CIA A Study Of Assassination ( 1953)

.In 1997, as part of the freedom of information act, a document was released by the CIA entitled “A Study of Assassination.” The document was undated and unsigned but had an estimated original publication date of 1953. The manual was released as part of a collection of Central Intelligence Agency files relating to the Guatemalan Destabilization Program. The program aimed to overthrow the newly democratically elected leader of Guatemala, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, who had announced large scale land reforms. At that time, the largest land owner in Guatemala by far (and indeed Central America generally) was the US global corporation, The United Fruit Company. United Fruit - called the “Octopus” by Guatemalans - wielded massive power at the time, reaching its tentacle like arms deep into railroads, ports, shipping and especially banana plantations. In total United Fruit owned one fifth of the entire country, and almost solely controlled the worlds sale of bananas. Arbenz proposed to buy back much of United Fruits land (90% of which it didn’t use).