Machete Blow

Guatemala's Communist-line Government swung its machete again last week, slicing 174,000 acres from the United Fruit Co.'s Atlantic Coast banana plantation for division among peasants under the new land-reform law. Earlier this year, the Agrarian Department had hacked away all but 66,000 acres of United Fruit's 300,000-acre Pacific Coast plantation (TIME, March 9). For the Atlantic Coast land, which the company values at $3,500,000, the government proposes to pay $570,000 in 25-year bonds.

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