Mano Blanca

Mano Blanca (Spanish for 'White Hand') was a Guatemalan far-right, anti-communist death squad, set up in 1966 to prevent Julio César Méndez Montenegro from being inaugurated as the president of Guatemala. While initially autonomous from the government, it was absorbed into the Guatemalan State's counter-terror apparatus and evolved into a paramilitary unit of the Guatemalan armed forces, and was responsible for the murder and torture of thousands of people in rural Guatemala. The group received support from the Guatemalan army and government, as well as from the United States. The group was officially known as the Movimiento de Acción Nacionalista Organizado (English: Movement of Organized Nationalist Action) which gives the acronym "MANO" (Spanish: hand). The group was variously known by its full name, by MANO, or most popularly by Mano Blanca, or "White Hand."

History

Background

The United States backed coup in 1954 brought Carlos Castillo Armas to power. Along with other people with fascist leanings, he started the National Liberation Movement (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, or MLN). The founders of the party described it as the "party of organized violence." The new government promptly reversed the democratic reforms initiated during the Guatemalan Revolution and the agrarian reform program that was the main project of president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and which directly impacted the interests of both the United Fruit Company and the Guatemalan landowners.

After the 1954 coup d'état, the MLN became in effect the party of the Guatemalan landowners and military. However, the leftist guerrillas in the country were very active during the 1960s, especially after a failed coup on November 13, 1960, by progressive army officers who wished to set up a democratic government. In response to this threat, the Guatemalan government acted on the advice of the military attaché at the United States embassy and helped set up several vigilante groups throughout the country.