ABSTRACT
The electoral campaign which brought Lt. Col. Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán to the presidency was carried out in a polarized and explosive political milieu. The electoral results gave Arbenz legal control over the coercive machinery of the state. Agrarian reform was the provocative issue which Arbenz exploited in waging the electoral campaign. It was significant internationally that agrarian reform had been the subject of a number of United Nations resolutions. The criteria used to measure the participation of the population in some economic activity did not take into consideration the substantive differences in work ethic between the lading and the Indian. The ladino male, unless a member of the governing class, works and acquires property as a result of a given economic activity. The fear of the agrarian reform led the wealthy proprietors to understate the quantity of land in their possession.
