 Although the administration of Harry Truman had become convinced that the Guatemalan government had been penetrated by communists , it relied on purely diplomatic and economic means to try and reduce the communist influence , at least until the end of its term . The United States had refused to sell arms to the Guatemalan government after 1944 ; in 1951 it began to block weapons purchases by Guatemala from other countries . In 1952 Truman became sufficiently convinced of the threat posed by Árbenz to start planning a covert overthrow , titled Operation PBFORTUNE . The plan had originally been suggested by the US supported dictator of Nicaragua , Anastasio Somoza García , who said that if he were given weapons , he could overthrow the Guatemalan government . Truman gave the CIA permission to go ahead with the plan , without informing the state department . The CIA placed a shipment of weapons on a vessel owned by the United Fruit Company , and the operation was paid for by Rafael Trujillo and Marcos Pérez Jiménez , the right @-@ wing anti @-@ communist dictators of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela , respectively . The operation was to be led by Carlos Castillo Armas . However , the US state department discovered the conspiracy , and secretary of state Dean Acheson persuaded Truman to abort the plan . 
