 Ubico had great admiration for the fascist leaders of Europe , such as Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini . However , he saw the United States as an ally against the supposed communist threat of Mexico . He made a concerted effort to gain American support ; when the US declared war on Germany and Japan in 1941 , Ubico followed suit , and acting on American instructions arrested all people of German descent in Guatemala . He permitted the US to establish an air base in Guatemala , with the stated aim of protecting the Panama Canal . Like his predecessors , he made large concessions to the United Fruit Company , granting it 200 @,@ 000 hectares ( 490 @,@ 000 acres ) hectares of public land in exchange for a promise to build a port . He later released the company from this obligation as well , citing the economic crisis . Since its entry into Guatemala , the UFC had expanded its land @-@ holdings by displacing the peasantry and converting their farmland into banana plantations . This process accelerated under Ubico , whose government doing nothing to stop it . 
