Ousted Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz in Paris, 1955 (Photo: Bettmann / Getty)

How British intelligence destabilised democracy in Central America

Newly declassified files reveal how the British government played a pivotal role in undermining Guatemala’s democratic government in the early 1950s.  Through the Information Research Department (IRD) of the Foreign Office, British officials inundated the country with exaggerated anti-communist propaganda and funded conspiratorial student organisations. Ultimately, British intelligence radicalised domestic politics and contributed to the […]

Read more »