Atlas / Organisations / Guatemalan October Revolution
Guatemalan October Revolution
Arévalo and Árbenz · 1944–1954 · Guatemala · Social Democratic · Held state power · coding confidence medium
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Ten years of elected reformist government — labour code, social security, land reform — ended by a coup organised abroad.
Economic model
Decree 900 redistributed uncultivated land with compensation at declared tax value, most of it from one foreign fruit company.
Organisation of powers
Competitive elections, a free press and a functioning congress throughout the decade.
Reading note
Overthrown in 1954 by a CIA-organised operation. Coded low on authority precisely because the regime that replaced it was not.
Check a claim about Guatemalan October Revolution. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored −04
Coded −4: land reform with compensation, plus a labour code and social security.
- Documented act or statuteDecree 900 of 1952 redistributed uncultivated land, compensated at the value the owner had declared for tax.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored −04
Coded −4: literacy campaigns, women's suffrage and indigenous labour protection.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1945 constitution granted women the vote and abolished the vagrancy laws used to force indigenous labour.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −03
Coded −3: competitive elections, free press and a functioning congress throughout.
- Documented act or statuteTwo presidents were elected and one succeeded the other constitutionally, a first in Guatemalan history.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +03
Coded +3: national legislation administered through a reforming state.
- Documented act or statuteLand reform was administered by national agrarian committees with local participation.
ID · Rule of membership · scored −03
Coded −3: indigenous inclusion as an explicit reform objective.
- Documented act or statuteAround a hundred thousand families received land, most of them indigenous.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −04
Coded −4: entirely constitutional, and ended by an operation organised abroad.
- Documented act or statuteDeclassified records confirm the 1954 coup was planned and executed as a CIA operation.
Where it came from, and what came after
- was succeeded bySemilla
The reform tradition ended in 1954, and the party that reached office in 2024 claims it explicitly.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Democratic Socialism (Jamaica)2.0
- National People's Power2.6
- Workers' Party2.8
- Aam Aadmi Party4.0
- US Democratic Party4.1
- Popular Front4.2
Countries
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Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.