 The CIA operation to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz , code @-@ named Operation PBSUCCESS , was authorized by Eisenhower in August 1953 . The operation was granted a budget of 2 @.@ 7 million dollars for " <unk> warfare and political action . " The total budget has been estimated at between 5 and 7 million dollars , and the planning employed over 100 CIA agents . The CIA planning included drawing up lists of people within Árbenz ' government to be assassinated if the coup were to be carried out . Manuals of assassination techniques were compiled , and lists were also made of people whom the junta would dispose of . After considering several candidates to lead the coup , including Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes , the CIA settled on Carlos Castillo Armas . The US state department also embarked on a campaign to ensure that other countries would not sympathize with the Guatemalan government , by linking it to communism and the Soviet Union . By 1954 Árbenz had become desperate for weapons , and decided to acquire them secretly from Czechoslovakia , which would have been the first time that a Soviet bloc country shipped weapons to the Americas . The shipment of these weapons acted as the final spur for the CIA to launch its coup . 
