Cia Plotted Deaths Of Guatemalan Leaders

The CIA considered assassinating Guatemalan leaders more than 40 years ago, reviewing a list of 58 targets and training some gunmen for the job, but the killings were not carried out, the agency said Friday.

The disclosure came as the CIA announced the release of 1,400 pages of once-classified records describing a covert action that caused the collapse of the government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in June 1954. Arbenz fled to Cuba and eventually into Mexico.

The Eisenhower administration acted against Arbenz because he was viewed as a leftist. “There was considerable communist influence within his government, giving rise to fears that Guatemala could become a Soviet client state,” a CIA official said.