Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Words can scarcely express how fortunate we are in this
hemisphere, how greatly blessed, to have this kind of association,
which has no counterpart in all the world, and indeed in all history
. . . Indeed, never before in history has a group of nations of
comparable number enjoyed, in organized form, so high a
measure of fellowship and harmony. Thus we set an example from
which others can profitably learn.
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
250
In 1963, Milton Eisenhower observed that “We breathed in relief
when forces favoring democracy restored Guatemala to its normal place
in the American family of nations . . .,” an interesting and rather
accurate conception of the norm under US rule. 194
The series of Guatemalan gangsters who have run their torture
chamber since 1954 with constant US support have created a society
with the lowest life expectancy in Central America (49 years); 35% of
children (up to 60% in rural Guatemala) die before the age of 5, the
minimum wage has declined to below that of the Arbenz years with a
one-third decline in purchasing power of urban workers during the
1970s; caloric intake averages 83% of daily requirements and is far
lower for large parts of the population; 80% of the agricultural labor
force has been reduced “to a position of virtual servitude at the hands of
landowners and their labour contractors” beyond that of the colonial
period. It is, furthermore, “a nation of prisoners” in the words of an
Americas Watch report, with a level of barbaric state terror that has few
contemporary parallels. 195 This, in a country with ample resources,
considerable economic growth and concentrated wealth; and
encouraging steps towards democracy and economic and social progress
until “big brother” stepped in to carry out “his duty” (see chapter 3,
section 7.1).
The same story can be retold throughout the continent, and