Talk:Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán

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This article mistakenly identifies Kermit Roosevelt as the architect of Ajax. In fact, his son, Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was the CIA operative in question. JustinGiroux 01:01, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Ehhh... what exactly is the cause of the neutrality dispute here?Thesocialistesq 23:29, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I reverted a change referring to Arbenz in the intro as a "socialist" as opposed to "reformist" president. He permitted communist and socialist parties to organize, but he was not a member of any of them. 172 14:23, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)


All current references found on Google to Arbenz suggest he died either by accident +drowned in his bath+ for example, or simply state that he died in Mexico City.

As a journalist based in Mexico at the time, I interviewed Arbenz in his hospital bed just a few weeks before his death. He was clearly a tired man, and was apparently feeling very lonely following the departure of his wife back to El Salvador. It was not clear if they had separated, although he suggested that they had. When I spoke to her during a visit she made to Swizerland in the mid-1990s, for the launch of a Swiss documentary on Arbenz (whose grandfather came from there), Senora Arbenz was also vague about their relationship at the time of his death. But her memory was by then obviously imparied -- she had suffered a bad stroke and found speaking extremely difficult.

The news of his death, however, came as a surprise to his friends in Mexico City. The Mexican police explanation was that he had apparently slipped into his bath as it was being run and drowned, or boiled alive because he had turned on the hot water and not yet moderated the temperature. He was said to have been alone in the house at the time.

For me, that explanation always left a lot of questions open. His death came at a time when various regimes in Central America were busy eliminating exiled opponents living in Mexico. Although the Mexican administration of President Luis Echeverria at the time professed its support for Latin American "democrats", and provided shelter for the poorer ones in a down-at-heel hotel in the city, the police never solved any of the killings of exiles, and the word among Latin American dissidents in Mexico was that Mexican police were helping killer squads from Guatemala and El Salvador to hunt down their victims. The Mexican police were also, undoubtedly, y doing some eliminating of their own among radical left opponents of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

In that light, I could never convince myself that Arbenz' death was not in fact murder. I did ask his widow 20 years or so later in Switzerland whether she had any doubts over the official explanation, but her reply was predictably vague. R J Evans Posted Jan 24, 2005

Wow!!--68.221.187.53 06:40, 31 July 2005 (UTC)


Hello,

I would really like to correspond with the author of this commentary. As an historian, I am very interested in the character and politics of Mr Jacobo Arbenz (whose father was a swiss emigrant and not his grandfather) - and in his destiny, too. My e-mail is thibautkaeser@yahoo.fr

Greeetings and many thanks if this e-mail is read

Contents

[edit] error

Ok Now, my mind is starting to open that the U.S. CIA did something unacceptable to my country, Guatemala, by accusing the former president Jacobo Arbenz of being a communist. This absolutely shocks me because since that U.S.intervention the Guatemalan Cicil War begun.The CIA washed the Guatemalan people's brain by telling them that Arbenz's government was communist. Come on.

That idea of US. intervention was unacceptable. That's why Guatemala's economy is still poor because of the United SSTTTates. Can we do anithing now. Talk to the sovereignty of the country

[edit] error

Another error in this article is information left out. I have commented on another error pertaining to claims dealing with Arbenz's intentions for receiving weapons from the Soviet Union. However I am stupefyed now at the seemingly blatant neglegence in not stating one side of the story involving Arbenz's land reform prgram. United Fruit undervalued its land preceding Arbenz's land reform to cheat and pay less taxes. Arbenz took United Fruit's land value statements at their claimed value. Which meant United Fruit would not receive fair compensation due to its own deceptive methods. I am flabbergasted that the statement of Arbenz violating international law seems to make a corporation seem angelic when it is axiomatic that a corporation's intentions are to MAKE MONEY. I do not make the statement that all corporations are bad. However I do state that they do what's good for money. The author needs to correct the use of international law in this article. To make it more informative, please list which law so that it may be cited within a paper in the future and provide the other side of the story involving Arbenz's land reform otherwise readers (Your audience) may believe the article is biased because of a prejudiced author. If you need the specific reference to the international law, please let me know by posting a message on this page so that I may use my resources to download you the source and entire information pertaining to the international law aforementioned. It helps to have family that is practicing law familiar to international disputes. Thus I could be of help because of that priveledge. Also re-read that specific law referred to.

Collective Concious

[edit] bull

Once again, a very interesting topic. Stigmatized with bad inaccurate and biased facts on this article. I only hope hat the author or those choosing to use the author's assertions as their own to present as facts will come into my life in the near future so I may rip apart their argument based on the negligent and dishonest facts presented on this page. Once again, my attempts to convince my academic colleagues to use Wikipedia have anded in failure because of mine and thier observations of errors within specific articles such as this. WARNING !!! If you present any material in this article on a paper or state as fact, prepare to receive a rude awakening in the form of a letter grade or embarrassment. I stress this as a result of seeing some others making the same mistakes. REPEAT:: The author of this article does not care for the accuracy of this artocle. Read this article for a quick summary, but do not, repeat do not use this article for a paper or to embarrass yourself with self-proclaimed knowledge. The facts in this article are not disputable. They are wrong and fallacious. I have tried to inform the author and Wikipedia but negligence has been shown in a lack of care. Wikipedia is not concerned with being a credible source of information and I advised any academic enthusiast to please do not make the mistake of using facts in this article and possibly in others for your papers.

Sorry Wikipedia

[edit] worthy praise

I read this same article a while back and found many unstated facts and inaccurate assertions. However, reading the article now, I can see that either the author has re-written this article or another author has done a better job. I respect this article because it does not emphasize positive or negative aspects of this figure's role in history. There is a bit more objectivity in this article. Although, I do not agree with everything in this article, I have no significant facts that I could use to refute the assertions in this article. So in that journey, I failed but I am not too proud to admit nor too proud to give praise when it is deserving. This article has improved significantly since the last time I viewed it. I only wish other articles in Wikipedia reflect the same manner of writing as this article was written. Thank you for making my use of Wikipedia both enjoyable and enlightening.

== PRoblems ==

I CAN"T SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE! ANYONE ELSE HAVING THIS PROBLEM? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ToyotaPanasonic (talkcontribs) 14:10, 30 December 2006 (UTC). I can now scroll down the pages, but before I could not.