The United States and Latin
America
ANT 105
Survey of Latin America
•
The United States is practically
sovereign on this continent, and its fiat
is law upon the subjects to which it
confines its interposition.
•
--US Secy of State
Richard Olney, 1895
•
Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which
results in a general loosening of the ties of
civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere,
ultimately require intervention by some civilized
nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the
adherence of the United States to the Monroe
Doctrine may force the United States, however
reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such
wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an
international police power.
•
--President Theodore
Roosevelt, 1904
•
Central America has always
understood that governments we
recognize and support stay in power,
while those we do not recognize and
support fail.
•
--US Under Secy of
State Robert Olds, 1927
US Basic Strategies
• 1. Strategic Denial
• 2. Assertion of
Dominance
– Olney Doctrine 1895
1. Manifest Destiny, 1823-1898
• 1823, Monroe
Doctrine
• 1846, Invasion of
Mexico
• 1855-1860, William
Walker in Nicaragua
Race and Manifest Destiny
• Stephen Austin (1836): The Texas conflict
represented the confrontation between “a
mongrel Spanish-Indian and Negro race,
against civilization and the Anglo-American
race."
Race and Manifest Destiny
• George Lippard, in his novel Legends of
Mexico [1847], wrote that Mexicans were
"a mongrel race, molded of Indian and
Spanish blood" that was destined to "melt
into, and be ruled by, the Iron Race of the
North."
William Walker in Nicaragua
• “Instead of maintaining
the purity of the races as
the English did in their
settlements, the Spaniards
had cursed their colonial
possessions with a mixed
race”
• “Whenever barbarism and
civilization meet face to
face… the result must be
war.”
Interest in Cuba
• JQ Adams, 1823: “a
ripening fruit”
destined to fall into the
union
• Attempts to purchase
it (Polk 1848) and
seize it with
mercenaries (1850
expedition)
French Intervention 1860s
War of 1898
• US pledges not to
acquire Cuba, but
gobbles up
Philippines, Guam,
and Puerto Rico
• Quells indigenous
nationalists
movements, acts to
reinforce social
inequality
Platt Amendment
• III “That the government of Cuba consents that the
United States may exercise the right to intervene
for the preservation of Cuban independence, the
maintenance of a government adequate for the
protection of life, property, and individual liberty,
and for discharging the obligations with respect to
Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United
States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the
government of Cuba.”
2. Gunboat Diplomacy, 18981929
• Outright control in
Caribbean and Central
America; fiction of
juridical equality
• At least 26 military
interventions
• Creation of Panama in
1903
Gunboat Diplomacy
•
•
•
•
•
1905 Dominican Republic
1912 Nicaragua
1915 Haiti
1917 Mexico
“Central America has always understood that
governments we recognize and support stay
in power, while those we do not recognize
and support fail.”- Secy of State Robert Olds,
1927
Augusto Cesar Sandino
• US intervenes 1912-1932
• Sandino resists 1926-1932
• US leaves Anastasio
Somoza in power, 1933
• Somoza’s National Guard
kills Sandino, 1934
• Somoza family rules
Nicaragua as personal fief
with support of National
Guard and US, 1932-1979
3. Good Neighbor Policy, 19291953
• 1929-33, US Marines
pulled from every country
except Haiti
• FDR stresses economic
ties over political
domination
• WWII aids good relations
• 1948: Creation of OAS for
collective peacekeeping
4. The Cold War, 1953-1989
• John Foster Dulles and
Guatemalan coup
against Arbenz, 1954
• Role of United Fruit
Company
Cuba
• 1959 Castro takes
power with goal of
reducing US influence
in region
• 1961 Bay of Pigs
Invasion
• 1962 Bay of Pigs
Kennedy Response
• Isolate Castro, military
assistance to other
governments
• Alliance for Progress
Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger: A
Harder Line
• 1964 coup in Brazil
• 1965 invasion of
Dominican Republic
• 1973 coup against
Allende in Chile
• 1976 coup in
Argentina
Central America and the Reagan
Administration, 1981-89
Nicaragua
• FSLN takes power, 1979
• Reagan organizes Contras,
using Honduras and then
Costa Rica
• SOA prints manuals
advocating torture and
assassination
• 1984 US mines harbors
• Congress outlaws aid to
Contras; secretly
continued through illegal
arms sales to Iran
• 1990 FSLN loses election
to Violeta Chamorro
El Salvador, 1979-1992
• FMLN unites guerrilla
groups in 1980
• Assassination of
Archbishop Oscar
Romero, 1980
• $6 billion in US
military aid to govt.
• Death squads
• 1992 Peace Accords
Guatemala
• 1954 coup
• Carter cuts off US
military aid
• Reagan gets around
rules through 3rd
parties
• Civilian president
elected, 1986
• Peace Accords 1996
War, Peace, and the Human Cost
• Oscar Arias begins
negotiation process
against US wishes, wins
Nobel Peace Prize 1987
• Nicaragua: 31,000 war
dead
• El Salvador: 75,000 war
dead, mostly civilians
• Guatemala: 100-200,000
civilians killed; 1 million
displaced
Other Interventions
4. Post-Cold War, 1989-present
1. Reducing Flow of Drugs to US
• No emphasis on reduction of demand
• Military action to eradicate production –
10%/year increase in production
• No US resources to help find alternative
crops
• Unilateral, not cooperative system dictated
by US “certification”
2. Protection of the Environment
• Rio Earth Summit 1992: Bush
administration refuses to sign treaty
• 1994: NAFTA goes into effect without
environmental provisions
• 1996: Congress denies funds for negotiated
effort to curb global climate change
• 2001: GW Bush pulls out of Kyoto accords
3. Economic Development:
Keeping Populations in Place
• Lack of hemispheric balance fuels immigration
• Haiti invasion 1994 to stop immigration; succeeds
but no resources provided
• 1996: Clinton signs Helms-Burton in violation of
NAFTA
• US pushes policies promoting growth without
greater equality; poverty exacerbated by cuts in
social programs
4. Increasing US Exports
• Lack of policies to create a good market
result in worsening trade balances
A Return to Unilateralism
• Tightening of Cuba embargo and HelmsBurton Act
• Complicity in 2002 coup against Chavez
rejected by OAS
• Threats and pressure against Mexico and
Chile to get their votes on war with Iraq