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Arbenz was a follower of Arevalo. Worse, some thought him to be more progressive. As he came to power, agents sized up the new leader. When Thomas Corocan (leading lobbyist for UFCO) met with Thomas Mann to discuss the issue, Mann saw no need for action. He was "an opportunist " he said, and primarily concerned with his own interest. He was most likely to be a centrist. Corocan used his lobbying ability to seek out more sympathetic ears in the Agency, but to no avail.
However, after little time in office, the Arbenz regime warranted more attention. Most alarming to American officials was his land reform policy, Decree 900. This policy was the first reform to run against the interest of the ruling class. One out of six Guatemalans received new lands under a reform that historians refer to as moderate and capitalistic. Eisenhower and his cabinet, however, feared that this was the beginning of a strengthened Communist position in Guatemala. Under Arbenz, communism would surely grow and could spread peasant unrest into neighboring countries. The CIA began to plan covert operations to oust the threatening government.
Was the CIA's interest in the Arbenz regime for the protection of the UFCO? The US embassy had a long-standing position of interfering with leaders of periphery countries who did not curry special favors for their business interests. This has been evidenced by numerous interventions when they deemed governments being "rough" on Americans. But this was not the case here. This was at the height of "the red scare," the country had a complete paranoia of anything remotely communist. As Manual Fotuny, head of the communist party of Guatemala said, "they would have invaded us if we hadn't grown a single banana." The operation to come shows considerably more at stake than business interests. Americans were petrified of communists getting a foot in "our backyard."
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