Editing Jacobo Arbenz (section)

==Operation PBSuccess and Overthrow ==
The U.S., viewing Árbenz as a communist threat, authorized the CIA’s [[Operation PBSuccess]] in August 1953, led by Tracy Barnes, [[E. Howard Hunt]], and David Atlee Phillips, with a $2.7 million budget. The operation used psychological warfare (Radio Liberación broadcasts), air raids, and a small rebel force under Carlos Castillo Armas to destabilize Árbenz’s government. UFCO provided logistical support, including plantation airstrips, while Ambassador John Peurifoy pressured Árbenz to expel communists.

In June 1954, Castillo Armas’s 480-man force invaded from Honduras, supported by CIA-piloted planes bombing Guatemala City. Árbenz’s 5,000-strong army, weakened by defections and low morale, failed to resist, as officers feared U.S. intervention. On June 27, 1954, facing military abandonment and Peurifoy’s ultimatum, Árbenz resigned, delivering a radio address denouncing UFCO and U.S. imperialism. He sought asylum in the Mexican embassy, leaving Guatemala on June 28, 1954, for exile.