Why did land reform fail in Guatemala?
http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t285/T285199A.jpg Guatemala president Jacobo Arbenz 1950 – 1954 President Jacobo Arbenz won the election in 1950 advocating the basic platform of an agrarian reform. Despite Guatemala being the richest country in the region with the highest gross domestic product, with the strongest currency and maintaining regional economic dominance in export agriculture, mining and manufacturing it suffered from a severe misdistribution of land. Approximately 2 percent of the population controlled 72 percent of Guatemala’s arable land, while 88 percent of the population held only 14 percent of the land. On June 17, 1952, the Guatemalan Congress approved Decree 900, Arbenz’s Agrarian Reform Law. During its two years of existence, Decree 900 licensed the redistribution of 603,704 hectares of land to an estimated 100,000 Guatemalan families. In 1953 the Eisenhower administration was pressured by executives of United Fruit Company – muc
