Editing Jacobo Árbenz (section)

===Relationship with the United Fruit Company===
{{Further|United Fruit Company}}
[[File:Central America, the West Indies South America and Portions of the United States and Mexico WDL62.png|thumb|200px|Route Map of the Great White Fleet of the [[United Fruit Company]]. The company had held the monopoly of freight and passenger maritime transportation to and from Puerto Barrios in Guatemala since 1903.]]
[[File:Guatemala railways.svg|200px|thumb|Map of railway lines in Guatemala and El Salvador. The lines were owned by the IRCA, the subsidiary of the United Fruit Company that controlled the railroad in both countries; the only Atlantic port was controlled by the Great White Fleet, also a UFC subsidiary.]]

The relationship between Árbenz and the United Fruit Company has been described by historians as a "critical turning point in US dominance in the hemisphere".{{sfn|Forster|2001|p=118}} The United Fruit Company, formed in 1899,{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=68–70}} had major holdings of land and railroads across Central America, which it used to support its business of exporting bananas.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=65–68}} By 1930, it had been the largest landowner and employer in Guatemala for several years.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=67–71}} In return for the company's support, Ubico signed a contract with it that included a 99-year lease to massive tracts of land, and exemptions from virtually all taxes.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=68–72}} Ubico asked the company to pay its workers only 50 cents a day, to prevent other workers from demanding higher wages.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=67–71}} The company also virtually owned [[Puerto Barrios]], Guatemala's only port to the Atlantic Ocean.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=67–71}} By 1950, the company's annual profits were 65{{nbsp}}million US{{nbsp}}dollars, twice the revenue of the Guatemalan government.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=73–76}}

As a result, the company was seen as an impediment to progress by the revolutionary movement after 1944.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=73–76}}{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|p=71}} Thanks to its position as the country's largest landowner and employer, the reforms of Arévalo's government affected the UFC more than other companies, which led to a perception by the company that it was being specifically targeted by the reforms.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=75–82}} The company's labor troubles were compounded in 1952 when Árbenz passed Decree{{nbsp}}900, the agrarian reform law. Of the {{convert|550,000|acre|ha}} that the company owned, 15% were being cultivated; the rest of the land, which was idle, came under the scope of the agrarian reform law.{{sfn|Immerman|1982|pp=75–82}} Additionally, Árbenz supported a strike of UFC workers in 1951, which eventually compelled the company to rehire a number of laid-off workers.{{sfn|Forster|2001|pp=136–137}}

The United Fruit Company responded with an intensive lobbying campaign against Árbenz in the United States.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=72–77}} The Guatemalan government reacted by saying that the company was the main obstacle to progress in the country. American historians observed that "to the Guatemalans it appeared that their country was being mercilessly exploited by foreign interests which took huge profits without making any contributions to the nation's welfare."{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=72–77}} In 1953 {{convert|200,000|acre|ha}} of uncultivated land was expropriated under Árbenz's agrarian reform law, and the company was offered compensation at the rate of 2.99 US{{nbsp}}dollars to the acre, twice what it had paid when buying the property.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=72–77}} This resulted in further lobbying in Washington, particularly through Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]], who had close ties to the company.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=72–77}} The company had begun a public relations campaign to discredit the Guatemalan government; overall, the company spent over a half-million dollars to influence both lawmakers and members of the public in the US that the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Árbenz needed to be overthrown.{{sfn|Schlesinger|Kinzer|1999|pp=90–97}}