The First CIA Coup in Latin America

In 1954 a group of army officers, supported by the CIA, overthrew the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. It was the first CIA-organised coup in Latin America. President Arbenz's son, Juan Jacobo, remembers the family's flight into exile.

Photo: Army officers opposed to President Arbenz go over a map of the territory on their push to Zacapa and then to Guatemala City, July 1954. (AP Photo)