War is a profitable business. The rich get richer while the poor are murdered and enslaved. Company’s can make a huge profit when it comes to war. The winning side can make a profit by controlling the country’s land and its exports. Unfortunately this is a main cause for many wars. After World War II the super powers fought over the control of Germany. The US did not want the spread of Communism and therefore they were not willing to give up their share of Berlin to the Russians. There were other locations were the US and Russia clashed on this issue. With China, North Korea and other smaller countries expanding into a Communist society, the US was forced to act on this threat and fear of further spreading of communism. The spread of Communism and the risk of losing control of land rights in Guatemala caused the US Government and the United Food Company along with the rich plantation owners, to engage in a war that would end in a thirty six year Civil War for the Guatemalan people.  

            The first people to feel the effects of war were the Mayan people of Guatemala. They are indigenous to Guatemala, and were living in relatively peaceful times. They had started writing on their history and were deeply involved in the growth of their nation. Once the Spaniards invaded in the 1500’s, their lives would be forever changed. They were forced to into concentration camps and were enslaved by the Spaniards. Later when the United Fruit Company took over the land rights of the country, the Mayans were forced to work by “Vagrancy Laws”. This law stated that they had to work 150 days if they cultivated less than one and five-sixteenth “manzana’s” of land, and 100 days a year if they cultivated more (Class and Indigenous Roots of the Guatemala Revolution). The United Fruit Company introduced the Banana plant to Guatemala. The Mayans were forced to work the fields. That was just the start of their problems. Many of the Mayans were killed and tortured by the other races that have moved into the country. Ladino’s or natives mixed with Europeans were the “high society” or bureaucrats of Guatemala. They looked down on the Maya’s and treated them poorly. Ladino’s made up more then 44% of the population. Due to the large number of Ladinos, many Maya traits have been changed by foreign ideas. The Mayans did get a break during the rule of President Juan Jose Arevalo. He started reforms to take back land and give it to smaller farmers. Following Arevalo was President Jacob Arbenz Guzman. He followed up on the reforms of the prior president by establishing social security, a health system, and a government bureau to look after the concerns of the Maya people. This time was referred to as the “Ten Years of Springtime”. Of course this did not sit well with the US backed United Fruit Company, and the rich plantation owners who were going to lose about 225,000 acre’s of unused land to the natives.

            The second cause of the war was due to the rich plantation owners, United Fruit Company and the US Government. The native Maya groups began to organize to fight the landowners; and by association, the United Fruit Company. Due to the connection between United Fruit and President Eisenhower, a closer look into the actions of Guatemala President Arbenz was brought to attention. Many of the actions that Arbenz had displayed made those in power think he was a Communist. The US placed an Ambassador that had dealings with the communist in Italy to watch and see if there were any signs of communist infiltration in Guatemala. There were many signs. The first sign was the act of land reform. Arbenz was going to take away land from an American backed company and give it back to the natives. Next he removed himself from the five-nation Organization of Central American States when they were going to talk about anti-communism. Then Guatemala was the only one to vote against the resolution drawn up by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. This resolution was called, “Declaration of Solidarity for the Preservation of the Political Integrity of the American States against International Communist Intervention”. This was a victory for Dulles’. Then on May 17^th Dulles reported that a shipment of arms from behind the Iron Curtain was unloaded in Guatemala. The ship had changed its course three times en route, trying to confuse observers. The US had learned that the shipment contained two thousand tons of small arms, ammunition, and light artillery pieces. All of these items were manufactured in a Czechoslovakia plant. The threat of a communist controlled Central American country was enough proof for the President to name Guatemala a “Communist threat”. With the help of the CIA the Guatemala Military took over the government and Arbenz fled the country. With the take over by Carlos Castillo Armas the threat of communism in Central America was over. 

            The sad part of all of this is that the Mayan people have had to suffer through all of the death and dismay. They are still being forced into poverty thirty-six years later. Guatemala was once their land and due to the connections and ties of the United Fruit Company and the White House it would no longer be theirs. To this day there are still killings and raids of the innocent natives of Guatemala. They are forced to move with the crops in order to harvest them. They are paid about one US dollar a day. There are many reasons for the war in Guatemala, and in reading the past information one can come to the conclusion that this war could have been avoided. The problem is that when there is a profit to be made the reasoning can and will be misleading, and unfortunately the poor people of a country takes on the blunt of the damage.