Crowds Welcoming Castillo Armas

While thousands of people crowd the plaza in front of the National Palace in Guatemala City, a low flying plane drops leaflets welcoming the new Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas government on July 3, 1954. Castillo Armas, whose revolution toppled the pro-communist government, reported that he was "gravely concerned" by guerilla activity, particularly in the Puerto Barrios area. The government, reporting that it was receiving evidence of hundreds of murders, political slayings, cases of torture, and false imprisonment, issued an order to troops to mop up bands of peasants found carrying weapons who were reported to be raiding highway transport and small villages.