An idealistic CIA operative and his experienced mentor are set on a collision course with each other during the 1954 coup in Guatemala. 

SYNOPSIS:

Codename: Lincoln Station is a political thriller feature along the lines of Bridge of Spies, Three Days of the Condor and Allied, but the true equivalent in style is The Right Stuff as political events taking place in Guatemala in 1954, drive the interpersonal relationships between those running Lincoln Station, their agents and assets.

Matt Baker begins as a rookie agent on his first duty assignment in Guatemala, a nation largely controlled in the past by the United Fruit Company. As Matt seeks to ingratiate himself into the communist community, develop assets and report back to the CIA, events push him to ever more drastic actions as he tries to fulfill his role as an agent.

When the Arbenz Administration exerts its power to wrest control of the nation from United Fruit Company, the American-owned corporation uses its power to resist those moves, employing state department connections and the CIA to accomplish it, placing Matt Baker on the front lines of social and political upheaval.

When the CIA engages in intimidation of opponents of the United Fruit Company and by proxy the United States, Matt is asked to target a local communist cell and plant a bomb at its headquarters, but it is just a warning. No one is supposed to be hurt, but when a small boy, Domingo Escamilla, is killed in the explosion, Matt is forced to deal with his overwhelming guilt and use the event to further ingratiate himself to his communist assets.

The tempo increases as the action winds inevitably toward the coup and Matt is asked to commit greater and greater betrayals against the assets he has developed. At the heart of these requests is Dean Barrett, the Chief of Station and Matt’s informal mentor, a true force of nature born of the Second World War and the OSS. Dean accepts nothing less than absolute dedication to the cause and knows that Matt is teetering between his devotion to the CIA and his love for an asset and labor organizer, Elena Lopez.

In June of 1954, as rebel troops amass on the border of Guatemala, propaganda drops are increased and intimidation tactics ramp up, Dean forces Matt to declare himself by placing Elena’s name on a hit list. When Matt refuses to acknowledge Elena, but uses that information to try and save her, Dean takes matters into his own hands and forces a confrontation.

But, Matt has developed some skills along the way and is able to eliminate Dean and save Elena only to be put in prison as a political prisoner where he languishes until several months into the new American-backed regime. Once released, but still under a cloud of suspicion, Matt makes his way to a cathedral where he is able to reunite with Elena.

This is a film that is long overdue, ignored by a press and media unwilling to understand that the coup in Guatemala was the start of American-Latin American relationships that reverberate today, that if understood would be the hallmark, the crossing of the Rubicon that led ultimately to Nicaragua, Chile, Cuba and the drug wars. It was the moment America became the enemy instead of what it could have been which was a benevolent leader of an American Union.

I am a screenwriter, novelist and playwright interested in history and foreign policy. This script was written with guidance from declassified CIA documents.