The Problem Is Communism

For the first time in three years, the Communist-infiltrated Guatemalan government backpedaled sharply on its Red line. Its leaders apparently realized that their stunt of importing a huge shipment of weapons from behind the Iron Curtain had not only angered the U.S. but had also stirred up the neighbors. One afternoon last week, a grey C-47 buzzed low over Guatemala City, showering leaflets which called on all true patriots to rise and fight for Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, exiled anti-Communist army leader now plotting a comeback from Honduras. In Honduras and in Nicaragua, U.S. Air Force Globemasters and C-47s dropped down with emergency planeloads of arms and equipment for Guatemala's neighbors, and the U.S. sent three B-36 intercontinental bombers to rumble over Managua as part of Nicaragua's armed forces day parade.

Time for Truce? Guatemala's President Jacobo Arbenz, the proud and stubborn army officer who has traveled so long and so far with the Reds, suddenly decided that a personal meeting between President Eisenhower and himself might "ease the present tense situation." Foreign Minister Guillermo Toriello called in U.S. Ambassador John E. Peurifoy and had what he later described as a "most cordial" talk on improving relations. Toriello tried hard to put over the idea that the issue really keeping the two countries apart is the United Fruit Co.'s troubles with the Guatemalan government, and that the governments could end the tension by settling the company's problems.

If by any chance Toriello really believed that, he was dead wrong. The overriding issue for the U.S. in Guatemala is the growth of Communist influence within the government. Said a Washington spokesman last week: "If the Guatemalans paid the United Fruit Co.'s full $16 million claim tomorrow and decorated every last United Fruit official with the Order of the Quetzal, we wouldn't be one whit less concerned about the danger of Communism in Guatemala."

Actually, Toriello and his boss seemed to realize that a good deal more than a truce on the banana front was needed to take the heat off. Calling a press conference, the Foreign Minister dealt out reassurances in all directions. No more munitions ships were on the way, he said. "Guatemala does not menace anyone, especially our sister republics. Our army will never serve as an instrument of aggression." The Guatemalans pulled back troops from the Honduran border and offered the astonished Hondurans, who had just recalled their ambassador, a mutual-assistance and nonaggression pact.

Time for Change? Watching and waiting, Washington stepped up action slowly. Since it might be preferable that another republic take the lead in proposing action against Guatemalan Communism, the State Department stood by while Nicaragua and Costa Rica sounded out the South Americans on collective action. But Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson hinted at what might come when he told a Texas audience last week that economic sanctions against Guatemala are under consideration. In an ominously vague phrase Secretary John Foster Dulles forecast collective action--"if circumstances permit."

The Guatemalans are undoubtedly worried. The trickle of tourists into the country has practically stopped, the hotels and cabarets are empty as haunted houses, and in the capital, where citizens hoard their assets in an atmosphere of grim tension, business is at a near standstill. The threat of sanctions makes some of the government coalition's non-Communist politicos jittery, and they are grumbling that it is time for a change--in form if not in substance. Recently, top army brass called on their fellow colonel, President Arbenz, to ask him for assurances that the Red influence in the government would not increase. At week's end the Communist closest to Arbenz, Congressman Jose Manuel Fortuny, fortuitously took sick leave from his post as the Communist Party's secretary general in Guatemala.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.