Jacobo Árbenz

Jacobo Árbenz
Born	14 September 1913 Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Died	27 January 1971 (aged 57) Mexico City, Mexico
Political orientation	Social democracy
Political party	Party of the Guatemalan Revolution

Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (14 September 1913 – 27 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the president of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954. He also served as the Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950 in the government of Juan José Arévalo and played a key role in the Guatemalan Revolution which overthrew U.S. backed dictator Jorge Ubico.

Árbenz's social democratic government passed reforms such as the redistribution of land to 100,000 peasants when before 2.2 percent of the landowners owned 70 percent of the arable land. This earned the ire of the United Fruit Company and its backers in the Eisenhower administration, who labelled Árbenz a communist agent of the Soviet Union, despite Guatemala having no diplomatic relations with the Soviets, and overthrew him in a 1954 coup.