ABSTRACT
Guatemala was unquestionably in need of an agrarian reform--a fact that was amply corroborated by the 1950 Census. The passage of the Agrarian Reform Law of 1952 provided Jacobo Arbenz Guzman with the legal instrument needed to fulfill his campaign promises. This chapter presents an analysis of the application of the Agrarian Reform Law to the Guatemalan private sector. The paramount issue consuming the activities of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) was the preservation of an outmoded set of established rules of the game whereby the MNCs would continue to dictate the terms guiding their relationship to the government, regardless of changed circumstances in both the Guatemalan and international politico-economic scenario. The struggle created a societal condition in which there was little tolerance for political ambiguity on either side. The mounting internal opposition with external support gradually moved its focus of attack from agrarian reform to the government.
