On this day, 1 July 1944, a popular uprising and general strike forced US-backed Guatemalan dictator Jorge Ubico to step down, and instead a social democratic government was set up.
The new government implemented numerous social reforms like a minimum wage, improved literacy, union rights and land reform.
This drew the ire of the United Fruit Company, Guatemala’s largest landowner, which lobbied the US government heavily to overthrow the Guatemalan government, which it eventually did in 1954.
Pictured: strikers in Guatemala City, 1944
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