The United States and the Guatemala Coup: the Road to Operation PBSUCCESS from the U.S. Government's Inside Perspective

The United States and the Guatemala Coup: the Road to Operation PBSUCCESS from the U.S. Government's Inside Perspective

Authors

  • Lauro Carrer Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC)

Keywords:

Guerra Fria, Golpe da Guatemala, Intervencionismo estadunidense

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present how the PBSUCCESS operation, which resulted in the first coup d'état carried out by the United States in a Latin American country during the Cold War, was approved from the internal perspective of the US government. Using official documentary sources, released through the Foreign Relations of the United States, which date from 1952 to 1953 and were produced mainly by the State Department, the CIA and the US embassy in Guatemala, the central problem of this article is to comprehend which US government department or agency prevailed in the internal debate so that the intervention in Guatemala in 1954 was approved. First, the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944 will be discussed, which changed the course of Guatemalan society, breaking with the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico, who had ruled the country since 1931. Next, the monitoring of Guatemala by the USA until 1952 will be treated. After this contextualization, the approval, in 1953, of the intervention in Guatemala, which took place in June 1954, will be the main focus of this article.

Key-words: Cold War. Guatemalan Coup. U.S. interventionism.

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Author Biography

  • Lauro Carrer, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC)

    Doutorando em História pela Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC).

Published

2025-07-17

Issue

Section

Artigos (Tema Livre)

How to Cite

The United States and the Guatemala Coup: the Road to Operation PBSUCCESS from the U.S. Government’s Inside Perspective: The United States and the Guatemala Coup: the Road to Operation PBSUCCESS from the U.S. Government’s Inside Perspective. (2025). REVHIST - Revista De História Da UEG, 14(2), e412501. http://www.revista.ueg.br/index.php/revistahistoria/article/view/16324