A Brief History of U.S. Intervention in Latin America
How did we get from the Monroe Doctrine to covert ops?
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Lauren Sims
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Transcript
Hi, I’m Katie Angell. I’m an associate editor for Britannica covering Latin America. On January 3rd the U.S. carried out a military strike against Venezuela. A conflict between the U.S. and Latin America may seem that it came out of the blue, but episodes of U.S. intervention goes back to over 200 years ago with the Monroe Doctrine, where President James Monroe asserted U.S. control over the Western Hemisphere.
The United States has intervened in a lot of ways. One of the most prominent examples is the embargo against Cuba. The embargo began in the 1960s when Fidel Castro took power. According to the United Nations, this economic embargo has cost the island over $130 billion. In Guatemala in 1954, the CIA backed an operation that overthrew the country’s democratically elected president. The coup replaced him with a military dictatorship. In Chile in the early 1970s, the U.S. worked to undermine the democratically elected president and staged a military coup in 1973 that brought to power Pinochet. The United States carried out a military occupation in 1915 to 1934 in Haiti. The United States military forces overtook the finances, security, and political institutions of the country. The occupation ended in 1934, but it continued to shape Haitian society for decades to come. In Nicaragua in the 1980s, the U.S. secretly, without congressional approval, supported an armed rebel group known as the Contras, which was fighting against the leftist Sandinista government. The United States tried to undermine the Cuban government for decades, including numerous assassination plots against Fidel Castro. Some scholars say that there have been over 600 attempts.
So U.S. intervention in Latin America isn’t new. It’s taken on many different forms for many centuries. What’s notable now is how openly and forcefully the United States is reasserting its role in the region, with Venezuela marking one of the newest and clearest examples.
The United States has intervened in a lot of ways. One of the most prominent examples is the embargo against Cuba. The embargo began in the 1960s when Fidel Castro took power. According to the United Nations, this economic embargo has cost the island over $130 billion. In Guatemala in 1954, the CIA backed an operation that overthrew the country’s democratically elected president. The coup replaced him with a military dictatorship. In Chile in the early 1970s, the U.S. worked to undermine the democratically elected president and staged a military coup in 1973 that brought to power Pinochet. The United States carried out a military occupation in 1915 to 1934 in Haiti. The United States military forces overtook the finances, security, and political institutions of the country. The occupation ended in 1934, but it continued to shape Haitian society for decades to come. In Nicaragua in the 1980s, the U.S. secretly, without congressional approval, supported an armed rebel group known as the Contras, which was fighting against the leftist Sandinista government. The United States tried to undermine the Cuban government for decades, including numerous assassination plots against Fidel Castro. Some scholars say that there have been over 600 attempts.
So U.S. intervention in Latin America isn’t new. It’s taken on many different forms for many centuries. What’s notable now is how openly and forcefully the United States is reasserting its role in the region, with Venezuela marking one of the newest and clearest examples.