Liberation
The characters
Below are the key players and pawns in the CIA’s 1954 overthrow of Guatemala—along with codenames and cryptonyms used in the operation.
The Árbenz Faction
Jacobo
Árbenz
President of Guatemala, 1951–54. Former army colonel and teacher who led overthrow of Guatemalan dictatorship in 1944.
Maria Cristina Vilanova de
Árbenz
First Lady of Guatemala, 1951–54, and behind-the-scenes political operative.
Guillermo Toriello
Guatemalan Ambassador to the U.S.A. and United Nations.
José Manuel Fortuny
Secretary General of the Guatemalan Labor Party (PGT). Top communist in Guatemala in 1954 and supporter of Jacobo Arbenz.
THe Key Conspirators
Allen Dulles
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Tracy Barnes
CIA Chief of the Political and Psychological Staff, Directorate for Plans
John Peurifoy
United States Ambassador to Guatemala
John Foster Dulles
United States Secretary of State
J.C. King
CIA Chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, Directorate of Operations
Walter Bedell Smith
United States Undersecretary of State
Anastasio Somoza Garcia
President of Nicaragua, a dictator who wanted to see Árbenz and his democratic reforms go away
Dwight Eisenhower
President of the United States of America
E. Howard Hunt
CIA field operative and propaganda director overseeing the network of assets inside Guatemala
Henry Cabot Lodge
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
“Tachito” Somoza
President Somoza’s son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who helped coordinate with the Americans
Frank Wisner
CIA Deputy Director of Plans
David Atlee Phillips
CIA field operative in charge of writing and managing Radio Liberación broadcasts
Samuel Zemurray
President of the United Fruit Company, known as “The Banana Man”
The Pawns
Carlos Castillo Armas
Exiled Guatemalan military officer and the CIA’s chosen “liberator” of Guatemala
Edward Bernays
The “Father of Public Relations” and United Fruit Company’s PR consultant
Mariano Rossell y Arellano
Catholic Archbishop of Guatemala
Mario López Villatoro & José Torón Barrios
Guatemalan DJs hired to operate Radio Liberación
Breakdown of all known cryptonyms and Code Names:
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