa Rica has very close ties with the
Communist Party of Mexico and the liaison activities are handled in Mexico
through Vicente Saenz, an intellectual who is a Costa Rican citizen, and
Julio Lopez Masegosa, the Spanish Communist.
Guatemala has not assumed the actual leadership of Communist operations
for Central America but does serve as a clearing house for the party.
When the Ubico dictatorship was overthrown in 1944 a Constitutional
Congress, was elected to write a new constitution. The new constitution was
enacted March 23, .1945. Article 32 reads:
"The right of association for the different purposes of human life io
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guaranteed in accordance with laws The establishment of conventual oongrega.
tiona and of every kind of mcnastio institution or association, as well ae
the formation and operation of political organizations of international or
foreign nature are prohibited. Not inoluled in this prohibition are the
organizations that advocate the Central American Union or continental aclid'.
arity on
The moot distinguished Guatemalan lawyers have insisted that the above
automatically uutlawa the Communist Party because it is international. But
the CommnQtuts have employed a legalistic subterfuge to aaeipt the govern-
mant+rwhich has repeatedly ignored the demands of anti-Communist groups
during the last four yearn that Communist activity be curbed-to attempt to
cover the party by the exception contained in Article 32 although the
Condnform has announced its opposition to this union except under a "peoples'
demooraoy.n
The door to Communist domination of Guatemala wao opened by Juan Jose
Areval.. Arevalo was 'esident of Guatemala from 1945 to 1951.
Arevalo was born in Taxiaco, Department of Santa Rosa,, Guatemala:
in 3904. The Guatemalan government awarded him a scholarship in 1927 to
study pedagogy at the University of La Plata in Argentina.
In 1934 he graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy and Pedagogy and re.
turned to Guatemala. His classmate at the University of La Plata was Raul
Osegueda, a fellow Guatemalan
r;,esident Jorge Ubic., promptly appointed Arevalo as Chief Cleric of
the Department of Education. In 1936, adverse to the Ubico dictatorship,,
Arevalo left Guatemala and returned to Argentinao
Arevalols name appeared in 1936 as a member of the Provisional Supreme
Council of the American Teachers, International, a Latin American Communist
teacherst fronts it listed affiliates in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico,
Paraguay and Uruguay. Its headquarters were at No. 148 J. E, Uribu'ru Street,
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Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This organization was founded on January 16, 1928 in Buenos Aires.
It listed affi2iat9.on with the International Educational Workers* The LM
had headquarters in Paris. it was a dependency of the Communist International
Youth Movementp wbioh operated under directions from the Comintern Youth
headquarters in Moscow.
The Secretary of the Provisional Supreme Council of the American
Teachers' International was Cesar Godoy Urrutia, a Chilean professor and
member of the Communist Party of Chile.
Arevalo never has admitted publicly he is a Communist. He prefers to
cal: himself a "spiritual socialisto"
Arevalo had an extensive career in Argentine universities. In 1937
he was appointed Professor of literature at the University of Tucuman. In
1939 he was named Associate Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters
of the University of Buenos Aires* In 1942 he became Technical Director of
the Normal School and was founder of the Pedagogic Institute of San Luis,
both dependencies of the University of Cuyo in the Province of Mendoza.
In 1943 he was elevated to the poet of Professor of Pedagogy in the
Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Mendoza. In 19114 he
replaced Don Lorenzo Lazuriaga, a Spaniards as Professor of Pedagogy at the
University of Tucuman.
While in that post Arevalo was nominated, in abrentiai as candidate
for the presidency of Guatemala by two newly formed leftist parties. These
were the Renovation National (National Reform) and the Fronts Popular
Libertador (Peoples, Freedom Front)partieso
Arevalo accepted the nomination and flaw to Guatemala to campaign.
He left his Argentina school teacher wife, Dona E2isa Martinez de Arevalo,
in Buenos Aires to await the results.
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Arevalo won an overwhelmingly popular victory against two rival
candidates. He polled 256,5114 votes.. Adrian Recinos received 22,050 votes.
Manual Herrera received 9,937 votes. Arevalo was in Argentina when the
final returns were announcede
He made a triumphal tour of farewells in the Argentine provinces.
Then he flaw to Guatemala to be acclaimed the hero of a people who had'Juat
tasted their first morsels of political freedom in fifteen years.
Arevalote troubles began quickly. Many ! satemalans soon discovered
he was trying to steer the ship of state very hard to port. There were
twenty-three attempts or plots to overthrow him in six years.
in a written question and answer interview in 1947 Arevalo aeseraed
he was antic. otmRunist and that there was no Communist danger in the country.
"I understand," he was asked, "that the CTAL whose chief is Vicente
Lombardo Toladano has scheduled its convention to be held in this city in.
``-e month of November. The CTAL, it is Said, hoe Communist roots. Is it
true that the Government of. Guatemala has given permission to the CTAL
to hold its convention?"
ArevaLo refused to reduce to writing the answer to that specific
questionq instead, he replied verbally that the convention would not be
hold. Hedid reply in writing to all the other questions. But the convention
was not held at that time because Lombardo Toledano had found it necessary
to postpone it.
Arevalots reply to a supplementary question which dealt with CTAL
Influence was:
"The reactionaries who are the opposition to Guatemalan democracy
have tried to distort the sense of a democratic movement of social and
economic revindieation of the working classes, painting it as Communist
when, in reality, it in a legitimate struggle of classes, until today exploited,
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so that they, may acquire the Tights which are granted them by all the
civilized countries of the world. As I have stated. in other speeches,
Guatemala is not a favorable atmosphere for Communism, due not only - the
sentiments of its inhnbitants_and to Its fervor for democracy, but to its
lack of industrialization. I don't believe there exists a Communist danger
in Guatemalan but if in the future it should arise, my government will take
all the measures necessary to counteract it within the constitution and the
The above statement was purely for exports Shortly after this inter.
view with Arevalo1 he replaced moderate Eugenio Silva Pena as foreign
minister with Enrique Muiioz Many; a friend of Moscow. Munoz Me any was to
serve Moscow well in that post. He died In 1952.
Another question put to Arevalo was answered with double talk. It
"Do you believe that there exists some Communist plan for the dominai.
tion of Latin America in the same manner that certain countries have been,
and are being, dominated in Eastern Europe?"
Arevalo answered:
"I have no knowledge that there exists
any Communist plan for the
domination of Latin America. The countries of Spanish America are not
propitious to the Communist thesis. I understand that, in generalthese
are social movements of proletarian revindication that have no rootiwith
properly Communist doctrines."
Arevalo signed a secret agreement with President-elect Carlos Prio
Sooarras of Cuba and Provisional President Romulo Betancourt of Venezuela
to work in close alliance --arthrow the governments of General Anastasio
Somoza in Nicaragua; President Tiburcio tarias Andino of Honduras and
President Rafael Leonidas Trujillo of the Dominican Republic.
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This alliance, and the refusal of Colonel Francisco Javier Arena,
Commander of the Armed Forces of Guatemala, to go along with it, was an
indioation of the awing to the far left effected after the appointment of
Mu$oz Meany and to produce the assassination of the one man who could have
eradicated the Communist bridgehead in that country.
Soon after Arevalo took office secret members of the Communist Party,
very close to the president, organized a front political party under the
name of Partido Aooion Revoluoionario (Revolutionary Action Party) with the
short letters of PAR. One of the principal organizers and elected a warty
functionary was Jose Manuel Fortuny, who had worked in the press section of
the British Legation in Guatemala in 1940 and 1941.
Fortuny became most active in government quarters and began to travel
the length and breadth of the country. Arevalo soon appointed known
Communiisto to high government poste, among them Luis Cardoza y Aragon, a
writer, who was named minister in Latin America and later sent to Franca in
the same category. Another was Carlos Manuel Pellecer, who wan appointed
secretary of the Guatemalan embassy in Paris.
Colonel Arena reached the twilight of his life in Juno, l549, when he
refused to permit two twin-engine transport aircraft and a PBY medium bomber
of the Guatemalan Air. Force to take off from bases within the country with
men, arms and ammunition to invade the Dominion Republic until Arevalo gave
him the order in writing.
Figueroa' obligations with the Caribbean Legion to invade Nicaragua
had failed to produce results and the entire plot vas smoked out by Somoza
when he opened his southern frontier and shoved a revolutionary force of Costa
Ricans, aided by a handful of Nicaraguan National Guarderten, to start a war
with the.Figuores government.
That movement produced a quick denunciation by Costa Rica in the Council
of the Organization of American States and an investigation that ended the
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official support by Figuerea of the Caribbean Legion, which was quartered in a
barracks in the center of San Jose and paid by the government r^er the protests
F
of many citizens.
:ovals gave Arena the order in writing to dispatch the aircraft. The
invasion ftszled. The PBY was successful in landing at Luperon Bay on the
north coast of the Dominican Republic. It discharged Colonel Horaoio Ornee
Coisou, the commander of the expedition and a Dominican, with a handful of
invaders and guns and bullets.
The other two aircraft were forced down by bad weather at Campeche,
Yucatan. President Trujillo denounoed the invasion. He ordered his loyal
forces to repel it.
The PBY was destroyed by one of Trujillo's patrol boats in Luperon Bay.
The two C-47's of the Guatemalan Air Force were interned with their orowo and
troops by the Mexican government. Thirty days later, on July 18, 19496 Arena
was dead.
The plot to assassinate Arena was an open secret in Guatemala and in
the Caribbean. The Dominican Radio broadcast warnings to Arena almost nightly
shortly after July 1, 1949 that there was a plot to assassinate himf Arena's
distaste for Trujillo's dictatorship made him incredulous.
Arena was an avowed Communist hater. He was known throughout Guatemala
as an anti-Communist and the most prominent candidate to succeed Arovalo. He
had plashed with Arevalo several times over the latter's interventionist policy
which had kept Central America and the Caribbean in constant political chaos
and revolutionary turmoil. He had made no secret of his aims to rid the
country of the mounting Communist influence once he rose to the presidency.
Arena was ambushed at the Rio Michatoya Bridge near lake Amatitlan,
twelve miles from the capital. He was killed by gunfire, as he left his
station wagon, by his assailants who ordered his hands into the air. Bullets
penetrated each of his wrists and three bullet holes were across hie chest when
his body was found four hours later.
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A spontaneous revolt erupted Live bourn later after some of Arana+e
army irionda learned the details of his murder. The spontaneity and reasons
for the revolt, which lastud 24 hours, were distorted by the government's
,Communist propagandists.
Carlos Manuel Pellecer had returned from his post in France to assume
an native role in the party nwrhinery. He br.iame editor of 11E1 Libertador,"
the official organ of Arevalo'a PAR party, a post obtained for him by Fortuny.
He was also Director of the Lultural Division of the Foreign Office.
At a mass meeting in front of the presidential palace on the night of
July 19, 1949, Pellecer harangued thousands of workers with a scorching attack
against "Yankee Imperialism and the Government of the United States of North
America." He accused the United States of inspiring the revolt to try to
overthrow Aravalo.
Ambassador Richard C. Patterson Jr. marched to the foreign office the
next day and filed a formal protest with Foreign Minister Enrique Munoz Manny.
He demanded to know whether Pellecor voiced the opinion of the government.
Patterson was assured Pellecer spoke for himself, but the faux pan was no
flagrant that Pellecer was sent back to Paris an secretary of embassy again.
Munoz Meany has said Arana was killed because he was "an enemy of the
revolution." Answering a direct quontion, he said, "The government did not
kill Arana but friends of the government did."
Munoz Meany predicted that Lieutenant Colonel Jacobo Arbenz, Minister
of Defense, who witnessed the ambush of Arana from an observation post over-
looking the river, mould succeed Aravalo as president because he was and is
"a friend of the revolution."
Arena, Arbonz and Jorge Toriello were the young triumvirato that ruled
Guatemala after the overthrow of the Ubioo regime. Guillermo Toriallo, brother
of the latter, is now Ambassador to Washington.
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The friends of Arana had the Arevalo government pinned down in the
presidential palaoa. While emissaries sent by Arevalo to the Embassy of El
Salvador were negotiating a truce with the rebels,. Arevalo,. employing a
Communist tactic which Red China was to use in the Korean War, brought workers
in from the provinces and armed them and crushed the rebels,
Arovalo closed all newspapers and radio stations. He ordered the
government printing office to convert the Official Gazette, "Diario do la
Centro America," into a tabloid newspaper bo be published at government
expense. Then he made it a full size newspaper. It carried above page one
the lines TMThe Official Spokesman of the Revolution."
Arevalo also ordered the government printing office to publish a full
size morning newspaper at government expense. Thus "Diari_ do la Maaana" was
founded. Arevalo named as its editor Julio Estrada de la Eoz,.a member of
the Communist Party, and the newspaper followed the, party line. Estrada do
la Hoz was later to be slanted President of Congress end was in line to succeed
Arbenz until his tenure ran out and a new President of Congress, also a party
man, euooeeded him.
Two weeks before Arana was murdered :esar Godoy Urrutia,.the Chilean
Communist professor, arrived in Guatemala on one of his periodic visits to
his old friend Arovalo. He had been expelled from Chile with several other
Communists by President Gabriel Gonzalez Vidola under the Law of Defense of
Democracy.
Although Godoy Urrutia had no official or unofficial diplomatic repro-
sentation from Chile, but, on the contrary, was outlawed therefrom, Foreign
Minister Enrique Mu'Tioz Meany sent his Chief of Protocol to the airport to
extend an official welcome to him and courtesy of the port at the instruction
of Arevalo. Godoy was escorted to his hotel by the Chief of Protocol in the
foreign cffice limousine.
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T#se week prior to Arana's murder Godoy delivered a lecture in the
meeting hall of the government's National Lottery building. The talk wan
sponsored by three government parties and six Communist front and labor groups.
The government parties wore PAR, RN and FPL. The front groups weros SAMF, the
Railway Workers Unionj S'TEG, the Teachers' Unionj the Democratic Youth Alliance;
the Saker-Ti Group, a union of intellectuals, artists and writers; the
Departmental Workers Federation and the Guatemalan Confederation of labor (CTG).
Members of Arevalo's cabinet, Arevalo's private seorotary and Are?valoo
press eeoretary attended the lecture. Godoy proposed the creation of a now
Communist front organization with headquarters in Guatemala, He called it:
"Frente Unioo Para la Liberacion do lee Pueblos do America Latina". In F'igliah
this is "Only Front for the Liberation of the Peoples of Latin America" with
the short letters or FUPIA. Godoy announced the purpose of thin now organiza-
tion was to organize and direct the overthrow of all governments in the Western
Hemisphere that are anathema to Communism.
When Arevalo eased the news blackout two weeks after the murder of
Arena, newspapers which were considered unfriendly to the government wore
required to submit two page proofs in advance to the censorship office. The
sensors killed all stories and advertisements which displeased them. Editors
were forbidden to leave blank columns in censored pages. Editors were
compelled to send the first two copies of the press run to the censorship
office for approval prior to further printing and circulation.
Arevalo included the immolation o' his military commander in his annual
report to the congress in March, 1950. He shed no tears over Arana's demise.
He reported to the Congress, in part, as follows
"The 18th of July, after the death of Colonel Arana, civilian elements
penetrated the area of the Guardia do Honor Armored Regiment and persuaded the
chiefs of the fort to rebel against the constituted government. Successive
attacks wore launched against the military base of La Aurora, the military air
force; the national palace, the presidential residence and the civil guard,
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Tanks and machine gun groups scoured the city from five o'clock that afternoon
until three o'clock the next afternoon. Heavy artillery units were posted at
the eastern and of the city and initiated a bombardment that caused damage to
private homes and many deaths among the non-combatant population.
"At the first signs of the rebellion, the executive power, meeting in
plenary cabinet session, delegated to Lieutenant Colonel Jaoobo Arbenz, Defense
Minister and Acting Commander of the Armed Forces, the military leadership of
the defense operations and the corresponding control in the entire republic.
"Workers from the west and from the southern coast began to mobilize
towards the capital city. The military command of the loyal forces operated
with admirable tact and serenity.
"While the military base deployed its forces around the armored regiment
in order to surround it and silence it, the air force carried out its activity,
realizing flights over the fort and dropping, courageously, explosives within
the building. A few hours after this fight the bombarded fort began to be
abandoned by the civilian leaders, promoters of the uprising, and finally by its
military leaders who, under the subterfuge of diplomatic intervention, rofuged
themselves in an embassy.
"When the loyal troops occupied the building, the garrison of the fort
was soant, while in the environs of the capital and by railroad the workers and
peasants flocked in--in defense of the government.
"This report doer not outer into an extensive analysis of the acts
produced on July 18 and 19. But the National Army of the Revolution, the air
force which is a part of it, the civil guard, the revolutionary parties and the
labor organizations put the National Revolution of October on the highest
pedestal in America.
"The revolutionary parties and the labor organizations werc in their
posts, either of reserve or of combatant action, at the side of the soldiers,
forming a powerful and incorruptible national front.
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"As President of the Nation, having neon ban idea me the military and
Civilian youth in hours of true civic test such as that, I must Confess with
pride that GuatAmr'.a has created a democratic breeding and has aroused con-
tinental admiration. This in confirmed by the applause that renowned
personalities of Latin America have sent to my government because of the
July defense."
Moot of the personalities to whom Arevalo referred were the Cononunist
loaders of Latin America.
In making that report to. the Congress Arevalo overlooked several
historic truths, especially a 44-page booklet published by his own press
office on August 5, 1949. This publication was called "A Fireproof Democracy."
It was written by Mario Monteforbe Toledo, a congressman, and Jose Santacrua
Noriega, a government employee. It was printed at the government printing
of fine ?
"The Army G-2," the booklet says, attempting to justify the murder of
Arana, "was informed as early as July 15 that a new coup d'etat was imminont."
That statement is absurd because Arena was army commr.nder and hid G.2
would have reported such intelligence to him. The booklet unleashed a smear
campaign against the murdered Arana in the government press and over the.
government radio.
Although the assassins of A rang were definitely identified by Arana's
chauffeur, no one was arrested for the crime.
Arana had learned of a cache of arms which the Arevalo followers had
been storing at a secluded depot some miles from the Rio Miohatoya. He
demanded Arevalo turn them over to him for use by the army instead of pursuing
a Communist plan to army work-,":s' shook brigades and use the surplus to
stimulate revolts in neighboring republics.
Arevalo'a only popular cupport in Guatemala after the murder of Arana
came from the Communists and fellow travelers, then a small minority.
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In September, 1949, Munoz Meany issued official passports to 32
Guatemalans to fly to Mexico to attend the American Continental Peace Congress
ordered by Moscow. The chief organizer of that peace congress was Vicente
Lombardo Tolodano.
There were officially designated representatives of the major political
parties which backed Arevalo included in the peac,congress delegation. Among
them was Jose Manuel Fortuny and Bernardo Alvaro V azon, who represented PA1:.
Monzon also registered at the oongresa as a delegate for the now front which
Cesar Godoy Urrutia had organized. Antonio Galich',represented the FPL and
Luis Asturias Carillo represented the RN.
The Guatemalan Confederation of Labor (CTG)held its Sixth Congress
Just prior to the departure of the delegates. Victor Manuel Gutierrez,
Secretary General, and Manuel Pinto Usaga, another top labor leader, later
flew to Mexico to attend the congress.
Other Guatemalans who attended included, Francisco Hernandez, Secretary
General of the Syndicate of Workers of the Leather Industry (STIC); Alfredo
Guerra Borges, Secretary General of the Syndicate of =ntelleotual Workers and
Revolutionary Artiste (STIR R); Felix Humberto Ortiz, representing the Syndicate
of Educational Workers of Guatemala (STEG); Professor Jose Rivera Toledo,
Assistant Secretary General of the National Committee for Peace and a leader
of the university student movement; Evangeline Aouna, poetess and member of
the National Committee for Pe?-,e; Benjamin Cordaro, Roberto Paz y Paz, Rene
Augusto Flores and Enrique Torres, representing the Baker-Ti intellectual
i
group.
The Democratic Youth Alliance sent the largest single group, excluding the
labor represe:.:ation. Its delegates includedo Roberto Bran Maldonado, Carlos
Navarrate, Humberto Flores, Carlos Rona-Valle, Jorge Alvarado, Alfonso
Alvarado, Jorge Mario Garcia, Jorge E. V. Ubioo and Guillermo Vivar.
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CPYRGHT
Fortuny was selected by 'fs ?COnuniet high Command to davelop the
fourth point of the general d....e of.-the congresss "The National Sovereignty
of Countries and Independence of the'Colonies of the American Continent in
Relation to Peace and War." He did'so,on September 7, 1949, and ranted
against the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Fact, the Rio Treaty, and
Yankee Imperialism.
But a few weeks after Fortuny and the other delegates returned from
the Mexico City peace congress,: the Communist Party emerged from the
underground and announced itself publicly. It published a weekly newspaper
Ootubre. The name was depicted in a flaming red flag to the left of which
was a red star and a hammer and sickle. Beneath it was this lines
"For a Great Communist Party, Vanguard of the-:Toilers, the Peasants and the
People."
Fortury'was listed as editor. Alfredo Guerra Borges, Secretary
General of STIAR, was listed ae'News Editor: The staff members includeds
Mario A. Silva Jonama, Bernardo' Alvarado'Monzon, Pedro Fernandez, Joao Luis
Ramos, Humberto Ortiz, Rooelio Lopez',. Antonio Ardon and Carlos Rene Valle.
The latter was listed an Business Manager. Each of the editoria; staff
members ,eld a key government job. All had attended the Mexico City peace
congress.
Ootubre opened its pages with tirades against the United States and all
business firms in Guatemala.
Despite this, A revalo appointed Fortuny as a member of the Supreme
Electoral Tribunal, in January, ,1950. Fortuny was sworn in on February 22,
and was one of the supervisors of the presidential eleotions that year.
L
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CPYRGHT
L.
Arevalo'a PAR party held its national convention in February, 1950.
Its platform contained these planks which the candidate was committed to
accept:
"LABOR--The labor movement is oriented in the same direction in
domestic policy as well as in foreign policy.
"FOREIGN CAPITAL--The imperialist firms, Internationul Railways of
Central America, United Fruit Company, etc., which in 191414 were forced to
maintain a neutral position in the politics of our country, are again
militating in the reactionary camp with more activity than ever.
WORLD REVCI.UTION--We meet at a time when the Chinese people have
consummated the difficult task of expelling from their soil the foreign
oppressor, planting thereby the roots of a new oi.iiization? We meet at
a time when the Chilean people have risen against oppression and terror
in order to demonstrate to Latin America that the forces of liberty are
unlimited and that there are no governments strong enough to subsist when
they lack the consensus of popular opinion.
"We meet at a time when the proletariat of the United States is
carrying out one of the greatest strike struggles of all time (notes the
copper strike was on then), proving that North American imperialism is not
only the enemy of other peoples but also of the North American people. .
This means that the forces of democracy are powerful and that their strength
spreads and increases with time. Each people is realizing Its own task of
liberation, and the Guatemalan people have to fulfill theirs. This is a
question of national honor and we must comply with it with honorV"
The National Executive Committee of PAR stipulated its candidate
must fulfill the following minimum requirements
111. Be a man probably ccasistent with the national democratic
movement, a loyal collaborator of the government of Arevalo and have to his
credit the a#foetion and gratitude of the masmen of the people.
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"2. A man of the October Revolution and a man probably respectful
of the political constitution who must not have any economic or political
ties with foreign companies, with feudal landowners, with the bankers or
with the sectors of big bpsiness.
113. A man who has never opposed the domestic unity of the
democratic parties or the unity of the democratic forces and who must be
a guarantee of the democratic unity between the people and the armed ircee
of the republic.
"4. He must accept in advance with sincerity and responsibility
the program of government action that the democratic forces present to him
and he must not be a sectarian candidate so that centralized agreement can
be achi',ved."
The PAR then underscored these three fundamental planks in the
platform which its candidate was obligated to translate into action:
"l. LAND REFORM--The legislation on land reform must be promulgated
in the first year of government of the now presidential term. It must be
inspired in the recognition of the right of the peasants to the land that
they till so that the land can be distributed among the peasant masses in
such a manner and quantity that enables them to be freed from the feudal
yoke and the misery in which they live at present. Without land reform the
republic will be exposed to the most intense penetration on the part of
imperialism. With serious danger for the national sovereignty,
"2. THE FIGHT AGAINST IMPERIALISM--Imperialism is no phantom. In
our country imperialism is represented by the amount of monopolistic foreign
capital invested in the country and which controls the fundamental branches
of Guatemalan economy; by the foreign firma and companies (branches of
international monopolies) that operate in Guatemala and extract insatiably
the basic springs of national wealth; by the onerous and frequently unconsti-
tutional concessions that shelter the activity of those companies; by the
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trade treaties existing between Guatemala and other more developed industrial
countries whose operation does not permit the development of the economic,
industrial, agricultural and commercial possibilities of our country; by the
interference of foreign companies in the domestiu politics of our country
and by their stubborn and oystematic opposition to the compliance of the
laws of the republic; by the interference, 2ch time more emphatic, of
foreign elements in the technical and administrative direction of hospitals,
schools, and other centers of popular education, with the complicity of the
most reactionary press of the country; and, by those international agreements
and treaties that tax, limit or deform the exercise of the national
sovereignty and which in a more ample sphere contradicts the letter and
apir;.t of the United Nations.
"All these forces combined constitute imperialism in Guatemala and
against them there must be a tireless fight. This fight can be realized
through the direct action of the workers of the foreign companies, through
the diplomatic activity of the revision of concessions and contracts, through
the strict compliance with the laws of the republic, through the systematic
recovery of national lands which, because of pending debts with the Guatemalan
State are found, unduly, in the hands of the foreign companies, and through
the mobilization of all the people in support of these revin dieations
appropriate of the sovereignty of our country.
"3. IN THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD--The PAR will demand of the new
government a policy that coincides with the aspirations of peace of all
the peoples; that strengthens and defends the spirit and the letter of the
United Nations Charter; that fa--ors and strengthens trade relations with
all countries that want to trade with ours: on a basis of reciprocal benefit;
a policy that denounces the sham of all those pacts, treaties and American
agreements which, under the pretext of maintaining the unity of the western
democratic world, prevent the liquidation of colonialism in Latin America;
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a foreign policy of respect of -the sovereignty of the peoples and of the
right of their self-determination; a policy of friendship with all the
democratic governments; a policy that opposes the military penetration
of any power or powers that want to convert Central America into a base of
warlike operations; a Central American policy of economic coordination of
the material, industrial and commercial resources of progressive nature
which, starting from the integration of a common economy, advances later
towards political unity, and rejects all unitarian policy that is planned
in inverse manner and which it is pretended to realize through simple
agreements between governments. The Central American Union must be the
product of the junction of the hopes, ideals and interests of our people
and never the product of influences foreign to those interests."
Arbenz was nominated by the PAR as presidential candidate. He
accepted. A few days later the Communist-dominated National Political
Action Committee of Workers delivered to Arbenz what they termed an
"historic document." It read in part:
"We declare Lieutenant Colonel Jacobo Arbenz, candidate of the work-'
ing class and the peasants for the next presidential term, certifying that
this support is conditional to the acceptance on the part of the candidate
of the program for popular revindications which the working class delineated."
Among the signers of the document were Manuel Pinto Usage, Secretary
General of the PAC, and Victor Manuel Gutierrez, Secretary of Propaganda.
They galled on Arbenz with Roberto Alvarado Fuentes and others to deliver
the document to him which, "Diario de la Mariana" reported, Arbenz accepted
"with an emotional reply."
Thus Arevalo, the Kerenaky of the Guatemalan 11revolution," had
schooled the Lenin to succeed him. The Lenin was to be Arbenz. He was
"elected" in November, 1950; after the opposition had been crushed and
driven into exile.
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Itrba.is was inaugurated on March 15, 1951. In the interim from
nearly mid-1950 till then the United States had no diplomatic mission chief
other than a Charge D'Affaires. The government had declared Ambassador
Richard C. Patterson Jr., as persona non grata. The reason: Patterson
tried to dissuade Arevalo and his gang from playing with the Communists.
._Pter the inauguration of Arbenz, we sent Rudolph Schoenfeld there
as ambassador. He served until replaced in November, 1953.
Arevalo succored many internationAl Communists in Guatemala. He
gave them lucrative jobs or placed them on the payroll and they received
a monthly check (usually about $00) without having to work.
One of those on the regular payroll was Manuel Eduardo Hubner,
a Chilean. Hubner had been a member of the Chilean Communist Party. He
had also been a member of the Chilean. Socialist Party. The. socialists
expelled him. He tried twice unsuccessfully to be readmitted to tie
Chilean Communist Party but they required he make more acts of contrition.
A:avalo hired him to write a book about Guatemala.
Otherwise banned by normal diplomatic procedure, Arevalo used to
send Hubner a 0500 monthly stipend through the Guatemalan legation in
Santiago, Chile, when the latter lived in his homeland.
A prominent visitor, as the official guest of the Arevalo govern-
ment, was Pablo Neruda, renowned Chilean poet. Neruda has received the
Stalin Peace Prize and other honors from the Kremlin. Neruda is now back
in Chile as editor of the Communist Party newspaper "El Siglo."
A Chilean woman Communist educator, Virginia Bravo, was appointed
by Arevalo as head of the Cultural Mission for Rural Schools. Just before
she left Guatemala for home she served as social secretary (and Marxist
indoctrinator) for Mrs.. Arbenz.
Two Spanish Communists, Rafael DeBuen and Ramon Duran, wera given
jobs by Arevalo at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. They are
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still in Guatemala and still. in their job
A Mexican Communist,Hernan Parra, was hired by Arbenz as an
adviser.
The Jacobo Sanchez School of Marxism was opened by the Communist
Party during the Arevalo regime. It operates in Guatemala City and has
increased its activities since Arbenz assumed office to include army
officers as students.
The Communist Party organized 28 principal cells in Guatemala
City. Each cell has a name of a prominent Communist or Communist date.
L
L.
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Among them area the Mao Tee Tung, Luiz Carlos Prestes, Chou En Lai, Julio
Antonio Mella, Juan Humberto Sosa, Jorge Dimitrof, Pablo Neruda, Ricardo
Fonseca, Juan Pablo Wainwright, 20 de Octubre, 7 de Noviembre, Jacobo
Sa..ohez, Bandera Roja, Anibal Ponce, P. Korchaquin, Tecun Uman, Isabel.
Vivar, Octubre, Stalingrado, Jose Diaz, Javier Moreno 25 de Junio and
Cienero Banera, Obdulio Barthe, Dionisio E? ,ina, Vittorio Codovila.
Five days after Arbenz was inaugurated the Communists staged a
"Partisans of Peace" meeting in Guatemala City. The government permitted
them to meet in the auditorium of the Belen School. The meeting was
presided by Roberto Alvarado Fuentes, then President of Congress and head
of PAR. Juan Marinello, President of the Partido Socialist Popular
(Communist Party) of Cube, and Jose Morera, Cuban official of the CTRL,
attended together with Salvador Garcia Aguero, Cuban Communist leader.
Other foreign Communists present included Ovando Sanchez, of El
Salvador, who escaped from his country during the 1932 Communist uprising
there, and Virginia Bravo, the Chilean Communist educator.
Among the leading Guatemalan Communists who attended were Jose Manuel
Fortuny, Victor Manuel Gutierrez, Manuel Pinto Usage and Luis Cardoza y
Aragon; as well ^s Congressman Francisco Fernandez, still listed as a member
of the PAR, and Alfredo Guerra Borges, who succeeded Fortuny as Editor of
"Octubre."
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CPYRGHT
In 1949 Arevalo had placed direction of all national radio
broadcasting in the hands of the Communists. He moved his former press
secretary, Eliseo Martinez Zelada, into the job, Martinez Zelada was
press officer of the Guatemalan delegation to the IX International
Conference of American States at Bogota, Colombia, in 1948. In June, 1948,
he was appointed Secretary of the Guatemalan embassy in Mexico. A protest
by the newspaper "Excelsior," edited by Dr. Rodrigo De Llano, frustrated
the diplomatic accreditation by the Mexican government. Arovalo then
offered him a similar post in Hs:',na, but he declined. He was rewarded
with the job as Director of National Broadcasting and as such had direct
Supervision of the government radio stations TOW and Radio Morse, both
short and long wave..
On April 6, 1951 Martinez Zelada was replaced by Carlos Alvarado
Jerez, a self-avowed Communist. Martinez Zelada is now Guatemala's
Ambassador to Bolivia where he is worldng v' closely with the Communist
Party of Bolivia.
A smokescreen was erected when Foreign Minister Manuel Galich, who
was a member of the Communist Party cell "Claridad" when it operated in
Guatemala City in 1946, signed the anti-Communist resolution at the Foreign
Ministers Conference -in Washington in March-April, 1951. But when he
returned home he erased all doubt when he assured the Communists in a
press statement that they "could remain at ease for the resolution which
refers to the strengthening of internal security in nothing affects them,
for said resolution cannot restrict the constitutional guarantees and these
do not prohibit the Communists or anyone else to express their opinions."
The May Day celebration included two Cuban Communists who occupied
places of prominence on the stage at Central Park in front of the presiden-
tial palace. These were Jose Morera, Secretary of Organization of the CTAL
in Cuba, and. Rafael Avila, Secretary General of the Trareport Workers' Union
of Cuba (Communist branch).
L-
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CPYRGHT
Arbenz opened the door wider to the agents of Moscow. He gave
the'green light for the holding of a"World Conference of Transport Workers
of the World Federation of Trade Unions" in Guatemala City from may 10-14,
1951.? From Paris arrived Louis Saillant, Secretary General of the WITU,
and Mauricd Carroue, Vice-President of the International Agricultural and
Forestry Union. From Mexico came Vicente Lombardo Toledano, President of
the CTAL and Enrique Ramirez y Ramirez, his pwreonal secretary as well as
an International Director of CTAL. From Cuba came Jose Morera, Secretary
of Organization of the CTAL and Rafael Avila, head of the Transport Workers'
Union of Cuba and Latin American Director of Transport Workers for the WFTU.
From Costa Rica there was Rodolfo Guzman, Moscow-trained International
Director of the CTAL.
Arbent made available to them th- auditorium of the headquarters
of the Department of Public Health. The opening session was attended by
four cabinet ministers and two under secretaries. They were: Manuel Galich,
Minister of Foreign Relations; Hector Morgan, Minister of Education; Dr.
Noriega Morales, Minister of Economy and Labor, and Ramiro 0rdonez
Paniagua, Minister of Gobernacion (or Interior). The undersecretaries
were Guillermo Melbourne, Undersecretary of Communications and Public Works,
and Alfonso Marroquin, Undersecretary of Foreign Relations.
The meeting was scheduled to have been addressed by Colonel Carlos
Adana Sandoval, Minister of Communications and Public Works, but he was un-
able to attend at the last minute.
Roberto Alvarado Fuentos, President of the Congress, attended the
meeting with ten other congressmen.
Saillant and Lombardo Toledano laid down the party line, launching
blistering attacks against the United States and praising the Soviet. Union.
They ordered the following strategy and tactics:
1. Organize a united labor confederation to act as a front to combat
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the reactionaries withir. Guatemala and the foreign capitalistic
imperialists.
2. Step up the peace movement; obtain more signatures; stress the
importance upon the people that the world is divided into two camps, one
the Soviet camp of peace and the other the United States camp of imperialist
war to enslave the peoples.
3. Strike movements should be carefully organized and well aed
to get the bast possible advantages for the, workers? Existing laws should
be disregarded in all demands and all reasons for a strike. The labor
movement should be unified and strengthened.
Saillant praised the strike against the International Railways of
Central America (IRCA) as an example of the show of strength of the labor
movement and especially SAMF.
"The railway strike," he said, "raised revindicatione, achieved the
solidarity of the workers and in this manner canquered a victory."
Minister of Education Hector Morgan arranged for the use of the
Variedadas Theater for a Communist Party meeting on June 21, 1951. The
Arbonz government showed it fully identified itself with the Communists in
every manner shape and form. Not only did one of his ministers make avail-
able a theater to the party but, again, Roberto Alvarado Fi.)ntee, President
of the Congress, and other congressmen attended; messages of adhesion war a
sent by labor judges and the executive committee of STEG, the educational
?inion,
Alfredo Guerra Borges acted as master of ceremonies. Among other
messages of adhesion and felicitations which he read were: one signed by
12 congressmen; one sent by the Executive Committee of the Syndical
Federation of Guatemala (FSG) of which Victor Manuel Gutierrez was Secretary
General; one from the Democratic Youth Alliance and another from the Youth
Branch of the PAR.
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Jose Manuel Fortuny announced at this meeting that the Communist
Party would register as a political party in the country. He attacked the
newspaper "EL Imparcial," as a lackey of Wall Street and Yankee Imperialism
because of its anti-Communist editorial campaign. He praised the Soviet
Union and described it as the "real ally of the Guatemalan people in World
War II, not th3 Anglo-Saxon imperialists." He explained Article 32 of the
constitution and pointed out it was drafted to bar parties of Nazi and
Fascist type and not the Communists.
Bernardo Alvarado Monzon, who had been appointed President of the
Guatemalan Social Security Institute by Arbenz, which is known as the
IGSS in that country, was introduced by Guerra Borges as "one of the stalwarts
of the Communist Party." Alvarado Monzcn presented prizes to the Communist
cells which led in the campaign for recruiting of new members, the sale of
the party paper Octubre and the obtaining of signatures for the Soviet peace
appeal.
Guerra Borges blasted the governments of the Dominican Republic,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina,. Chile, Cuba
and Spain as "anti-Communist dictatorships." The United Fruit Company, the
International Railways of Central America and the Electric Light Company
were attacked by him.
"No matter what or how much it costs," he said, "no one can separate
the workers and the Communist Party. Our newspaper Octubre, the voice of
the workers and the people, has shown clearly the advances made and the
privileges gained in the Peoples' Republics under the guidance of the
invincible Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
The Communist Feminine Alliance sponsored a national conference for
the "Defense of Infancy" in December, 1951. The government made available
the auditorium of the Public Health headquarters for it. It was attended by
Mrs. Arbenz.
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The goye':iunent crushed anti-Communist demonstrations in July, 1951.
The market women demonstrated in protest when the government removed two
Nuns from the orphanage in Guatemala _,.Aty and decided to replace them with
Communist teachers, There was a pitched battle in the streets between
Catholics and Communists. The government agreed to retain the Nuns, as the
orphanage is operated by the church. The Communists affected a strategic
retreat in this ia'.a.
The march towards the consolidation of the Communist bridgehead in
the Caribbean was accelerated in October, 1951, when Victor Manuel Gutierrez
executed the orders left with him by Louis Saillant and Vicente Lombardo
Toledano. A11 Guatemalan labor unions were unified into the General Confedera-
tion of Guatemalan Workers (CGTG) under the leadership of Gutierrez,
Gutierrez was rewarded by the Kremlin for this trivi*-' --id was invited
to visit Russia under the auspices of the Soviet trade unions. He toured there
in the company of several South American Communist labor chieftains. En
route he halted at the Social Security 'Conference in Vienna which was
sponsored by the WFTU and lambasted the United States in one of his speeches.
When Gutierrez returned from Moscow he brought with him instructions
to put over the Agrarian Reform, whichArbenz had promised to effectuate in
his first year in office. Gutierrez was praised by Moscow for obtaining
from thL government of Arbenz in February, 1952 of a building for the use
of his CTG. As soon as he returned from the Kremlin he asked Arbenz for
a much larger .;..,:..1ding for the new CGTG. Arbenz gave it to them.
One of the first moves by Gutierrez was to dissolve his Partido
Revolucionario Obrero de Guatemala (PROG) and merge it with the Communist
Party of Guatemala.
Manual Pinto Usaga was appointed by?Arbenz to be Guatemala's Consul
General in Mexico in order to effect a closer liaison between the CTAL and
the CGTG without any expense to either. Shortly after Pinto Usaga
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assumed his post in Mexico city he was invited by the Pan-American Society of
Women, primarily an American organization there' to address, it on Guatemala
at a luncheon given at the American Club. The American embassy in Mexico City
made no effort to block the invitation. Pinto Usage was the guest of honor and
spoke about "tourist travel" to Guatemala.
Gutierrez issued orders for a crippling strike against the United
Fruit Company plantation at Tiquisate, the principal banana-producing region
in the country near the Pacific coast. It was to be thefirst of a series
of strikes in 1952 ordered by the Communists. Gutierrez used his influence
as a congressman to press for an embargo of the United Fruit Company property
at Tiquisate. There was a threat that the attachment by the government would
result in the United Fruit Company being sold to the highest bidder out of
business in Guatemala.
The CGTG plans were fruutrated by the local union at Tiquisate.
The union leaders took stock of theirfate and prospects and balked at the
extreme action decided by Gutierrez. The local union leaders asked the
United Fruit Company for a three-year contract under current collective bar-
gaining agreements and the strike was settled.
The CGTG then turned its guns on the Electric Light Company which
had signed a two-year contract with its workers union in 1950. New demands
had been presented in May, 1951 and were conciliatedp with the company
granting most of them. In April, 1952 it had to bow to every new demand
made for a new labor contract, increasing operating costs 20 percent. The
government intervened the management of the company, banning the import
of further American technical personnel and canceling the residence permits
of most of those in the country.
The CGTG backed a linotype operators strike at the newspaper "E1
Imparcial." This was settled only after the publisher granted some of the
demands but refused to grant the one whereby the operators did not want
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to sat anti-Communist scpy.
One crippling strike in mid-1952 was the Pan-American Airways
strike. The government has for.3omo years, since the Arevalo regime, refused
to grant to PAA an operating contract longer than one year with renegotiation
every year. The CGTG sponsored a FAA employees strike for higher wage and
other benefits in July, 1952. The strike lasted most of the remainder of
the year. FAA planes overflew Guatemala and were forced to rearrange schedules.
In his annual message to the congress delivered on March 6p 1952
Arbarz expressed his pleasure over the strengthening of the labor movement
and the organization of the CGTG. He also praised the Soviet pre-peace
movement and the impending legislation for the Agrarian Reform.
Anti-Communists petitioned the Congress in Marohj, 1952 to outlaw
the Communist Party in accordance with Article 32 of the Constitution. The
demonstration of this group fell on deaf ears. The Congress shelved the
request.
In the meantime Jose Manuel Fortuny employed a typical Communist
stratagem and changed the name of the party to Partido Guatemalteoo de
Trabajo (PGT), or Guatemalan Labor Party. The Arbenz government permitted
thin party of register and granted it an official charter.
The Communists continued their relentless offensive. The congress
was busy drafting and approving the Agrarian Reform Law. The Agrarian
Reform Committee of Congress was comprised mainly of Communists. They
wares Victor Manual Gutierrez, chairman; Ignacio Humberto Ortiz, Cesar
Montenegro, Ernesto Marroquin Wyss, Guillermo Ovando Arriola, Amor Velasoo,
Carlos Garda Manzo, Marco A. Villamar Cos Roberto Giron Lemue.
A Guatemalan Peace Congress was sponsored by the party in the Teatro
America in the capital from may 23-25? 1952. The leading attraction was
General Heriberto Jara,Vice-President of the World Peace Council. Jara,
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World War II Minister of the Navy of Mexico, was awarded the Stalin Peace
Prize. The presidium of the meeting included: Professor Flelberto Torrez,
Nicaraguan exile who is employed by the Ministry of Education of Guatemala;
Alfonso Bauer Paiz, Minister of Econmy under Arevalo; Alfonso Solorzaro,
Manager, Social Security Institute; Mario Silva Jonama, member of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party; Antonio Ovando Sanchez, Communist
peasant leader; Mrs. Julia Melendez de Leon, a school principal; Congreoaman
Fermin B. Garcia; Luis Cardoza y Aragon, former diplomat and writer; Dr.
Guillermo Alvarado Montenegro, of Morales, Department of izaba.; Misa Atala
Valenzuela, leader of the Democratic Feminine Alliance and Mies Victoria
Moraga of the same group; Antonio Cruz Franco, and Otto kaul Gonzalez,
attorneys, and Cesar Augusto Regil, Director of Control of Industry and
Commerce.
Prominent local leaders who were there included Jose Manuel Fortuny,
Victor Manuel Gutierrez, Carlos Manuel Pellecor and Alfredo Guerra Borges.
The Communist packed 1,200 people into the theater.
They employed a subterfuge to attract attendance by publicizing that
the Church would celebrate mass in the cathedral to pray for peace and
support the congress. Archbishop Mariano Rossell Arellano publicly denied this.
The Communists called a meeting of 2,500 farm workers in the Teatro
Popular in Guatemala City on May 27, 1952 to explain to them the benefits
they would receive under the Agrarian Reform Law. It was called the First
National Congress of Peasants or Farm Workers, The farmers were rounded up
Occupying prominent places on the presidium wore Minister of
Foreign Relations Manuel Oalioh, Julio Estrada de la Hoz, President of Congress,
Minister of Communications and Public Works Carlos Aldana Sandoval,
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CPYRGHT
Alfonso Bauer Paiz, ex-Minister of Economy and Labor; Victor Manuel Gutierrez,
Jose Manuel Fortuny, Carlos Manuel Pellecer, Alfredo Guerra Borges, Leonardo
Castillo Flores, Secretary General of the National Confederation of Peasants
or Farm Workers; Communist Congressmen Ernesto Marroquin Wyss, Amor Velasco,
Cesar Julio Montenegro and Jaime Diaz Rozzotto; Alvaro Hugo Sslguero, chief
of the government's press and propaganda office; Bernardo Alvarado Monzon and
Luis Cardoza y Aragon, and two leaders of the leftwing Socialist Party,
Jorge Silva Falls and Alejandro Silva Falla.
Congress neared completion of the Agrarian Reform Law, designed
primarily to legislate the United Fruit Company r??.t of business and to
prevent other American investments in Guatemala. While this was nearing its
final stage, twenty members of congress signed a resolution, which was read
on the floor, voicing their solidarity with the North Korean army in its
battle against the Republic of Korea troops and the United Nations.
The signatories included: Victor Manuel Gutierrez, Roberto Alvarado
Fuentes, Humberto Ignacio Ortiz, Alfonso Fortuny, Amer Velasco, Cesar Julio
Montenegro, Domingo Fuentes Giron, Jaime Barrios Achila, Guillermo Ovando
Arriola, Oscar Jimenez de Leon, Miguel Diaz Valdes, Humberto Robles Alvarado,
Jose Luis do Leon, Juan Mayorga Franco, Carlos Garcia Manzo, Emilio tea
Gonzales, Miguel Angel Gonzales, J. Felipe Dardon, Jose Alberto Cardoza and
Alarie Alfonso Bennett.
On June 17, 1952 the congress approved the Agrarian Reform Law. If
anyone has any doubt whatsoever that Arevalo is an integral part of the
Communist International conspiracy one need only read the last paragraph of
the law as follows:
"Dated in the Palace of the Legislative Organism: in Guatemala, the
seventeenth of June of 1952, eighth year of the Revolution."
The law is signed by Julio Estrada do la Hoz, President of Congress;
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Marco Antonio Villamar C., Secretary, and Alfonso Fortuny (cousin of Jose
Manuel Fortuny), Se?retary.
Arbenz, definitely an integral part of the Communist conspiracy, and
his Minister of Economy Roberto anjulj, signed the law the same date.
Article I of the Agrarian Reform Law of Guatemala reads:
"The Agrarian Reform of the October Revolution has for its purpose
to liquidate feudal property in the field and the relations of production
which originate in order to develop the form of exploitation and capitalist
methods of production in agriculture and to pave the way for the industrializa-
tion of Guatemala."
Article I of tk:e Agraian Reform Law of the Peoples' Republic of
China reads
? "The land ownership system of feudal exploitation by the landlord
class shall be abolished and the system of peasant land ownership shall be
introduced in order to set free the rural productive forces, develop agri-
cultural production and thus pave the way for New China*s industrialization.u
The parall9l is obvious.
A few days later Arbenz went on the air in a nationwide broadcast to
Justify the Agrarian Reform and announced it would be enforced come hell or
high water.
Motion picture exhibitors tried to show the anti-Communist film
"The Red Menace" in Guatemala City in August, 1952. Movie censorship, which
is directed by the Ministry of Education, banned the film. A few weeks later
the Communists brought back from the Peking peace conference a Communist
propaganda film which accused the United States of conducting germ warfare
in Korea. This film was approved by censor and shown thr,>ughout the country.
In addition it was promoted over the government radio stations and shown
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In public auditoriums tinder sponsorship of governmental officials.
In August, 1952 the government of El Salvador proposed the inclusion
of an anti-Communist resolution for the next meeting of the Organization of
Central American States (0deca) which was scheduled to be held in Guatemala.
The Arbenz government leaked this confidential note to the Communists to
stir up agitation against the meeting. The Communists launched a smear
campaign against Foreign Minister Roberts Canessa of El Salvador and threats
were made against his life. Guatemala canceled the meeting. Foreign Minister
Galich resigned to accept a job as Ambassador to Ecuador. He was replaced
by Arevalots buddy,, Raul Osegueda, more astute, but out of a job since
General Fulgencio Batista overthrow Carlos Prio Socarras (close friend of
Osegueda) in Cuba. Osegueda was Guatemala's Minister to C?ba, appointed by
Arbenz.
The Arbenz government paid the railway transportation for a delegation
of Guatemalan Democratic Youth to travel to the Mexican frontier to meet with
their counterparts of that country in.October1 1952.
Gitta Sten, who was cultural attache of the Polish Legation in Mexico,
was guest of honor at a Saker-Ti Group meeting in Guatemala City in November,
1952.
The POT nominated candidates for congress in the mid-term elections.
Jose Manuel Fortuny was a candidate for Guatemala City. He was beaten by
the anti-Communist vote. But Carlos Manuel Pelleoer was elected for
Escuintla by an overwhelming majority. The presentation of Communist candi-
dates was possible because just before the elections in December, 1952, the
party had maid its Second National Congress and changed its name to the PGT,
Four Communist candidates and 2t from follow traveling parties were
all elected. The Communists had closed the vise on the legislative control
of Guatemala. Alvaro Hugo Salguoro was elected congressman for Santa Rosa,.
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CPYRGHT
The Communists oontral]ed the economy of the country through the
Agrarian Reform Law. Arbenz appointed Alfonso H. Martinez to head the
National Agrarian Department (DAN). It was Martinez who commanded the ambush
against Colonel Arena and was identified by Arena's chauffeur as the man who
fired the first shot at Arena. Three of the five members of the boards who
serve under the national head (Martinez) are nominated by the Confederation of
Peasants or Farmers, controlled by the Communists.
A National Social Security Conference was called in Guatemala City in
Docember, 1952, as a prelude to the dispatch of a delegate to the Communist-
dominated Social Security Conference in Vienna. Victor Manuel Gutierrez
was the star attraction and spoke. The delegate sent was Natzul Aguirre,
Communist. labor agitator, who was responsible for the 72-day strike against
Pan-American World Airways.
The new congress convened shortly after the New Year and elected a
now President, who is in line to succeed Arbenz should he resign, become too
ill to serve or die. He was Leonardo Castillo Flores, Secretary General of the
Confederation of Peasants or Farmers, and again the Communists were assured
of having a "friond of the revolution" in the presidency should fate preeoribe
Arbenz' departure therefrom,
The Supreme Court was requested to rule on a challenge against
Decree 900 which. stipulated there would be no appeal against a presidential
decision in Agrarian Reform cases. Chief Justice Arturo Herbruger A., and
Associate Justices Francisco Carrillo Magana, Justo Rufino Morales, Jose
Vicente Rodriguez and Edmunac Lopez Duran issued a unanimous decision in
February that the Arbenz decree violated Articles 210 50, 51 and 172
of the Constitution which guarantee citizens the right of appeal when their
rights are infringed.
Arbenz sent the Supreme Court conflict to the congress with
instructions to impeach the court and fire it forthwith. The impeachment
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was effected a few days later withot:.t trial and the court was summarily fired.
The justices were replaced immediately with party liners. The new court
is: ;3arcial Mendez Montenegro, chief justice; Associate Ju-ices Virgilio
Zapata, Edmundo Lopez Duran, Francisco Delgadillo Zamora and Ponciano
iepaiia Rodas. The now court upset the decision of the predecessors and ruled
Decree 900 had no appeal. Presidential edict was final on all agrarian
questions. The Communists had ecorede
Protest demonstrations sparked disorders and troops were called out
February 20 to suppress them, which they did.
March, 1953 produced several more definitive demonstrations of the
Guatemalan alliance with Moscow. Gutierrez flew to Santiago, Chile, to
attend a CTRL congress, Before that he ordered another strike against IRCA
which culminated in government intervention.
On March 6p 1953 the Communists in congress introduoed a motion that
a minute of silent tribute be paid in homage to the death of Stalin. The
motion was passed and the congressmen stood silent for a minutes
On March 14) 1953 the Ministry of Education made available to the
Communists the auditorium of the Belen School in Guatemala City for a
meeting of homage to Stalin.
A congressional committee has been studying all foreign contracts
with a view to liquidating them, especially the United Fruit Company, the
international Railways of Central America and the Eleotrio Light Company?
a subsidiary of Electric Bond & Share and American Foreign Powers The
Communists and fellow travelers have a free rein on this committee. They
area Francisco Fernandez F.., chairman; Mario Paiz Novales, Jose Luis
de Leon, Joaquin Rivera Kunze., Emilio Zea Gonzales., Carlos Garcia Bauer,
Eduardo Zelada Cerzo, Jaime Barrios Archila and Hector Fioh Garma.
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The Communists also have a free rein on the economically Labor Code
Reforms Committee.. They are: Jose Alberto ^,ardoza,. chairman; Victor Manuel
Gutierrez, Carlos ManuelPellecer, Amor Velasco, Hector Jerez Mortslvo, Jose
Obdulio Cabrera, Jose Joaquin Rivera, Raul Lopez Argueta and Oscar Diaz Jr.
The Coa:ununists handpicked their candidates for the two labor courts
that function in Guatemala. These are called Labor Courts of Appeals. The
Coordinating Magistrate is Miguel Antonio Alvarado. The First Labor Court
of Appeals is composed of Luis Quesada Mejicanos, Julio Gomez Padilla and
Jorge Mario Gonzalez. The Second Labor Court of Appeals consists of Rene
Barrillas Calzia, Horacio Padilla and Edelberto Pereira Echevarria.,
Arevalo has a cushy job of roving ambassador. As such he gets a?
fat salary and expenses to travel anywhere in the world. He has been
behind the iron curtain since he undertook this post-presidential Job.
His wife returned to live in Argentina.
The important role which Guatemala began to play in the Soviet
Master Plan for Central America became evident by the prominence given
that country in the weekly Cominform newspapers "For a Lasting Peace, For a
Peoples' Democracy," which is published in Bucharest, Romania, and flown to
all parts of the world. Items began to appear with increasing frequency and
in more space as follows:
"February 22, 1952--The labor movement of Guatemala has obtained an
important and significant political success. Until now it was represented
by the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Labor Party. The Central
Committee of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PROG), led by Victor Manuel
Gutierrez, Pinto Usaga and ottars, has made public the agreement to dissolve
the mentioned party. With the self-dissolution efforts, initiated in May,
1951, culminated the integration of all the forces of vanguard of the
Guatemalan proletariat into a sole party, the Communist Party of Guatemala.
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"The act of the PRCG is clear testimony of a just attitude towards
the unity of the working class on the part of the honest leaders of the
different political currents in the bosom of the working class. It testifies,
moreover, a profound undersc?snding of the historic necessity of strengthening
and developing the Communist parties, the fighting general staff of the work-
ing class and of all the workers, of all the movement of national liberation
against foreign imperialism."
11A-r!.2. L, 1952--Jose Manuel Fortuny, Secretary General of the Communist
Party, pointed out to the enlarged Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Guatemala the progress achieved by the democratic
forces of Guatemala and denounced the plans of the imperialists and of their
principal allies, the semi-fuedal landholders, who prepare a reactionary
conspiracy against the Arbenz government. He stressed the need to unite
the democratic forces of Guatemala with a great national front on the basis
of an ample patriotic and anti-imperialist program.
"Comrade Fortuny analyzed the work of the party in the attainment of
.he labor and political unity of the workers of Guatemala. The fundamental
weakness in the work of the party is the insufficiert liaison of the Communists)
with the masses."
"July 18, 1952--The Congress of the Republic of Guatemala has approved
the Agrarian Reform Law. The promulgation of this law constitutes an im-
portant victory of the Guatemalan workers and peasants in the democratization
of the country for which they fight despite the desperate opposition of the
reactionaries inspired by the Yankee monopolists. Attacks against the
democratic institutions, cowardly murders of peasant leaders and workers, to
all this the reaction has recurred in the fight against agrarian reform.
"The amplified plenum of the Central Committee of the Guatemalan
Communist Party held in June made the political appreciation of the agrarian
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CPYRGHT
reform, the realization of which will liquidate the feudal property in the
field, will give impetus to the domestic market and will open the road tor
a more rapid capitalist development of agriculture and for the industrialize-
t'-'n of the country.
"The plenum of the Central Commil" se of Guatemala pointed out that the
classes which support the Agrarian Reform, the most effective will be th~
working class, which will fight to the end for the compliance thereof in
benefit of the peasants and the transformation of Guatemala.
"The Guatemalan Communist Party has been and will be at the head of
the democratic forces that fight for the Agrarian Reform. It has demanded,
not the redemption but the full expropriation of the lands and their distri-
bution among the peasants. The promulgation of the law is only the start of
the tenacious fight of the masses for the application of the agrarian reform,
for the enlargement of its frame. The success of this fight depends above
all on the same working masses, on their unity in the fight against the
reactionary forces headed by Yankee Imperialism."
"October 31, 1952--The Second Ordinary Congress of the Communist Party
of Guatemala will be held from December 11-14. There will be a report of the
Central Committee by Jose Manuel Fortuny, Secretary General. Alfredo Guerra
Borges, Secretary of Propaganda, will report on the party program. A report
on the revision of the By-Laws will be made by Bernardo Alvaro Monzon,
Secretary of Organization. The Central Committee will be elected.
"In convoking the meeting the Central Committee said: liThe aggravation
of the danger of war, due to the present international situation, and the
actual national conditions, demand the adoption of a policy line that enables
us to redouble the fight against war and to strengthen the peace movement and
to give impetus to the effective realization of the agrarian reform, the
industrialization of the country, the increment of the peoples' welfare and
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the enlargement of the movement for national liberation, all of which requires
a greater and more solid unity of all the democratic and popular forces."
"January 16, 1953--The Second Congress of the Communist Party of
Guatemala was held from December 11-14 and one of its resolutions was to
change the name of the party. The Congress agreed to call it the Partido
Guatemalteco de Trabajo (POT).
"Before the Congress convened the organizations of the party discussed
the thesis of the report of the work of the Central Committee, the planned
program of the party, the planned By-Laws, and the thesis of the report on
this question.
"The Congress was attended by 184 delegates, In the debates, 115
persons took part. The great importance of the principles of the subjects
examined by the Congress were reflected in the report of the Secretary
General of the Partido Guatemalteco de Trabaj o, Comrad' Jose Manuel Fortuny.
He declared that the camp of peace, democracy and socialism headed by the
U. S. S. R., has demonstrated in deeds the immeasurable superiority of the
socialist system over the capitalist system.
"But the victories in the building up of Communism in the Soviet Union
have not come of themselves, the informant said. They are the fruit of the
tireless efforts of the great Soviet people and the direction and guidance of
the teacher of the party of Lenin and Stalin, of the Soviet people and of all
progressive humanity, the great Stalin.
"After analyzing minutely the internal situation of Guatemala, the
informant said the working class, as a directing force of society, must lead
the fight against feudalism and imperialism, organize the alliance with the
peasants. Upon this base we must create the united, patriotic front of all
the social forces which oppose feudalism and imperial!.sm.
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"Dealing with internal matters of the party, Comrade Fortuny said that
the party can no longer be considered in its embryonic state, as was true
during the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee in January, 1951.
During the past throe years, the effective strength of the party has multi-
plied almost fourteen-fold, although it is still not a party of the masses.
In its social composition sixty percent of its members are laborers and
thirteen percent are peasants.
"Among the defects of the party' a work, the informant said, was its
sketchy liaison with the masses, the wrong policies in the selection and
promotion of the organizers, the slight preoccupation of the leadership with
respoct to the raising of the 1.9eological level and the Marxist-Leninist
education of the party members. Also the insufficient level of party disci-
pline, and the scanty use of criticism and self-criticism, etc.
'.'The Congress received a telegram of brotherly greetings from the
Communist Party of the United States, which read:
"'Our enemy is the oommon one, the principal enemy of the peace and
the liberty of all countries: Yankee Imperialism.' The telegram underscores
that 'Guatemala is one oi' the countries which has been most attacked by
Yankee Imperialism.) The telegram ends with the slogan; 'Rends off
Guatemala)'
"The Congress elected new leaders of the PCT. Jose Manuel Fortuny
was elected Secretary General of the Party."
Guatemalan Communists have attended "peace" congresses in East Berlin,
Vienna, Bucharest, Montevideo, Peking. Among those who went to Peking in
June, 1952, were Otto Raul Gonzalez, Mario Silva Jonama, Atala Valenzuela,
Gonzalo Valanzuela and Professor Edelberto Torres, the Nicaraguan exLlo,
A second group flew in September, 1952. This was comprised of Congressman
Alberto Cardoza, Carlos Alberto Jerez, Juan Antonio Cruz and Miss Carmen Moraq.
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They joined or crossed the paths of the others to Peking.
The Guatemalans, with the funds brought from Mexico by normal and
orderly operation of the democratic institutions;
That said groups have infiltrated in such institutions, particularly
those of an educational character, of university, professional and secondary
educaticn, teachers and students who are poisoning the young minds with their
totalitarian ideologies; and
"That it is the duty of the Pu'to Power to defend the democratic
institutions of the Republic and to defend similarly the new generations
from the noxious influence of total'*-rian doctrines such as Communism.
"Decrees
"Article I-Declare the totalitarian activities in the country noxious
to the health of the Fatherland and contrary to the National Constitution,
particularly those that are carried out. in the teaching institutions with the
purpose of derailing the mentalities of the new generations.
"Article 2--Declare illicit and noxious to the health of the Father-
land and contrary to the Constitution the formation of parties, organizations
or totalitarian groups, such as Communism.
"Article !-y person who it is proved belongs to or collaborates with
totalitarian groups, parties or organizations, such as Communism, will not be
able to worst in the National Government, nor the Municipal,nor in their
dependencies, autonomous or semi-autonomous, nor form part of the official
organisms, nor participate in transactions with the aforementioned institutiore."
In 1948 the Panama Canal was almost flanked by hostile neighbors when
Communists tried to capture control of the governments of Costa Mos. and
Colombia. It took a civil war in Costa Rica to eradicate Communist domination}
of that government. And it took three days of fighting in Colombia during the
Pan-American Conference to prevent the Communists from taking over that goverr{-
ment.
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-73-
While that was transpiring, the Communists, as indicated by the above
law, were penetrating deeply into the educational system of Panama. They
also tried to got a stranglehold an the 17,000 non-American workers in the
Canal zone.
Two Communist teachers, Hugo Victor, who had been Secretary General
of the party,: and Cesar A. de Leon, were summarily ilred by Ramon early in
December after they had been arrested at an illegal "peace" meeting on the
night of December 12, 1953.
Victor had a close liaison in the generation of the "Hate America"
campaign with the Argentine embassy in Panama. This liaison, which was an
effective part of the Communist conspiracy, was documented in a letter
written by Victor to Francisco M. Carretero, when the latter was being
transferred to Panama from his post as Labor Attache of the Argentine Embaecy
in San Jose, Costa Rica. The letter, dated August 25, 1952, read;
"Very Esteemed Friend;
"As I will never have the pleasure to know you
either personally or publicly I take this opportunity to address this latter
to you.
"It is my understanding that you will continue
the work of your predecessor, Mr, Rodulfo, in my country and that he has
informed you about the relations that have existed between Mr? Rodulfo and
me in the past.
"Our cooperation in the fight against the
imperialism of the Yankees has helped our countries immenpely and I hope _
that we can continue the fight.
"They have told me that Mr. Rodulfa has given
you instructions about the means that will be used to communicate with me
and also about the disposition of funds. You will be able to call me at the
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same telephone number, at the hour indicated or you will be able to writs to
me, Bending them to the same post office box.
"I thank you again for your cooperation. May
our relationship continue to bear fruitl
"Fraternally
(signed) "Hugo Victor"
"P. S. Please do me the favor of destroying -thia letter."
The Mr. Rodul#o referred to by Victor, was Hugo Rodulfa, Argentine
Labor Attache to Panama who did a terrific job and then was promoted to
Mexico. While in Mexico he announced he had quit the service to reside there,
Then, on December 16, 1952 he left for Panama to visit a mistress, but still
traveled on a diplomatic passport. The Panama Secret Police caught up with
him and ordered him to leave the country. Rodul#o displayed an immigrant' a
visa, but President Remon ordered him out. His liaison with the Communists
was much too close.
American Communists were sent to Panama to organize the native and
foreign workers in the Canal Zone. Abram Flaxer, head of the United Public
Workers of America-CIO sent Leonard H. Goldsmith here as an International
Director and he gave a charter to Local 713.
Goldsmith was. succeeded by John L. (Jack) Stroble and took off for
few York and Chicago to lead in the agitation of teachers' strikes in those
two cities. Strobel was regional director for UPWA in West Virginia, Ohio
and Western Pennsylvania with headquarters at Pittsburgh.
Paul Robeson was sent down to sing recruits into membership at two
meetings, one in Panama and one in Colon.
Flaxer sent Robert Weinstein, his national director of organization,
to the Canal Zone for two weeks. Weinstein had been an instructor at the
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CPYRGHT
The organization work was effected from 1946 through 1946. In 1948
two party men, Max Brodsky and Joseph Sachs, took over the organizational
work from Stroble. Brodsky had the title of regional director. Sachs was
international director.
Sachs smeared United States District Attorney Daniel McGrath in a
broadcast in Panama City. He later gave the text, to a newspaper in
radio
I ';a which printed it. McGrath filed a criminal libel suit in the Ancona
Canal Zone, District Court, The Justice Department sent Tom DeWolfe down as
special prosecutor. Sachs was convicted and Brodsky, called as a witne3o,
Bought refuge under the Fifth Amendment when asked whether he was a Communist.
Sachs was sentenced to nine months in Gamboa Penitentiary and served
it and was then deported to the United States. Brodsky was deported by the
government of President Domingo Diaz early in March, 1949, which action
brought protests by the Communist and fellow traveler groups. Foreign Minister
Ignacio Molino Jr., stood firm and refused to accede to their appeals.
On March 17, 1949 Julius Katz-SucIy, Polish delegate to the United
Nations, protested before the Security Council against the deportation of
Brodsky from Panama.
McGrath broke the financial back of the Local 713. He filed civil
suite against it and against UPWA-CIO. Both were settled out of court in
McGrath's favor. The local union was demoralized and when the CIO booted out
the UPWA in 1950 it sent non-Communist organizers to Panama to try to pick
up the pieces and rebuild the union.
The Peronists obtained a stooge in the Canal Zone. He was Juan Vicente
Spiazzano Urriola. He was employed in the Motor Transportation Division,,
which handled all vehicle repairs. Early in 1952 he flow to Asuncion, Paraguay,
as the Panamanian delegate to the preparatory meeting of the Latin American
Confederation of Labor (ATLAS) which was being organized to try to pull away
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from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions its membership in
Latin America. The ATLAS was being organized on President Juan Peron'a
orders. The Paraguay meeting adopted a declaration of principles which
called for relentless war against "Yankee Imperialism."
Canal authorities observed Spiazzano's intensified activities among
the workers after he returned from Paraguay by way of ArgentinP', He was
distributing "Hate America" literature and enlisting recruits to hin union.
He was fired and the Peronista reacted violently to this measure. Every
Peronist newspaper in Argentina printed the following statement which was
issued by Peronts presidential press office in behalf of the General Con-
federation of Labor of Argentina (CGT):
"Imperialism has committed another outrage, which, although unforeseen,
nevertheless causes indignation. The Panamanian labor leader Juan Vicente
Spiazzano Urriola has been fired from his job by authorities of the Canal
Zone because he refused to disown the obligations accruing from the recent
labor unity conference held in Asuncion, Paraguay.
"Imperialism has responded to the manly attitude of this worthy labor
representative tending to starve hLm. This is the typical maneuver of
imperialism: to reduce to misery and desperation everyone who does not bow
to its miserable designs.
"The Latin American labor unity committee (CSUL) denounces publicly
to the workers of Latin America this new infamy that is added to the long
account that imperialism has pending with the workers and which demonstrates,
besides its obstinacy, the fear caused try the labor unity , eved in the
historic Asuncion conference.
"But this real challenge launched by capitalism will have to bear the
expected fruit. Intimidation will not be the weapon that frightens the
workers in the fight which they have undertaken for their liberation. Cat the
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contrary, it is another spur to continue it wi'' `-Rateir force. On the other
hard, the CSUL will take the necessary steps to avoid the helplessness of
Comrade Spiazzano which will be found in the solidarity of the workers, the
best reward for his selfless attitude."
Spiazzano was given a stipend by the Argentine.:1abor attache and also
obtained work in Panama City.
The Communist conspiracy was documented when the Secret Police raided
Communist Party headquarters on Central Avenue, in the, heart of the busiest
shopping and business district of Panama City in 1950?i They found originals
and copies of letters from top Communists in Latin America and Europe contain-
ing policy and operational directives, introductions of couriers, strengthen-
ing of liaison and an elaborate system of cover addressee..
One of the letters was from Jose Manuel Fortuny,Secretary General of
the Communist Party of Guatemala. He wrote to Celso:Solano, Secret'.4
General of the Communist Party of Panama February 7, 1950, about the campaign
to drive the United Fruit Company out of Guatemala.
"Today more t:ian ever," Fortuny'a letter read, ;." continuous contact
between us is beneficial. On our part we will ba sending you reports but we
want to take advantage of'the trips of persons of confidence who stop at
Panama. Then we will be able to send better data about our fight."
Fortuny asked Solano to write to him at the headquarters of the
Confederation of Guatemalan Workers (CM).
Some of the other documents found included%
1. A letter from the Central Committee of the; Communist Party
of Panama, known officially as tha Partido del Pueblo, dated June 12, 1948,
addressed to Manuel Morn Valverde, Secretary General of the Vanguardia
Popular (Communist) Party of Costa Rica, in exile in Mexico. The letter
stated it would be delivered to Nora by Domingo Barria, Panama Communist
L
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labor leader who would stop there on his way to the International Labor
Office Conference in California. The letter dealt with matters relating
to liaison and reorganization work of the outlawed Costa Rican party.
2. A copy of an accreditation to a party member on tour of Latin
America by Ruben D. Souza, Secretary of Polit4.cal Organization, which
read: "We accredit Comrade Victor H. Lima, member of the Partido del
Pueblo, political party of the working classes of the Republic of Panama,
so that he may communicate for us w-'th brother parties of the rest of
America in the countries that he visits."
3. A letter from Romulo Escobar and Everardo Tomlison, two
Communist student leaders, reque.ting the party's permission to leave the
country and travel to a neighboring country.
4. A letter from January 30, 1947 from Celso Solano to Manual Mora
Valverde, advising that Modesto Porto, member of the Executive Committee
of the Partido del Pueblo, would arrive in the "Province of Bocas del
Toro (Panama) for the purpose of organizing our party in that province.
Any effort that you may make to oontact Porto will be much appreciated
by us. He can be located in the house of the family of Comrade Rodrigo
Sanchez."
5. A letter of January 13, 1947 from Solano to Luis Maria Ricaurte,
Cartagena, Colombia, introducing party member Zapata Olivella: "I have
the greatest confidence that the presence among you of Olivella will be
of valuable help; because of his experience and sense of party discipline
he will serve as a great constructor of the Colombian revolutionary
movement."
6. A letter of March, 1949, from Armando C. Amadar, exiled
Nicaraguan Communist who resides in Guatemala, introducing party member
Jose Luis Ramos to Solano "in order that you may be able to help him
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politically and labor-wise in the mission that takes him to Panama. Jose
Iuie, a young democratic fighter, is at the service of the labor and
revolutionary cause of Guatemala. Any help you can give Ramos will be
recognized here, especially by those who preside the revolutionary political
fight."
7. A letter of March 26, 1947 from Solano to Luisa Gonzalez in
San Jose, Costa Rica, containing information for Mora on a planned visit
to Chiriqui and requesting the names. of Costa Rican party members working
on the United Fruit Company plantations in Panama in order to contact them;
also requesting propaganda material on the presidential campaign of Dr.
Rafael-Calderon Guardia, Commanist.?backed candidate "to make every effort
to publish it and broadcast it over the radio. This is very important
because Otilio (Ulate) is very close here to the reactionary press.
8. A letter of March 22, 1949 from Blas Roca, Secretary General of
the Communist Party of Cuba (Partido Socialists Popular), urging the
Panama party to send a delegate to the World Peace Congress in April, 1949,
"because we Latin Americans must fight harder than ever for peace. War
will bring the worst persecutions for us, the most repugnant form of Yankee
occupation, the most complete submission of our countri3s."
- 9. A letter of March 30,1949 from Roca to Solano regretting the
Panama party could not send a delegate to the World Peace Congress because
of late notice and asking him to send, a copy of a message to it.
10. A letter of June 1, 1949 from Roza to Solano, replying to one
of May 28, advising he had talked with "Nela," a courier, and that the
pamphlets on the Brodsky case and the aviation agreement with the United
States had been received and would be publicized; advising also that a
Continental Peace Congress would he held in Mexico in August or September and
that the Panama party should write or cable adherence to Vicente Lombardo
Toledano; also requesting an article for an anniversary issue of "Fundamentos,"
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CPYRGHT
the theoretical magazine of the Cuban party, to be published with articles
by William Z. Foster, Jacques Duclos, Luiz Carlos Prestes, Berlioz and other
top Communists.
31. A letter from Roberto Morena, Secretary General of the Communist-
dominated Brazilian Confederation of Labor (CSTB), to Solano dated June 3,
1949, to report that he had returned to Mexico to resume an active role 3n
CTAL operations (as secretary General). Morena requested a full report on
labor affairs in Panamaand sent greetings especially to Hugo Victor.
Morena asked that all mail be addressed to Senorita Olga Martinez Romero
in Mexico City and addedt "It is.unnecessary to put my name on the. envelope."
12. A letter from Roca to Solano of July 22, 1949: "I believe your
visit to Bogota and Quito is a good idea. Regarding Colombia, I believe
the discussion should be interesting, for we have been able to advance a
lot on, the road to end the existing split there. I have little news from
Ecuador, but I understand they cre going to discuss their program which is
an interesting document and worthy of study."
13. A letter from Roca to Solano of August 10, 1949 in which the
former thanked and praised the latter for his article "on a transcendental
problem for Latin America which ha3 not been properly treated up to now,
perhaps for lack of information." Solano's article dealt with the opera-
tions of the United States in the Canal Zone.
14. A letter of October 8, 1946 from Guatemala by Luis A. Apestegui,
a member of Panama's party Youth Movement] boasting that he had organized
the Federation of Revolutionary Students of Central America and Panama
with delegates from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua
and Panama and that he had been elected President.
15. An exchange of letters in 1947 between Solano and Vienceslao
Colomer, Secretary General of the Cataluna, Spain, Socialist Youth Unity
Party with headquarters at Haute-Garonne, Toulouse, Frence. Colomer wrote:
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"I see, however, that you have abandoned the Youth Movement for you sign
as Secretary General of the Peoples' Party. I also work fnr the party,
although as you can see I have not completely given up my responsibilities
as Secretary General of the Catalunya Youth Party."
16. An education plan for the Corununist Party cells organized
PYRGHT
among the students and teachers in the schools throughout the country to
include the reading of: The Cominform weekly newspaper "For A Lasting
Peace, For a Peoples' Democracy"; "Hoy," the Communist daily of Habana,
Cuba; (which has been destroyed by Batista); "Voz de Mexico," official
organ of the Communist Party of Mexico; Bulletins of the Cuban Communist
Party; History of the Bolshevik Communist Party; Fundamental Questions cf
Leninism-Stalinism; Communist Manifesto by Marx; General Outline of the
History of the Isthmus and the ?iorld.
On October 1, 1946 a slick 75-page magazine "ACIA " was published
at the Government Printing Office without cost for a new student front
named Associacion Civica de Latino America (Latin American Civic Association)
from which ACIA was derived. It was edited by Communist students of the
National institute, the country's largest secondary school in the capital.
The printing requisition had been, approved by Minister of Education
Jose Daniel Crespo at the request of his Undersecretary Cesar A. Quintero.
Quintero was a member of the fellow traveling Patriotic Youth Front Party,
most of whose leaders refused to believe they were pawns of the Communists.
It was suspected that Hugo Victor and Cesar A. de Leon inspired ACIA.
The editors and officers were listed inthe.magazine as Romulo.
Escobar, Isaias Garcia, Everardo Ernesto Tomlinson, Moises Chang Marina
Moises Garcia and Adolfo Benedetti, all of whom were to figure prominently
in the agitation against defense bases in Panama in 1946 and 19147?
The flaming cover of the magazine carried an ignited red tcrch spread
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CPYRGHT
over a map of Latin America with this captions "Our cover indicates that
the working class, and only the organized working class, is capable of
carrying the torch of the economic social and political liberation of all
Latin America."
The articles and poetry were entirely along the party line. The
editors did not even try to cover their purpose in any subtle manner.
A headline on page 55 reads "We Communists do not believe in false leaders.
'We believe in the masses.',
The publication of that magazine precipitated the eventual resignation
of Minister Crespo whose wife, DonaElida Cas,rpodonico de Crespo, was the
President of the Society of.the Friends of he U.S.S.R. at the time. Its
publication was called to the attention of President Enrique A. Jimenez.
Jimenez had not been aware of it.
Jimenez instructed Crespo to issue a communique and warn merchants
and the public not to consider the magazine an official publication. Crespo
did. Each student at the National Institute was required to buy a copy-for
10 cents. Surplus copies were placed on the newsstands and sold at 25 cents
each. The revcr,ue entered the party treasury. The government had printed
the magazine free of charge.
Crespo and his wife deviated from their sympathy with Russia to all
intents and purposes. It was Crespo who introduced the original bill to
outlaw Communism in Panama.in December, 1953, but he also included Falangism,
Nazism and Fascism. The other three isms were killed by name in committee.
Crespo is now a Deputy of the National Assembly. Both he and his wife
served as ambassadors of Panama to Mexico at different times between 1947
and 1952.
ACIA was never published again but in 1951 the Communist Party got
one of its members; Jorge E. F), ".,o, the job as Director of the Government
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Printing Office. He was fired as soon as the government caught up with
his party affiliation and skullduggery on the printing of identity cards,
President Alcibiades Arosemena ordered him fired.
The Communists gained control of the Girls' Normal School, the
largest teachers? training school in the country. Natividad Carreno J.,
its principal, registered as a member of the party in the city council's
record book March 26, 1947.
The party heavily infiltrated the student body at the National
University, where it placed members on the staff of the university news-
paper and as correspondents in the interior. "Voz Universitaria" (University
Voice) was converted into an Anti-American publication. In November, 1951,
it carried a half page map of the world captioned: "Anglo-Yankee Imperialism
Murders Arab Students."
In 1950 Cesar A. do Leon gave his students at the National Institute
this question in a final examination "Explain How Yankee Imperialism
Affects the Panamanians in the Canal Zone." Minister of Education Max
Arosemena received a complaint from a student, investigated it, and ropri-
mended the teacher.
De Leon attended the Communist Peace Congress in Mexico in 1949
together with Ramon H. Jurado, a functionary of the Patriotic Youth Front.
Jurado was elected a Vice-President of the conference. Another ?anamantan
who attended was Cesar Candanedo. Rogelio Sinan, a writer and poet, sent
a cable of adherence from Guatemala, lamenting he had to return to Panama
De Leon obtained a job as a professor at the National University.
He had been using the professors' assembly hall to deliver extra-curricular
lectures on Communism. Hugo Victor was among those who attended. A formal
complaint was filed before Dr. Octavio Mendez Pereira, Rector of the University.
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+84-
A full scale investigation J;and a majority of the faculty council
voted to lire De Leon. Twenty-two; students signed a petition protesting
his dismissal.
The Ccrcmunists proved the value of infiltration and undermining of
the students and teachers in 1947 when they scored their biggest victory
in campaign to drive United States troops from defense bases in the
Republic of Panama. The campaign was so adeptly engineered from behind and
planned sufficiently in advance thatmany Panamanians refuse even to this
day to believe that the Communists deserve any credit at all for its success.
The drive began in November, 1945, when Panama voiced its interpreta-
tion
of a 1942-defense agreement.with the United States that our troops
would have to be withdrawn from bases in Panama. This interpretation was
not challenged by our state department until August 30, 1946;
But in the interim the Communists held weekly public rallies to agitate
the base question. Besides the rallies in the cities of Panama and Colon
meetings were inspired throughout the country. Nationalist passions were
dwelt upon and patriotic explosions followed the failure of our government
to surrender the bases on September 1, 1946.
The Communist Party files captured by the Secret Police were replete
with documentary proof of the planning and direction of this campaign. on
November 27, 1946 Solano wrote to Manuel Victorio Herrera, president of the
party,'s executive committee for theChorrera district (22 miles from Panama)
and instructed him that "in the meeting you should talk again about the return
of the bases that the government of the United States keeps."
On May 14, 1947 Ruben D. Souza, then Secretary of Organization and
today, Secretary General of the party, issued instructions to the party's
provincial president in Colon, Felicia_Santizo Garcia, to intensify the
drive to campaign to eject the American troops from the bases. She was a
teacher at the Abel Bravo s3condary'school, the largest in the city.
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"The party is ready," Souza wrote, "to start a fight of national scope,
asking that negotiations be suspended immediately and that the Panama govern-
ment demand the return of the bases or that the case be referred to the
United Nations in case the Urited States refusss.
"In this sense a work plan has been drawn and pursuant thereto -le
provincial executive is hereby authorized to organize the mobilization of
the masses in consort with the policies of the party in that sector.
"Comrade, this is the occasion to move large layers of masses to an
anti-imperialist action directed against the United States. Because of its
inability to stand up against Yankee imperialism the government has granted
and will deliver our territory and'in view of this situation the part: cannot
remain indifferent. The matter of. the bases is an elemental question of
patriotism in which no Panamanian, except the agents of imperialism, agrees
that more should be granted.
"Therefore, there exists a great opportunity for the party to drag
into the fight all the vast sectors of malcontents who for lack of organiza-
tion or manner whereby to express themselves publicly have taken no action
against the courses of the governor t.
"Concretely, the task of the party over there is to take the initiative
in this fight, for which it should immediately call a meeting in order to
plan the framework of the agitation. A meeting should be organized immediately,
but to prepare for it meetings should be held in the districts by the existing
base organizations.
L_
"This agitation fight has something positive if all the elements
avpilable to the party are put to work. Precisely because of the patriotic
nature of the matter any comrade who is not a member of the executive may
participate publicly in order to explain the policies of the party. This is
a positive form of letting the p.srty members learn to agitate, a thing in
which we are faulty.
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The party should be identified and all members should identify them-
selves at every one of those meetings. Vie have authority to do it because
of our patriotic fight. But the manifest support of the people to the party's
campaign must be provoked. For that there must be organized a plan of
petitions and telegrams, asking the government to suspend the negotiations.
Party members should canvass for these telegrams in t`.e streets. The
petitions, in which should be said that the fight for the suspension of nego-
tia,i.ons is supported and the government should demand the return of the
bases, should be written by you."
On June 4, 1947 Souza wrote to Carlos Del Cid, then a university
student in Bogota; Colombia, to start defense base agitation there. Del Cid
replied in part June 22 as follows: "I received your lengthy letter in which
you ask me 'to organize an action in defense of our country before the-im--
perialist threat of the United States.' You should know that I am a member
of the Peoples' Party, which gives me the task of complying as soon as pos-
sible with what the secretary of 'organization asks me."
Souza sent similar instructions to every city and town in the country
where there was a Communist cell. Del Cid called a meeting of Panamanian
students in Bogota and drummed up agitation there with letters to the news-
papers. He took an active part in the April, 191:8 riots during the Pan-
American Conference. Del Cid and Solano were spurted froa Bogota by the
Colombian government in April, 1949 for Communist activities.
The bases agitation accelerated under Commurist direction as 1,047
progressed. Victor, as Secretary General of the Students' Federation,
mobilized the youngsters to agitate against it and to talk to their parents
against it. The pact with the United States was signed early in December,
1947. Victor and other Communist leaders led a students' riot on December 12.
Remon, as chief of police, was ordered to disperse them. The students clashed
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CPYRGHT
with the police. Several students were injured, one seriously. The Com-
munists had produced their martyr. They then mobilized the teachers, the
women and the opposition political parties. Their pressure campaign of
telegrams and letters deluged the National Assembly to which body President
Jimenez had sent the pact for ratification.
Victor was one of the witnesses called by the Congressional Committee
which a`Ldied the pact. The salient points of his lengthy statement were:
"The Students' Federation considers it only fair that it be given an opportunity
to be heard because it has been the most important motive power of public
opinion in defense of the sovereignty and the national integrity. The Students'
Federation states that its password is the rejection of the pact. The Students'
Federation would not even agree to the withdrawal of the agreement and its
return to the executive. wants the agreement considered by this chamber
but it wants it rejected. In its path of struggle in defense of national
integrity it maintains that our country should not grant to the United States,
to any foreign power, a centimeter or an inch of its territory."
Humberto E. Rioord, an attorney who represented the University Alumni
Association, was another witness. He had registered as a member of the Com-
munist Party for the 1948 general elections. He demanded the pact be rejected.
Telegrams and cables from within and without the -.ountry were poured
into the national assembly demanding the pact be repudiated. There were
cables from Communist-dominated students' federations in Ouatemala, Peru,
Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador and Chile, but the congressmen had no knowledge the
senders were Communists.
The students, 10,000 strong, marched on the national assembly and
stood watch there demanding the rejection of the pact. The agreement was
unanimously repudiated December 22, 1947, and American troops were immediately
withdrawn from the bases in the republic.
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A cable of congratulations was sent to the National Assembly of
Panama by Lutz Carlos Prestes, Brazilian Communist chieftain, former
officer in the Red Army in Russia, and Cominform director for South America.
The Communists tried to whip up similar agitation in 1949 to
sabotage a bilateral sir agreement with the United States but the govern-
ment of President Domingo' Dies was prepared for them. They submitted to
the National Assembly a petition to repudiate the pact accompanied by a
Pamphlet entitled; "Stop the Collaborationism and. Treasonl" The pact was
ratified over considerable opposition.
The party tried to 'torpedo a new concession contract with the
United Fruit Company. Another petition was presented and another pamphlet.
was printed. Domingo Barris, the Communist labor leader, tried to stir up
agitation at the company's plantations in Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro with
the aid of Nemesio Lopez Zapata and other party agents and also in the
capital but the Communists lost that fight.
Panamanians have attende.. student congresses in Warsaw, Prague and
Bucharest. Cleto Manuel Souza, brother of Ruben Dario Souza, attended the
Bucharest meeting in September, 1952. Cleto Souza is a senior medical
student at the university and was Secretary General of the Students'
Federation until the anti-Communist students voted him out of his fob in
a riotous session in November, 1953.
Student agitation reached chaotic heights in October and November,
1951, with the resignation of Minister of Education Ricardo J. Bermudez.
He had signed the convoking call of the Communist Peace Congress in Maxico
and was considered sympathetic to the Communists, a member of the Patriotic
Youth Front but not a Communist. He was denied a visa to visit the United
States in 1949.
A teachers' strike was organized tc protest the resignation of
Bermudez for political reasons. The strike continued over the independence
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celebration of November 3, 1951. Communist agitators tried to disrupt the
independence day parade. The agitation and strikes continued through
January, 1952. Violence erupted on January 30 between the students and
the police. Mounted police were unhorsed, cars were overturned. Four
students suffered burns when a station wagon they overturned caught fire.
Shop windows were smashed and some looting was done. Fourteen po]'.cemen
received minor bruises. The police arrested 24, including Carlos Del Cid.
The Star & Herald raised its voice in protest in an editorial
entitiedt "Something Must be Donel" It read:
"The republic, at least its capital city, is living through days of
unrest and growing uneasiness, because the strike weapon has become a
political arm.
"Today there is open rebellion against the duly ontablished govern-
ment and respect for constituted authority is fast fading. The quasi-
anarchy that prevails is destroying the peace of mind of the community and
is sorely hurting the economic life of thn capital. This damage must also
affect the economic life of the rest of the country.
"Something must be done to restore peace and security to the capital
and the country at large.
"The country's economic situation is at such a low ebb today that it
can ill afford to lose any particle of revenue that might accrue to it from
its commercial activities which constitute one of the main scurces of the
economic life blood of the nation. The current unrest, the sense of in
security that is felt everywhere, serves only to drive away what little
trade could be done by our merchants. With rioting liable to break out
anywhere in the city at any time, few spenders from across the line will
risk their personal security and the safety of their property by coming
into the capital. They will stay away. And this staying away if practiced
long enough could become a habit hard to break tomorrow.
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"Something must be done then to put an end to the current disorders
and violence and to restore full guarantees to life and property in the
capital. Police intervention for such purposes is inevitable, regardless
of whether politicians might try to make political capital out of such
intervention in behalf of law and order.
"Something must be done soon and as effectively as possible to stop
the disorders."
Del Cid led a hunger strike in jail for a week to obtain freedom.
The Communists developed a sympathy campaign for him and six others in!j ail
via the press and radio. He was ultimately released by the police
magistrate who had ordered him and the others detained.
The principal reason for the agitation led by the Communists was to
try to discredit the presidential candidacy of Remon, who was campaigning
on an anti-Communist platform. The Communists had failed to register as a
national p6--.itieal party but registered as a municipal party. They nominated
Domingo Barrie for Mayor of Panama City. He received very few votes as the
party was instructed to vote for Manuel Solis Falma, candidate of the fellow
traveling Patriotic Youth Front.
Reman intensified his anti-Communist campaign in the month preceding
the elections. In May, 1952, he was elected by a landslide.
Three Panamanians visited the iron curtain countries late in 1952,
They were Cleto Manuel Souza, who attended the International Students, Union
Congress in Bucharest; Dr. Carlos De Bello Pedreschi, who attended the
Vienna Peace conclave; and Carlos Francisco Chang Merin, who attended the
Asian and Pacific Peace Congress in Peking, Chins.
Chang Mario was arrested January 25, 1953 after eluding the police.
He was jailed for 30 days and then given nine months for trying to smuggle
Soviet propaganda films into Panama. Souza testified he shipped the films
of germ warfare propaganda against the United States in English dialogue
from Zurich, Switzerland, addressed to Deputy Homero Velasquez, on Chang
Marin's instructions.
L
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Velasquez received the post office customs notice to claim a package
or "seven pieces of crystalvare." Suspicious of this he summoned the secret
police. The package was opened. The inner wrapping was addressed for
delivery to Dr. Pedreschi. Souza and Pedreschi were arrested as well.
The party sought a writ of habeas corpus for Chang Marin. The
petition was filed before the supreme court by Carlos A. Cajal, an attorney,
who was Secretary General of the University Cell of the party in 1948.
In a unanimous and unprecedented,. decision the five justices of the
supreme court denied the writ. Two juso..ces dissented over the opinion of
the majority in which the latter observed how the government should deal
with the Cormunists. The decision read in part:
"The right of free speech cannot be exercised if it attacks the
reputation cr h-nor of a person or is against the security of society and
public odor. The right of assembly '.s restricted by the constitution which
provides for police measures to prevent a breach of the peace. The constitu-
tion forbids the creation of political parties which are aimed at destroying
the democratic system of government. It is clear that the authorities of the
republic are duty-bound within their province of constitutional and legal
action, to consolidate our institutional system and to prevent or repress,
as the case may be, any type of activity which attempts against the basic
foundations of the republic."
On the night of December 11, 1953, the Secret Police raided a
Communist meeting in a workers' district. The meeting had been called to
commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Communist-inspired student riots of
December 12, 1947, Pnd to celebrate the release of Chang Marin from jail.
Among those arrested were Hugo Victor and Cesar A. De Leon; Carlos
Chang Marin, George Wang King, Enrique Lou Diaz. Victor was given 40 days
in jail. He and De Leon were fired as teachers by an executive decree signed
.by Ramon and Minister of Education Victor C. Urrutia.
As Chang Merin was led from the meeting '.all he 'houted "Vivas" for
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a
CPYRGHT
Malenkov and Mao Tae Tung. He and the others taken with him each got 40
days in jail for holding an unauthorized meeting. The next night the
police arrested Lenin Brower, secretary of the barbers union, and raided
his home and shop and confiscated a trunk full of Communist propaganda.
On December 18, 195; the Secret Police confiscated twelve Communist
books which had been shipped by mail by Daniel Bravo, Jr., a member of the
Partido del Pueblo, who was supposed to be studying in Spain on a scholarship.
The books were mailed from Amsterdam, Holland. and carried the inscription:
hI% R. Sannetge de Uroome, Soerabayosti I., Amsterdam, Holland."
Scattered inside the pages of the books were slips of paper con-
taining names and addressee of persons in cities behind the Iron Curtain in
Europe, undoubtedly contacts in the Communist conspiracy. Also scattered
inside were slips of paper containing names and addresses oX 107 persons
in Panama City.
Jorge Leis Alfaro, Inspector General of the Secret Police, announced
that not all of the 107 persons listed are known to be Communists. He also
furnished the titles of the books. They included: Directives of the XIX
Congress of the Party for the Fifth Five-Year Plan of the U. S. S. R.,
1951.55; The Proletarian Class and the Proletarian Party, J. Stalin; The
State and the Revolution, V. I. Lenin; Report to the XVIII Congress of the
Party on the Activities of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
(b) of the U. S. S. R., J. Stalin; On Communist Education, M. L. Kalinin;
The Underground Regional Committee in Action, two volumes, A. Fiodorov;
Report to the XIX Congress of the Party on the Activities of the C. C. of
the C. P. (b) of the U. S. S. R., G. Malenkov; Selected Works, K. Marx--F.
Engels (volumes I and II); Questions of Leninism, J. Stalin; Marx Engels
Marxism, V. I. Lenin.
The Communists dominated the labor unions and organized and dominated
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39 front organizations in Panama. The total number of citizens under the
leftist wing bas been estimated at 12,000. While this is an infinite
minority it proved sufficient to dominate the agitation against the
United States in the 1947 defense bases negotiations.
The Communist labor leader Domingo Barrie has not been more success-
ful because his operations have been constantly exposed. As Secretary
General of the Federacion Sindical do Trabajadores de Panama (FSTRP)
Barria is the CTAL link in Panama. For a time his organization dominated
the banana workers at the United Fruit Company plantations in the Province
of Chiriqui until the government cracked down on them.
Oscar Benitez Bone, Guatem~la's Minister to Panama, was declared
persona non grata in 1952 because of direct aid furnished to Communists
and follow travelers to provoke anti-government student agitation. This
aid was financial and came from special funds deposited in the National
City Bank of New York, Panama Branch.
The control of Guatemala by the Communists increases the danger of
the spread of infiltration and agitation throughout Central America,
Guatemala has wrested this role from Cuba, where Batista today is keeping
close tabs on the Communists.
The threat is more acute because of the open su,.,,ort of Arbenz and
his wife, Don Maria Cristina Vilanova de Arbenz, to the Communists. Mrs.
Arbenz, a native of El Salvador and daughter of a wealthy coffee planter,
has been thoroughly indoctrinated by the Communists, as has her husband.
On November 30, 1,053 she attended the First National Congress of the
Guatemalan minine Alliance and sat on the presidium. The government made
available the auditorium of the Belen School, which is the site of the
Central Girlst Normal Institute, the largest secondary school for teachers
in the country.
Others present with Mre. Arbenz at that congress included Jaime
Diaz Rozzotto, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic
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and Secretary General of the Renovation National Party; Raul Leira and
Professor Oscar Vargas and his wife.
The day before Mrs. Arbenz attended the Communist front congress,
the newspaper "Tribune Popular," official organ of the POT (Communist
Paz'ty) published a list of names of Guatemalans who had just returned
from a visit to Moscow under the auspices of the Soviet Trade Unions. Th.se
includeds Victor Manuel Gutierrez, Leonardo Castillo Flores, Gabriel Carney,
Armando Villaeesorr Albino Garcia, Gregorio Coronado, Jose Luis Ramos and
Felicito Alegria.
As soon as Gutierrez returned he was received by President Arbonz
and his cabinet to give them a report on the visit to Russia. Jose Manuel
Fortuny, who led the delegation to Moscow, remained at the Kremlin for
further indoctrination, instructions and to help plan the strategy for the
extension of the Communist conspiracy. Fortuny is supposed to have been
promoted to a post as Cominform Director for Central America.
While still in Moscea, Fortuny also contributed towards the props.
ganda line. Pravda published a lengthy article on Guatemala, emphasizing
that the country is not alone in its fight against the United States and
counts with the full support of Soviet Russia. The article was widely
broadcast by the Moscow Radio in Spanish.
The Moscow Radio bombards Central and South America with nightly
propaganda programs in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. Just before
the Senate of the United States ordered the Voice of America to cease its
broadcasts to Latin America, the VOA was broadcasting programs of good-
and effective-anti-Communist content into Guatemala and local radio
stations were braving the wrath of the Communists by rebroadcasting them.
The consolidation of the Communist bridgehead in Guatemala may be
expected to turn the Soviet strategy once again towards Panama and renew
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the thirty-year-old Communist plan for the internationalization of the
Panama Lanal. This plan was first planted in the mind of Victor Raul
Maya de la Torre, leader of the leftist APRA Party of Peru (who has been
in aaylum.in the Colombian embassy in Lima since January 3, 1949) by
Alexander?~Lossovaky, head of the Profintern in Moscow in 1924.
The plan became point four of the Apra program and is recorded in
detail. in:Hgya's book "Anti-Imperialism and Apra." The seeds planted by
Lossovsky'have blossomed but have not yet borne fruit. Whether the
Communists will press an all out offensive towards the "internationalize"
.lon" or "inter-americanizati on" of the canal depends as well on the
progress they will make in extending the Communist domination throughout
Central.America.
The four Central American republics-?. El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Costa Rica-.have expressed firm determination to combat the
Communist menace in Guatemala through the ODECA. Guatemalan anti-Communist
exiles in El Salvador and Honduras are conducting their own cold war against
the Arbenz.government. An anti-Communist group in Mexico is also engaged
in the same tasks Panama has stated it will cooperate with'the ODECA in
this fight although it does not form part of it.
Moscow has been calling the signals for some time now in Central
America via Guatemala. The agents of the wed revolution are getting their
training there to try to return to their own countries to become Fortunys
and Gutierrezes. The Communists--like the Peronists--are the only
political parties that work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at their jobs.
The Communist Party has strengthened its liaison between operational
headquarters in Mexico and Central America by the appointment by Arbenz
of Roberto Alvarado Fuentes as Guatemalats Ambassador to Mexico. Alvarado
Fuentes and Pinto Usage form an ironclad link in the transmission belt of
the Communist conspiracy.
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The party has also planted an experienced propagandist in Bolivia
,e Ambassador of Guatemala. He is Eliaeo Martinez Zelada, who served as
Director of Radio Broadcasting for both the Arevalo and Arbenz governments,
Oscar Benitez Bone, who was ousted from Panama, has served as Secretary of
the Guatemalan embassy in Bogota for the last twelve months-a coma down
from his higher post in Panama but, again, necessary because of party
diaciplineo
Guatemala may be expected, too, to play an increasingly active part
in promoting more frequent Central American student congresses, intellectual
congresses, labor congresses and other front congresses. Transportation is
furnished by the Arbenz government which sends one of its Aviateca DC.'3
airplanes to every Central American capital and Panama to transport the
delegates to and from their homes.
The Communists in Guatemala now have a more direct link with the
Iron Curtain through the recent establishment of a new service by KIN, the
Dutch airlineo DC-6's are flown non-stop from Guatemala to Aruba and
Curacao, connecting with KLM flights to Europe.
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