In an interview, CIA chief Howard Hunt stated that "We were faced here with the obvious intervention of a foreign power, because these home grown parties, are not really home grown, they are being funded... or advised by a foreign power, i.e., the Soviet Union.

"[citation needed] The CIA undertook Operation PBFortune to overthrow the democratically elected Jacobo Árbenz in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.

The current program works to advance the United States' foreign policy goals, focusing on Guatemala's potential as the United States' most important economic and commercial partner, but also recognizes the country's lagging social indicators and its high poverty rate.

[1] Under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. government has expressed concern about granting asylum to migrants from Guatemala and other Central American countries and has made efforts to use Guatemala to curb the number of U.S. migrants from Central America.

[5][6] On July 15, 2019, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales cancelled a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump after the Guatemala Supreme Court issued an injunction against a proposed deal concerning the Trump Administration's policy objective of limiting the number of Guatemalan migrants entering the United States of America.

[6][7][8] Morales had been expected to sign the deal, which also sought to use Guatemala as a place where crossing Central American migrants had to apply for asylum before entering the U.S.,[6] under pressure from the U.S.