Carlos Castillo Armas

Shot on 26 July 1957 in Guatemala City by a presidential palace guard; the coup-made president died as he had ruled, by the gun.

Overview

Castillo Armas, an army colonel, had been chosen by the CIA operation PBSUCCESS to lead the invasion force that overthrew the elected reformist government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, becoming president of Guatemala and reversing the land reform. On the anniversary of the 1954 victory, a member of his own palace guard, Romeo Vasquez Sanchez, shot him in the lobby; the motive was never clearly established, ranging from personal grievance to conspiracy involving regime insiders or Arbenz loyalists. Vasquez was killed by other guards moments later. Vice President Manuel Ydigoras Fuentes won the succession and ruled through six chaotic years. The murder inside the palace of a CIA-installed leader underscored the fragility of the 1954 settlement amid the Cold War in Central America.