Word: guatemala
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Dollars & Blood. Visitors from the U.S. have loudly praised Guatemala's Dictator Jorge Ubico. They have admired Guatemala's orderliness, its clean-swept streets, its impressive public buildings. But these observers did not see, or else ignored, the real Guatemala behind this façade. Last week, after a stay in Dictator Ubico's realm, a TIME correspondent reported in detail on one of the world's most flagrant tyrannies...
...Economist. A firm believer in low wages, Ubico keeps them down by decree. Only skilled workers in the capital city earn as much as 50? a day. Farm workers get 12? to 20?. Food prices in Guatemala are fairly low, but hardly low enough for such wages. Most Guatemalans live in hunger and rags. Ubico often reminds callers that two Guatemalan revolutions (1898 and 1920) coincided with local prosperity. Says he: "If the people have money, they will kick...
...explain each new acquisition. It has undoubtedly enforced a kind of terrified probity among underlings, but it has one flaw: in practice, it does not apply to Ubico. On becoming President, he declared himself worth $89,000. Now he owns 75,000 acres, is the largest individual landholder in Guatemala. Much of his property is valuable coffee and sugar land. He lists his acquisitions under the Ley de Probidad at ludicrous valuations. No one dares to challenge his figures...
...Ally? In the official U.S. books the Dictator rates as a sturdy Central American Good Neighbor; he was just ahead of Salvador's fallen Dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in declaring war on Germany after Pearl Harbor. More than 200 Germans, who grew much of Guatemala's coffee, had a big stake in its export trade, have been shipped to the U.S. for internment. German properties have been impounded for the duration. A special tax on enemy business eats up the profits. But most Guatemalans do not take Ubico's anti-German gestures...
...Seat. Now a breath of hope stirs Guatemala. The successful revolt in El Salvador excited all Central America (TIME, May 22). There, the U.S. State Department did not intervene (as many expected) to checkmate a people's rebellion. Even in terrorized Guatemala, the news reached the people, made them wonder whether their Dictator also was vulnerable...