The purpose of this publication is twofold: to analyze United States imperialism in Guatemala since 1954 and to describe the Guatemalan class struggle. The Marxist focus is on United States private investments and government aid, social and economic structures in Guatemala, revolutionary movements, nature of repression, development of class struggle since 1954, and evolution of the organized left. These topics are covered in a series of nineteen articles.
Despite the multiple authorship, a surprising amount of unity is achieved. There is repetition, which careful editing could have eliminated. Scattered throughout the various articles are information boxes on related topics. The appendix contains a valuable list of Guatemala’s top twenty families, outlining their origins and financial ventures. The footnotes are inconveniently placed at the end of the publication.
Unless the reader is familiar with NACLA research, the majority of the authors will be unknowns; this, therefore, raises questions regarding credentials. It need not detract from the merit of their research. Many of the findings are based on secondary sources because documentary resources were not available. Nevertheless, the evidence marshaled makes for a most serious indictment of United States imperialism and the Guatemalan bourgeoisie. The reviewer finds no quarrel with the NACLA writers’s conclusion that the socialist revolution is inevitable not only in Guatemala but in all of Latin America.
