Cold War Sunday

Old history exposes new dirty tricks talks about how US and Guatemalan governments "created bogus provocations as a way of tarring Fidel Castro and his young Cuban revolution." Most of the tricks seem to have never been implemented including a staged Cuban invasion of Guatemala. These provocations were designed to make Cuba and Castro to look bad and to generate support for US and Cuban-exile attacks against the country. Yes, the Bay of Pigs was a total fiasco for the United States. But one would probably make the argument that it was much worse for Guatemala.

In November 1960, the Guatemalan military rose up against President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes’s government because of his collusion with the United States in trying to overthrow a fellow Latin American government in Cuba. They were also frustrated his government’s corruption. Ydigoras called it a Cuban-back uprising and appealed to the CIA for help.

Following the failed uprising, several military officers fled to neighboring countries, specifically El Salvador and Honduras. Over the next two years, many returned to Guatemala. Some joined vehemently anti-groups while others joined up with members of the Guatemalan communist party. They then formed the backbone of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and launched a three-plus decade long guerrilla struggle against the government that would costs the lives of over two hundred thousand people. (See also CIA’s Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare from the Miami Herald.)

It’s quite possible that had the Ydigoras government not assisted the United States, the army would not have rebelled. There would be no rebellious military officers to form the backbone of the guerrillas. Perhaps the Guatemalan communist party would have continued to nonviolently challenge the regime through strikes, protests, and elections.

And in another bid of Central American Cold War history, Luis Carrion told that AP that the Sandinistas were behind a 1984 bombing in Costa Rica that was designed to kill Eden Pastora (Commander Zero). The bombing killed two Costa Ricans, four Nicaraguan contras, and a US journalist (Linda Frazier). At the time, many argued that the CIA was behind the attack.