![Jacobo Arbenz and his wife Maria Vilanova Kreitz, around 1945.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/prasident-arbenz-300x191.jpg)
A ‘Swiss’ president for Guatemala
From Andelfingen to the very top of government in Central America: the story of Jacobo Arbenz, President of the Republic of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954, and his agrarian reforms that stirred up powerful opposition.
![A 1904 postcard of Andelfingen.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/postkarte-andelfingen-300x188.jpg)
![Jacobo Arbenz and his wife Maria Vilanova Kreitz photographed in 1939.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ehepaar-arbenz-300x284.jpg)
![Allen Dulles, the first Director of the CIA, 1953.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/2020/03/Dulles-242x300.jpg)
![US President Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, 1956.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/eisenhower-und-john-dulles-300x236.jpg)
The 1954 US-orchestrated coup in Guatemala. YouTube
![Jacobo Arbenz and his family at Visp railway station in 1955.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Arbenz-Visp-1955-298x300.jpg)