 On May 15 , 1954 , a shipment of Škoda infantry and light artillery weapons was dispatched from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government and arrived in Puerto Barrios . As a result , the United States government — which since 1953 had been tasked by President Eisenhower to remove Arbenz from power in the multifaceted CIA operation code named PBSUCCESS — responded by saturating Guatemala with anti @-@ Arbenz propaganda through radio and dropped leaflets , and began bombing raids using unmarked airplanes . The United States also sponsored a force of several hundred Guatemalan refugees and mercenaries who were headed by Castillo Armas to help remove the Arbenz government . Though the impact of the U.S. actions on subsequent events is debatable , by late June , Arbenz came to the conclusion that resistance against the " giant of the north " was futile and resigned . This allowed Armas and his CIA @-@ assisted forces to march into Guatemala City and establish a military junta , which would twelve days later on July 8 , elect him President . Consequently , the Armas regime then consolidated power by rounding up hundreds of suspected communists and executed hundreds of prisoners , while crushing the previously flourishing labor unions and restoring all of United Fruits previous land holdings . 
