Jacobo Árbenz

Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and statesman who served as President during the culmination of the 1944–1954 democratic revolutionary decade.

In 1952, Árbenz passed Decree 900 (Agrarian Reform Law), redistributing uncultivated plantation land to more than 500,000 landless peasants and constructing independent public ports and hydroelectric plants to break foreign monopolies.

His progressive reforms led to his ouster in June 1954 in a CIA-orchestrated covert operation (Operation PBSuccess), forcing him into painful foreign exile where he remained an enduring symbol of national sovereignty.