I was recently reading about recent Guatemalan history, and was just wondering if the only thing we did was “Operation PB SUCCESS”.
And by USA, I mean government support/intervention.
Been trying to find out about it for a while, but the amount of credible sources for this are few and far between. So I was wondering if anyone has any information about this. Also if you could also list the source I’d appreciate it since I want to read up about it as well.
Thank you.
If you’ve read about Operation PB Success you may already know about this book, but if not I highly recommend it.
I actually haven’t heard of the book yet. I’m going to try to get it as soon as possible to read it. Thank you!
I don’t know the extent of US support for the dictator Efrian Rios Montt, who was recently found guilty in Guatemalan Court of genocide (although that result was overturned by a different court), but Ronald Reagan did meet with him and declare him “a man of great personal integrity . . . totally dedicated to democracy.”
The only US government support that I can personally attest to was the support sent after the 1976 earthquake. I was on a military construction team that traveled to Guatemala and trained locals in the erection of “Butler Huts”, which are pre-fabricated metal buildings. The US provided a large number of the building kits, and we provided the expertise to build them. The US also donated typical 4-man carpentry kits to the effort. The buildings we put up in the three months we were there were to be used as schools. It was a rewarding humanitarian effort; I ended up with a Humanitarian Service ribbon and a letter signed by Henry Kissinger.
These might be of interest: