Guatemala and the Bay of Pigs

From the Voice of America

The United States has made public documents on the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, describing U.S. negotiations with some other regional governments on support for the botched mission...

The documents detail U.S. efforts to maintain Guatemala's cooperation for the mission.  The CIA used Guatemala to train Cuban exiles for the invasion, which was aimed at toppling then-Cuban President Fidel Castro.  Two years ago, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom apologized to Cuba for his country's involvement in the invasion.

The Archive also says the documents detail information regarding CIA negotiations with Nicaragua and Panama for the invasion.  They describe the agency's efforts to obtain a Nicaraguan air base and port facility from which to launch the anti-Castro strike force against Cuba.  The documents also say Panama was involved marginally in the anti-Castro effort...

Separately, the newly-released documents describe how in 1960, the government of then-Guatemalan President Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes faced a series of attacks from Guatemalan rebel forces and asked the United States for napalm to wipe out the rebels.  The request was refused for technical reasons, but the U.S. provided flyovers to help quell the unrest.

Given the US flyovers and strafing of the country during the 1954 coup, I can't say that I was surprised to learn that the US provided flyovers six years later during the November 1960 military uprising. The uprising was put down pretty quickly so I was surprised to read that the Ydigoras government asked for napalm support to deal with the military rebellion. On the other hand, many of the survivors were able to flee to neighboring countries before some of them returned two years later to create the first guerrilla groups.