Juan José Arévalo and the Caribbean Legion

In: Journal of Latin American studies, Volume 21, Issue 1-2, p. 133-145

Abstract

On 15 March 1945 Juan José Arévalo became president of Guatemala. His inauguration marked the beginning of an unprecedented democratic parenthesis – 'spring in the land of eternal tyranny '1– a spring that ended abruptly with the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954.Arévalo was an anti-communist, a nationalist, and a reformer. He was an anti-communist who believed that individual communists should not be persecuted unless they violated the law. He was a nationalist who accepted that Guatemala was in the US sphere of influence. He was a reformer who eschewed radical change.