NEW UPRISING IN GUATEMALA

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27564, 22 January 1955, Page 7

NEW UPRISING IN GUATEMALA

Government Arrests Leaders

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 1130 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 21. Guatemalan Government troops held Guatemala City and other strategic centres in an armed grip today as the authorities moved to seize the leaders of yesterday’s abortive rising in the Central American Republic.

An American Associated Press correspondent reported that at least 100 persons already were under arrest as the Government pushed a round-up of Communists and supporters of the Left-wing former President, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.

President Carlos Castillo Armas, who overthrew' the Communist-supported Arbenz regime last June, announced that 10 persons had been killed and an undetermined number wounded in a brief clash yesterday between loyalist forces and rebels seeking to capture Aurora military base outside Guatemala City.

He charged that one of the leaders of the uprising was Francisco Cosenza, Ambassador to Italy under the Arbenz Government and a friend of the former President.

Government authorities announced that they were in control of the situation throughout the country, but a state of siege—a kind of modified martial law—was declared.

Troops with machine-guns mounted guard at military posts and strategic points, and a 10 p.m. curfew was called in the capital. The American Associated Press correspondent said yesterday’s rising had been the most serious attempt thus far to unseat President Castillo Arbenz.

Although personally popular with the people, the President had had to contend with a number of conspiracies, the correspondent said. In recent weeks grumbling against his Government had increased. There had been complaints that the cost of living was too high, that the Administration was overloaded with bureaucrats, and that local authorities were too quick to throw people into gaol. President Castillo Armas, at a press conference, said that in addition to Cosenza, others implicated in the plot included civilian and disgruntled military men who had been demoted from nigh posts they held under the Arbenz Administration.

The Minister for the Interior, Mr Guillermo Vides, said the attack on the air base began at 1.30 pin., and that early last evening the Government was in full control of the situation, although there was still some sporadic fighting in the area. A large number of persons were arrested. The attackers had sought to obtain arms from the Aurora base, but troops of the garrison resisted them.

The rebels had planned simultaneous attacks on the Aurora base, the Honour Guard Headquarters inside the city, and an Air Force base, Mr Vides said, but armed groups .were intercepted. The rest of the Country was reported to be quiet.