Annie Grossinger: Serpent Tongue

Introduction by David Unger

 

 

Annie Grossinger has used forensic anthropology tools to try to reconstruct the life and career of John Dougherty, her maternal grandfather, who was linked to the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup in Guatemala. By combining CIA and other archival documents along with her own familial and professional photographs, Grossinger has tried to uncover the degree of her grandfather’s involvement in the coup. According to conservative Guatemalan Fernando Sandoval, whose parents were friends with Dougherty, “John was special because he had a hard line. He didn’t want to compromise with the Communists.”

John, Grossinger’s grandfather (left); Castillo Armas (center left); members of the infamous MLN army and Mario Sandoval (right), who would soon lead the MLN as they operated as a death squad. The photo was taken sometime around 1956. By then, Grossinger’s grandfather had already quit the CIA.

John, Grossinger’s grandfather (left); Castillo Armas (center left); members of the infamous MLN army and Mario Sandoval (right), who would soon lead the MLN as they operated as a death squad. The photo was taken sometime around 1956. By then, Grossinger’s grandfather had already quit the CIA.

The CIA claimed President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Communist because he expropriated fallow United Fruit Company land (actually the Árbenz government paid $1.2 million based on the land’s existing tax value); bought arms from Czechoslovakia (the US refused to sell him weapons); and permitted several avowed Communists in his cabinet. To most Guatemalans, even to right leaning Peruvian Nobelist Mario Vargas Llosa, Árbenz may have been Guatemala’s Abraham Lincoln. But because of the coup, Guatemala endured thirty-six years of armed conflict and the death of nearly 200,000 citizens, many of them innocent Indigenous people.

“The roses are blooming,” the elites were alerted over Tropical Radio. Leave Guatemala City; the coup was underway.

“The roses are blooming,” the elites were alerted over Tropical Radio. Leave Guatemala City; the coup was underway.

The CIA used a highpowered radio station on the fourth floor of the US embassy building to disseminate its propaganda. Zona 1, Guatemala City, 2019.

The CIA used a highpowered radio station on the fourth floor of the US embassy building to disseminate its propaganda. Zona 1, Guatemala City, 2019.

Left to right: My grandfather, John Dougherty, and possible CIA officers Kiki Salazar and Joe Sancho. (Names as annotated by my grandmother decades later.)

Left to right: My grandfather, John Dougherty, and possible CIA officers Kiki Salazar and Joe Sancho. (Names as annotated by my grandmother decades later.)

In the weeks leading up to the coup, the CIA flew low-flying planes over Guatemala City in order to instill fear and ignite chaos. But instead of bombs, they dropped anti-Communist propaganda.

In the weeks leading up to the coup, the CIA flew low-flying planes over Guatemala City in order to instill fear and ignite chaos. But instead of bombs, they dropped anti-Communist propaganda.

An archival photo of UFCO workers overlaid atop an aerial view of banana fincas in the 1950s.

An archival photo of UFCO workers overlaid atop an aerial view of banana fincas in the 1950s.

The most obvious financial incentive for the coup came from the United Fruit Company (UFCO), a powerful American corporation that dominated the fruit trade in Latin America. Guatemala had been one of their earliest sites for development, and was rife with harsh working conditions, exploitation, and corruption. For years, UFCO was exempt from Guatemalan taxes and import duties. However, shortly after winning his presidency, Árbenz instituted an agrarian reform, Decree 900, that would tax UFCO while expropriating their uncultivated lands for some compensation. But UFCO had powerful allies within the United States. Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, was on its board and many elected officials had financial interests with the company. When UFCO began lobbying for support against Árbenz, the secretary of state was John Foster Dulles, Allen’s brother.

A Guatemalan vendor sells bananas that were too ripe for export.

A Guatemalan vendor sells bananas that were too ripe for export.

On Sunday, June 27, 1954, Árbenz was forced to resign. For weeks, the CIA had been using a radio station to wage psychological warfare, warning of uprisings and imminent war. The public was on edge. The military had withdrawn its support and many of his allies had fled. Members of his own administration, some of whom had been friends from the military academy, were siding with the United States. 

 

For one day, Coronel Carlos Enrique Díaz de León, a former supporter of Árbenz, assumed power, but the US had no intention of having him lead. He was forcibly removed overnight. Three different military juntas followed, each with members who’d been paid by the CIA, until Castillo Armas was officially named president four months later. According to my family, Castillo Armas was my grandfather’s personal choice. His superiors had wanted someone more conservative.

“I’m going to tell you something very important, now that you tell me that your grandfather was involved in the CIA…and you can’t say that I am one of those intolerable landowners; I’m not. How much does it cost people to maintain a property? Families cultivate the land, particularly coffee and cotton. It’s been inherited and learned. But what these Communists wanted was to distribute the land. For what? So that they would sow corn. How could they lift people out of poverty who knew absolutely nothing?”

 

— Héctor Menéndez

Héctor Menéndez, whose father worked for Castillo Armas’s administration after the coup. It’s likely that he worked alongside my grandfather. In 1963, he was kidnapped by guerrillas alongside Romeo.

Héctor Menéndez, whose father worked for Castillo Armas’s administration after the coup. It’s likely that he worked alongside my grandfather. In 1963, he was kidnapped by guerrillas alongside Romeo.