Young officers, students and workers last week captured Lend-Lease guns and armored cars to smash General Federico Ponce's Guatemalan dictatorship. When the shooting stopped, a provisional triumvirate ruled Guatemala: Captain Jacobo Arbenz, 28-year-old son of a Swiss druggist, who planned the revolt; Major Francisco Xavier Arana, and Jorge Toriello, son of one of Guatemala's first families.
Ponce, who lost one son in the fighting, was exiled to Mexico. General Miguel Idigoras Fuentes, who dreamt of becoming the strong man of Guatemala through his friendship with Captain Arbenz, was sent to Washington as military attaché.
Early Friday, rebel officers smuggled 70 students and workers into the fortress of the Honor Guard. The officers and "prisoners" killed the commander and took over the fort. Stragglers from Guatemala City's nightclubs were surprised when they saw armed civilians roaring past in jeeps and motorcycle side-cars.
Lend-lease Fireworks. On the immense Plaza de Armas before the Presidential Palace, a member of the palace guard was lying dead in a pool of blood. Knots of people headed for the barracks, where the Lend-Lease equipment was being distributed to civilians. The rebels planted three 105-mm. shells on San José Fortress, turned it into a huge crater, belching hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Lend-Lease explosives. Loyal artillery in Matamoros Fortress laid 20 shells into the barracks of the Honor Guard before Matamoros itself was reduced to rubble. White flags appeared, twelve hours after the revolt had started. Almost 1,800 had been killed or wounded.
Ex-Dictator Jorge Ubico heard that the mob was hunting him "like a wild beast." took refuge in the British Legation.
Death and Meat. In Escuintla, an unpopular political chief was killed. In the capital, 16 people were killed by Government tank fire when machine-gunning started in the meat market of U.S. Citizen Alfredo Denby.
The new revolt had been smoldering since last July, when an uprising ousted Dictator Jorge Ubico. By pretending that he would hold free elections for the first time in 23 years, General Federico Ponce got himself elected as temporary President by the Ubico-picked Legislature.
A free press sprang up. Most Guatemalans joined labor "guilds," exacted living wages for the first time. Tight Ubico monopolies were broken up. Pro-Nazi Foreign Minister Carlos Salazar was forced into retirement. The Government at last expropriated German-owned coffee plantations. Refugees returned. The Presidential campaign got under way.
Then General Ponce took to riding in Ubico's armored limousine. Suddenly he struck. Hundreds of workers, students, teachers, lawyers and doctors were jailed
Grand Hotel. Handsome Dr. Juan José Arevalo became phenomenally popular as a Presidential candidate. Ponce forced him to take refuge in the Mexican Embassy. The Mexican Ambassador, Dr. Romeo Ortega, had openly supported the first "People's Revolution." The Mexican Embassy took in so many refugees that Dr. Ortega had to rent part of the Palace Hotel to care for them.