The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency planted a cache of Soviet-made weapons on a beach in Nicaragua, as part of an effort to portray Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz as a Soviet puppet.

Central Intelligence Agency

Intelligence and covert action agency of the United States

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting covert operations. The agency is…

Operation Washtub (Nicaragua)

Operation WASHTUB was a covert operation organized by the United States Central Intelligence Agency to plant a phony Soviet arms cache in Nicaragua. It was a part of the CIA's effort to portray the administration of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz as having ties to the Soviet…

Jacobo Árbenz

President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954

Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 25th president of Guatemala. He was Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1950, before he became the second democratically elected President of Guatemala, from 1951 to 1954. He was a…