But then Ubico was overthrown. An idealistic young soldier, Jacobo Árbenz, later rose to power. And he called El Polpo’s bluff. If the land was worth so little, he argued, the state would buy it and let peasants farm it. The United Fruit Company didn’t like this idea. The company lobbied the U.S. government, employing a PR agency to portray Árbenz as a dangerous communist. The CIA got involved. In 1954, Árbenz was ousted in a coup, stripped to his underwear, and bundled onto a flight to peripatetic exile.
