The Anti-Communist University Students Committee (), (CEUA) was a rightist, anti-communist organization in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, which was founded in late 1953, during the last year of the

Guatemalan Revolution The period in the history of Guatemala between the coups against Jorge Ubico in 1944 and Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 is known locally as the Revolution (). It has also been called the Ten Years of Spring, highlighting the peak years of represen ...

. Its founders and leaders were Mario Sandoval Alarcon, Lionel Sisniega Otero, Mario Lopez Villatoro, and Eduardo Taracena de la Cerda. Lionel Sisniega Otero was a broadcaster for the clandestine radio station that the liberation movement operated before Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán's resignation, together with Mario Lopez Villatoro and Jose Toron Barrios, who were both killed by the guerrillas in the 1960s. They fought against the government of Arbenz. Headed by a young activist, the group counted 50 members in the capital and a nationwide network of sympathetic students ready to risk arrest. After the coup in 1954 CEUA supported the government of

Carlos Castillo Armas Carlos Castillo Armas (; 4 November 191426 July 1957) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the far-right Nationa ...

. Declassified material from the

Information Research Department The Information Research Department (IRD) was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and i ...

(IRD) of the United Kingdom's Foreign Office show CEUA was involved in spreading in Guatemala anti communist propaganda prepared by the Foreign Office's IRD, its intelligence branch, against the democratically elected government of

Jacobo Árbenz Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán (; 14 September 191327 January 1971) was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the secon ...

References

Bibliography

*"Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954." (Review) ''

The Journal of Interdisciplinary History The ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the MIT Press. It covers a broad range of historical themes and periods, linking history to other academic fields. Contents The journal featur ...

'' September 22, 2000. * Schneider Ronald M. ''Communism in Guatemala, 1944-1954'' New York: Octagon Books 1979 *''Political parties of the Americas : Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies''

Robert J. Alexander Robert Jackson Alexander (November 26, 1918 – April 27, 2010) was an American political activist, writer, and academic who spent most of his professional career at Rutgers University. He is best remembered for his pioneering studies on the trade ...

ed. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1982. * Berger Susan A. ''Political and agrarian development in Guatemala'' by Boulder: Westview Press 1992 *''A case history of communist penetration: Guatemala.'' by United States. Dept. of State. Office of Public Services. Published in 1957, (Washington). * Gleijeses, Piero, ''Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954'', Princeton, 1991. *''Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture'': 2nd ed. 2008. Anti-communism in Guatemala Anti-communist organizations Organizations of the Guatemalan Civil War Student organizations established in 1953 Student political organizations {{Guatemala-stub