¡Devils Don't Dream! Research on Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán

Documentary on the '40 years of war' that have troubled and haunted Guatemala since the US-executed coup against the liberal regime of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán - a young army officer who himself led a coup against the prevailing right-wing dictatorship and, on being elected president, instituted a programme of progressive reforms. The absence of witnesses willing to talk (with the exception of Arbenz's widow) betokens the climate of fear that still obtains in Guatemala, and also limits the scope of the documentary. On the other hand, writer/director Hoessli has located much footage long thought lost in the private archives of a contemporary news cameraman. CIA-man Howard Hunt, chief of propaganda and political action in 1954, gives first-hand testimony of the arrogance of the US towards this one-time 'banana republic'.