he petitioned the U.S. Government's Eisenhower Administration to prepare its U.S. Marine Corps to land its armed forces in Honduras should the situation "spin out of control". The U.S. Navy took this request seriously and moved two of its warships into the nearby Gulf of Honduras. In addition, next door in Guatemala, the CIA supported Carlos Castillo Armas, who was preoccupied with removing the 25th President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, from Office, took some of his human resources off the task at hand and sent them into Honduras "to provide muscle for the United Fruit Company". However, after a long fight, and public opinion moving strongly against the United Fruit Company, an agreement was reached on July 9, 1954, between the 100,000 striking workers and company management. But our 39th President's troubles were not yet over; in September 26–30 of 1954, Honduras was struck by Tropical Storm Gilda which killed 29 Hondurans, left about 3,000 of them homeless and caused some destruction of banana plantations thereby inspiring the United Fruit Company to fire 10,000 of its about 100,000 workers. This forced our 39th President's hand to appeal once again to the U.S. Government for aid; the Eisenhower Administration would answer this request. Despite the difficult and politically tempting circumstances favorable to the imposition of a successor, Gálvez still went ahead with the scheduled free elections of 1954 and thus the 1954 Honduran general election took place on October 10, 1954. Gálvez was deposed by his Vice President Julio Lozano Díaz on 5 December 1954 while being treated abroad for a heart condition, perhaps brought on by the difficult 1954. His overthrow followed the October 10, 1954 election which produced a deadlock in the Government of Honduras due to a split in the 39th President's own National Party of Honduras. Despite this problem with his heart, once he was deposed out of Office, Juan Manuel Galvez still managed to live a further 18 years before finally dying in his own Honduras on August 20, 1972. References 1887 births 1972 deaths People from Tegucigalpa Presidents of Honduras National Party of Honduras politicians Leaders ousted by a coup