The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1954-06-29
~ SAM sUMMERLIN

BY SAM SUMMEkLiN
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras u
Col. Carlos Castillo Armas' anti
Communist rebels kept up their
fight today to overthrow the Guate-
malan government after demand
ing the unconditional surrender"
of their country's new ruling mill
tary junta Of top army officers.
The Guatemalan radio reported
yesterday afternoon that insurgent
planes had bombed the capital.
Then the station went off the air.
A communique from the rebel
headquarters made no mention of
the bombing, but earlier rebel
broadcasts had warned that air
strikes would be renewed unless
Col. Carlos Diaz, the new 'pro-
yisional President" and head Of the
junta, gave up.
Diaz, former army chief of staff,
took over Sunday nigEl after the
army-forced resignation Of left
wing President Jacobo Arbenz
Cuzman. The new military regime
promptly outlawed the Communist
party, but this failed to placate
the anti-Red rebels driving toward
the capital from the Honduras
border.
Associated Press Correspondent
Jack Rutledge, in a dispatch from
Guatemala City delayed Is hours
by censorship, reported that the
junta had started roundup yester-
day Of Communists. He said two
Red members. of Parliament had
taken refuge in the Mexican EN-
bassy.
He said among the first acts Of
the new military regime had been
q shift in the top police command,
with Jose Luis Morales Melgar
named to succeed Rogelio Cruz
Wer as chief Of the civil police
and J. Antonio Saravia supplanting
Jaime Rosenberg as secret police
chief.
Arbenz, Rutledge said, was con-
fined under heavy guard yester-
day to his private residence in the
suburbs Of Guatemala City, with
an armored car stationed in front.
However, the Guatemalan govern
ment radio in q broadcast later
yesterday said the ex-President
was flying to exile in Argentina.
The Argentine government an
nounced in Buenos Aires last night
that Arbenz's wife and two chill
dren had been given asylum in its
Guatemala City embassy.
Rutledge messaged that develop
ments in the capital yesterday
were $50 rapid that general con-
fusion reigns." He said censorship,
lifted Sunday night after Arbenz's
resignation, had been clamped
back on tight, "due mainly to the
confusion"
He said u. S. Ambassador John
Peurifoy was scheduled to confer
with Diaz sometime yesterday.
Arbenz's broadcast Sunday an
nouncing his resignation named
Diaz as provisional President, I"
Rutledge wrote. However, the
junta really Is in control" he said.
He said the capital was BACKED
out Sunday night after Arbenz's
broadcast and sporadic shooting
occurred throughout the city.
The rebels surrender ultimatum
was laid down In q manifesto
broadcast last night by the "Liber-
alton Radio" Il declared:
1--WE viii accept nothing short
Of unconditional surrender despite
the changes"
The rebel radio labeled the
ehange-over in Guatemala City a
desperate maneuver" made ION
orders from the Kremlin." It
charged the simulated outlawing''
of the Communist party was de-
cided upon in conferences between
leaders of the junta and top Guate-
malan Reds.
Diaz himself had attended a
Communist school In Prague, the
radio charged. and his closest col
leagues are fellow travellers"
The broadcast reported that mill.
tary action was at q standstill
throughout yesterday. Earlier,
however, authoritative sources in
Tegucigalpa had reported there
had been no letup in fighting
around the east Guatemalan rail
center Of Zacapa, but detailed re-