Economics and
Intervention
A New Power Emerges in the West…
• 1823: Monroe Doctrine—What goes on in the
Americas, stays in the Americas. No more European
colonization in the Americas (U.S. only!).
• U.S. steps forth as the major power in the Americas
• Seeks economic and political control of Latin America
• Imperialism: Direct intervention, conquest,
annexation (i.e. Hawaii)
• Colonialism: Direct intervention, formal control (i.e.
army, U.S. law) of external territory (i.e. Puerto Rico)
• Neocolonialism (Interventionism): Economic /
political “influence” / action according to interests of
neocolonialist power
Colonialism vs. Neocolonialism:
What’s the difference?
• Colonialism = Land
• Neocolonialism = Money
• After claiming territories after the
Spanish-American war (1898), U.S.
colonialism in Latin America generally
comes to an end…
• …but neocolonialism surges ahead!
Early
th
20
Century
• U.S. has the gold and
is making the rules
• Major rise of MNCs—
mostly U.S. owned in
Latin America
• Rules in U.S.’s favor,
not Latin America’s
U.S. MNC’s (~1900)
American Sugar Refining Co
GE / RCA / AT&T
UFCO
Standard Fruit & Steamship
American Tobacco Company
Standard Oil
National City Bank (Citibank)
Asarco (Am Smelt / Refining Co.)
Anaconda Copper Mining
Int’l Telegraph and Telephone
W. R. Grace and Co.
Aluminum Co. of Am. (ALCOA)
Sugar
Trans, Comm
Fruit, Trans, Comm
Fruit, Trans
Tobacco
Petroleum
Finance
Mining (Silver, Gold)
Mining (Copper)
Communications
Fert, Trans, Mining
Mining (Bauxite)
Panama Canal
You mean the Colombia Canal?
10 miles
wide
Panama
Canal
Zone
Part of U.S:
1903-1979
Joint control:
1979-1999
Panamanian
control:
2000
1904: Roosevelt Corollary
• Roosevelt reasserts Monroe Doctrine
• U.S. could “supervise” internal affairs of
countries in Latin America and Caribbean: If
U.S. determined any “chronic wrongdoing” by
any country in Latin America, U.S. intervention
would be justified
• Under Roosevelt, the
U.S. used the Corollary
to justify intervention
• Still (unofficially) used today!
“Interventionism”
• “Mechanism” to enforce neocolonialism
• Make “adjustments” in / on / with external locations
for political / economic reasons
• May involve political or economic influence,
military, paramilitary, special forces, unofficial
invasions, sanctions, aid, etc.
• Ultimately used to gain / maintain political and / or
economic control (of U.S. investments)
Q: How many times has the U.S.
intervened in Latin America since
the Monroe Doctrine (1823)?
1845: Texas, formerly a part of Mexico, joins the U.S.
1846: The U.S., fulfilling the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, goes to war with Mexico
and ends up with a third of Mexico's territory.
1850, 1853, 1854, 1857: U.S. interventions in Nicaragua.
1855: Tennessee adventurer William Walker and his mercenaries take over
Nicaragua, institute forced labor, and legalize slavery. He's ousted two years later
by a Central American coalition largely inspired by Cornelius Vanderbilt, upon
whose trade Walker was infringing. "The enemies of American civilization-- for such
are the enemies of slavery-- seem to be more on the alert than its friends." --William
Walker
1856: First of five U.S. interventions in Panama to protect the Atlantic-Pacific
railroad from Panamanian nationalists.
1890: U.S. Troops into Marines clash with Chilean nationalist rebels
1891: Black labor revolt on U.S.-claimed Navassa Island (Haiti) defeated
1894: U.S. Troops begin month-long occupation of Bluefields, Nicaragua
1895: U.S. Navy and Marines land on Panamanian isthmus in Colombia
1896: U.S. Marines land in port of Corinto, Nicaragua
1898: U.S. declares war on Spain, blaming it for destruction of the Maine. (In 1976,
a U.S. Navy commission concludes that the explosion was likely an accident.) The
war enables the U.S. to occupy Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
1899: U.S. Troops again land in Bluefields, Nicaragua
1903: The Platt Amendment inserted into the Cuban constitution grants the U.S.
the right to intervene when it sees fit.
1903: U.S. Marines intervene in Honduran Revolution
1903: When negotiations with Colombia break down, the U.S. sends ten warships
to back a rebellion in Panama in order to acquire the land for the Panama Canal.
1904: U.S. sends customs agents to take over finances of the Dominican
Republic to assure payment of its external debt.
1905: U.S. Marines help Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz crush a strike in Sonora.
1905: U.S. seizes control of Dominican Republic’s financial institutions to protect
American investments
1905: U.S. troops land in Honduras for the first of 5 times in next 20 years.
1906: Marines occupy Cuba for two years in order to prevent a civil war.
1907: Marines intervene in Honduras to settle a war with Nicaragua.
1908: U.S. troops intervene in Panama for first of 4 times in the next decade.
1909: Liberal President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua proposes that American
mining and banana companies pay taxes and appropriates church lands, legalizes
divorce, and executes two Americans for participating in a rebellion against him. He
is then forced to resign through U.S. pressure. The new president, Adolfo Díaz, is
the former treasurer of an American mining company.
1910: U.S. Marines occupy Nicaragua to help support the Díaz regime.
1911: The Liberal regime of Miguel Dávila in Honduras has irked the State
Department by being too friendly with Zelaya and by getting into debt with Britain.
He is overthrown by former president Manuel Bonilla, aided by American banana
tycoon Sam Zemurray and American mercenary Lee Christmas, who becomes
commander-in-chief of the Honduran army.
1912: U.S. Marines intervene in Cuba to put down a rebellion of sugar workers.
1912: Nicaragua occupied again by the U.S. to shore up the inept Díaz
government. An election is called to resolve the crisis: there is one candidate, Díaz.
The U.S. maintains troops and advisors in the country until 1925.
1914: U.S. bombs and then occupies Vera Cruz, in a conflict arising out of a dispute
with Mexico's new government. President Victoriano Huerta resigns.
1914: Marines claim the Dominican Republic as a U.S. protectorate until 1925.
1915: Marines occupy Haiti to restore order; exists as U.S. protectorate until 1934.
1916: Pancho Villa, in the sole act of Latin American aggression against the U.S,
raids the city of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17 Americans.
1917: U.S. troops enter Mexico to unsuccessfully pursue Pancho Villa.
1917: U.S. Buy Virgin Islands from Denmark
1917: Marines intervene again in Cuba, to guarantee sugar exports during WWI.
1918: U.S. Marines occupy Panamanian province of Chiriqui for two years to
maintain public order.
1919: U.S. Marines land during election campaign to ensure order
1921: President Coolidge strongly suggests the overthrow of Guatemalan
President Carlos Herrera, in the interests of United Fruit. The Guatemalans comply.
1925: U.S. Army troops occupy Panama City to break a rent strike and keep order.
1926: Marines, out of Nicaragua for less than a year, occupy the country again, to
settle a volatile political situation. Secretary of State Kellogg describes a
"Nicaraguan-Mexican-Soviet" conspiracy to inspire a "Mexican-Bolshevist
hegemony" within striking distance of the Canal.
1929: U.S. establishes a military academy in Nicaragua to train the National Guard
as the country's army. Similar forces are trained in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic. "Until now Central America has always understood that governments
which we recognize and support stay in power, while those which we do not
recognize and support fall.--Undersecretary of State Robert Olds
1930: Rafael Leonidas Trujillo emerges from the U.S.-trained National Guard to
become dictator of the Dominican Republic.
1932: The U.S. rushes warships to El Salvador in response to a “communist-led”
uprising. President Martínez, however, prefers to put down the rebellion with his
own forces, killing over 8,000 people (the rebels had killed about 100).
1933: President Roosevelt announces the Good Neighbor policy.
1933: Marines finally leave Nicaragua, unable to suppress the guerrilla warfare of
General Augusto César Sandino. Anastasio Somoza García becomes the first
Nicaraguan commander of the National Guard.
1933: Roosevelt sends warships to Cuba to intimidate Gerardo Machado y
Morales, who is massacring the people to put down nationwide strikes and riots.
Machado resigns. A pro-Machado counter-coup is put down by Fulgencio Batista,
who, with Roosevelt's blessing, becomes Cuba's new strongman.
1934: With U.S. approval, Sandino assassinated by agents of Somoza, who
assumes the presidency of Nicaragua two years later. U. S. Secretary of State
Cordell Hull later proposes to intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.
1936: U.S. relinquishes rights to unilateral intervention in Panama.
1940: U.S. establishes military bases on Jamaica, Bahamas, Guyana, others
1941: Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia deposes Panamanian president Arias in a military
coup-- first clearing it with the U.S. Ambassador.
1943:The editor of the Honduran opposition paper El Cronista is summoned to the
U.S. embassy and told that criticism of the dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino is
damaging to the war effort. Shortly afterward, the paper is shut down by the
government.
1944:The dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez of El Salvador is ousted by a
revolution; the interim government is overthrown five months later by the dictator's
former chief of police. The U.S.'s immediate recognition of the new dictator does much
to tarnish Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in the eyes of Latin Americans.
1946: U.S. Army School of the Americas opens in Panama as a hemisphere-wide
military academy.
1948: José Figueres Ferrer wins a short civil war to become President of Costa Rica.
Figueres is supported by the U.S., which has informed San José that its forces in the
Panama Canal are ready to come to the capital to end "communist control" of Costa
Rica.
1950: U.S. Troops deployed to crush independence rebellion in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
1954: Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, elected president of Guatemala, introduces land
reform and seizes idle land parcels from United Fruit. The CIA trains and organizes a
small force to overthrow him in Honduras. When Arbenz naively asks for U.S. military
help to meet this threat, he is refused; when he buys arms from Czechoslovakia he
labeled a Communist. Guatemala is "openly and diligently toiling to create a
Communist state in Central America... only two hours' bombing time from the Panama
Canal." --Life
1954 (cont’d): The CIA broadcasts reports detailing the imaginary advance of the
"rebel army," and provides planes to attack the capital. The army refuses to defend
Arbenz, who resigns. The U.S.'s hand-picked dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas,
outlaws political parties, establishes the death penalty for strikers, and undoes
Arbenz's land reforms. Over 100,000 citizens are killed in the next 30 years of
military rule. "This is the first instance in history where a Communist government
has been replaced by a free one." --Richard Nixon
1957: Eisenhower establishes Office of Public Safety to train Latin Am. police
forces.
1959: Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. Several months earlier he had undertaken
a triumphal tour through the U.S., which included a CIA briefing on the Red
menace. "Castro's continued tawdry little melodrama of invasion." --Time, of
Castro's warnings of an imminent U.S. invasion
1960: Eisenhower authorizes covert actions to get rid of Castro. Among other
things, the CIA tries assassinating him with exploding cigars and poisoned
milkshakes. Other covert actions against Cuba include burning sugar fields,
blowing up boats in Cuban harbors, and sabotaging industrial equipment.
1960: The Canal Zone becomes the focus of U.S. counterinsurgency training.
1960: A new junta in El Salvador promises free elections; Eisenhower, fearing
leftist tendencies, withholds recognition. A more attractive right-wing counter-coup
comes along in three months. "Governments of the civil-military type of El Salvador
are the most effective in containing communist penetration in Latin America." --John
F. Kennedy, after the coup
1960: Guatemalan officers attempt to overthrow the regime of Presidente Fuentes;
Eisenhower stations warships and 2000 Marines offshore while Fuentes puts down the
revolt. [Another source says that the U.S. provided air support for Fuentes.]
1960s: U.S. Green Berets train Guatemalan army in counterinsurgency techniques.
Guatemalan efforts against its insurgents include aerial bombing, scorched-earth
assaults on towns suspected of aiding the rebels, and death squads, which killed 20,000
people between 1966 and 1976. U.S. Army Col. John Webber claims that it was at his
instigation that "the technique of counter-terror had been implemented by the army."
1961: U.S. organizes force of 1,400 anti-Castro Cubans and sends it to the Bay of Pigs.
Castro's army routs it.
1961: CIA-backed coup overthrows elected Pres. J. M. Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador, who
has been too friendly with Cuba.
1962: CIA engages in Brazil to keep João Goulart from taking control of Congress.
1963: CIA-backed coup overthrows elected social democrat Juan Bosch in the
Dominican Republic.
1963: A far-right-wing coup in Guatemala, apparently U.S.-supported, forestalls
elections in which "extreme leftist" Juan José Arévalo was favored to win.
1964: João Goulart of Brazil proposes agrarian reform and the nationalization of the oil
industry. Shortly thereafter, he is ousted by a U.S.-supported military coup.
1964: The free market in Nicaragua: The Somoza family controls "about one-tenth of
the cultivable land in Nicaragua, and just about everything else worth owning, the
country's only airline, one television station, a newspaper, a cement plant, textile mill,
several sugar refineries, half-a-dozen breweries and distilleries, and a Mercedes-Benz
agency." --Life World Library
1965: A coup in the Dominican Republic attempts to restore Bosch's government. The
U.S. invades and occupies the country to stop this "Communist rebellion," with the help
of the dictators of Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
1966: U.S. sends arms, advisors, and Green Berets to Guatemala to implement a
counterinsurgency campaign. "To eliminate a few hundred guerrillas, the government
killed perhaps 10,000 Guatemalan peasants." --State Dept. report on the program
1967: A team of Green Berets is sent to Bolivia to help find and assassinate Cuban
revolutionary, Che Guevara.
1968: Gen. José Alberto Medrano, who is on the payroll of the CIA, organizes the
ORDEN paramilitary force, considered the precursor of El Salvador's death squads.
1970: Salvador Allende elected in Chile. Suspends foreign loans, nationalizes foreign
companies. For the phone system, pays ITT the company's minimized valuation for tax
purposes. The CIA provides covert financial support for Allende's opponents, both during
and after his election.
1972: U.S. stands by as military suspends an election in El Salvador in which centrist
José Napoleón Duarte was favored to win.
1973: U.S.-supported military coup kills Allende and brings Augusto Pinochet to power.
Pinochet imprisons well over a hundred thousand Chileans (torture and rape are the
usual methods of interrogation), terminates civil liberties, abolishes unions, extends the
work week to 48 hours, and reverses Allende's land reforms.
1973: Military takes power in Uruguay, supported by U.S. The subsequent repression…
features the world's highest percentage of population imprisoned for political reasons.
1974: Office of Public Safety is abolished when it is revealed that police are being taught
torture techniques.
1976: Election of Jimmy Carter leads to a new emphasis on human rights in Central
America. Carter cuts off aid to the Guatemalan military and reduces aid to El
Salvador.
1979: Ratification of the Panama Canal treaty which is to return the Canal to
Panama by 1999.
1980: A right-wing junta takes over in El Salvador. U.S. begins massively
supporting El Salvador, assisting the military in its fight against FMLN guerrillas.
Death squads proliferate; Archbishop Romero is assassinated by right-wing
terrorists; 35,000 civilians are killed in 1978-81. The rape and murder of four U.S.
churchwomen results in the suspension of U.S. military aid for one month. The U.S.
demands that the junta undertake land reform. Within 3 years, however, the reform
program is halted by the oligarchy.
1980: The U.S., seeking a stable base for its actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua,
tells the Honduran military to clean up its act and hold elections. The U.S. starts
pouring in $100 million of aid a year and basing the contras on Honduran territory.
1981: The CIA steps in to organize the contras in Nicaragua, who started the
previous year as a group of 60 ex-National Guardsmen; by 1985 there are about
12,000 of them. 46 of the 48 top military leaders are ex-Guardsmen. The U.S. also
sets up an economic embargo of Nicaragua and pressures the IMF and the World
Bank to limit or halt loans to Nicaragua.
1981: Gen. Torrijos of Panama is killed in a plane crash. There is a suspicion of CIA
involvement, due to Torrijos' nationalism and friendly relations with Cuba.
1982: A coup brings Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt to power in Guatemala, and gives the
Reagan administration the opportunity to increase military aid.
1983: Another coup in Guatemala replaces Ríos Montt. The new President, Oscar
Mejía Víctores, was trained by the U.S. and had cleared his coup beforehand with
U.S. authorities.
1983: U.S. troops take over tiny Granada, intervening shortly after a coup has
overthrown the previous, socialist leader. One of the justifications for the action is
the building of a new airport with Cuban help, which Granada claimed was for
tourism and Reagan argued was for Soviet use. Later the U.S. announces plans to
finish the airport... to develop tourism.
1983: Boland Amendment prohibits CIA and Defense Dept. from spending money
to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. Reagan sends in forces to topple the
Nicaraguan government shortly thereafter.
1984: CIA mines three Nicaraguan harbors. Nicaragua takes this action to the
World Court, which brings an $18 billion judgment against the U.S. The U.S.
refuses to recognize the Court's jurisdiction in the case.
1984: U.S. spends $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador– however,
the military in El Salvador already declared not to answer to the elected president.
1989: U.S. invades Panama to remove CIA-trained Manuel Noriega, marking the
change of strategy from thwarting Communism to waging a war on drugs.
1994: U.S. sends troops to support a naval blockade against the military
government of Haiti. The troops restore President Aristide to office three years
after coup.
1996: The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading
status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro's Cuba.
2000: “Plan Colombia,” the lynchpin of the “War on Drugs,” begins
2002: A U.S.-led commando operation coup fails in an attempt to remove freely-elected
left-populist president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
2004: President George W. Bush tightens travel and financial restrictions on Cuba
2004: Ex-President Jean-Baptiste Aristide of Haiti is re-elected amid great controversy.
U.S. forces enter Haiti to keep order; shortly thereafter, Aristide “disappears.” Claims he
was kidnapped by the U.S.; U.S. claims he resigned.
2008: As part of Plan Colombia, U.S. offers intelligence and assistance from FBI and
DEA to aid Colombia’s incursion into Ecuador to capture and kill members of FARC.
2008: Declassified documents and interviews on the ground in Bolivia prove that the
Bush Administration is using U.S. taxpayers’ money to undermine the Morales
government and coopt [Bolivia’s] social movements.
2009: Wikileaks confirms that the U.S. recognizes the illegality of the coup in Honduras,
but ultimately supports the new, more U.S.-friendly government.
2010: Wikileaks memo implicates U.S.’s involvement in coup attempt against Ecuador’s
democratically elected, left-leaning president, Rafael Correa.
2011: Unprecedented numbers of U.S. law enforcement agents work in Mexico. […]
More than 35,000 people have been killed in drug trafficking violence since President
Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown four years ago, and the killing of a
U.S.…prompt[s]…Congress to schedule hearings into the role of American personnel.
2011: Haitians who received a special American immigration status after the earthquake
will be allowed an additional year and a half to live and work in the U.S.
Follow the model…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Business = Government
Government = Business
No unions
Low, low wages
Slave-like conditions
No rights (beatings, torture, death)
Often worked for coupons / “Company Money”
No other options
No ownership of land for workers
Hershey
Chocolate
Factory
(rail line, etc.)
Cuba: ~1915
Sugar Production Land Tenure:
Cuba, 1940
22.5%
15%
5%
2.5%
55%
Export Destinations
(1937)
Cuba: 1903
•
•
•
•
U.S. helps Cuban independence from Spain
Cuba wants independence, however…
U.S. has major sugar investments in Cuba
U.S. owns / controls 70-90% of Cuban sugar
American Sugar Refining Company
• U.S. keeps military in Cuba to prevent
rebellion / protect investments (Establishment
of Guantanamo Military Base)
• Teddy Roosevelt and “Gunboat Diplomacy”
1903: Platt Amendment
Cuba agrees to:
• Give U.S. naval base in Cuba:
Guantánamo Bay…Forever!!
• Cuba would not transfer Cuban land to
any country other than the U.S.,
• Allow U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs
whenever the U.S. deems necessary
• Can never negotiate any treaties with any
country other than with the United States
“The Golden Rule”
• 99+% of all major reform efforts in Latin
America: legal reform, establishment of
worker-owned businesses, major changes
in labor rules, etc., eventually failed:
– Powerful military / corporate actions (Monroe
Doctrine) with opposing interests
– Corruption of leaders (both sides)
– Lack of financial / political resources
– Lack of alternatives
– Lack of education / information / interest
outside of immediate area
…all but one!:
Cuba
• Since Jan 1, 1959 through
today, Cuba is the
exception to nearly every
rule about Latin America
(except language)
• Overthrew Americansponsored leader:
Fulgencio Batista
• Collectivized, then
Communized with the
backing of the Soviet Union
• Only Lat Am country to lead
a “successful” challenge to
the Monroe Doctrine?
Pre-Castro Cuba
• 75% of Cuba's farmland owned by U.S.
companies and / or foreign individuals
• Corruption: Batista placed
into office under U.S.supported coup (Corollary)
• Havana was the “Latin Las
Vegas” in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s
– Prohibition in U.S.
– Gambling (Mafia)
– Prostitution
– Casinos mostly U.S.-owned
1/1/59: Roosevelt Corollary
Goes into Action!
• Castro Takes Over
– Wealthy Cubans flee
– To Miami, Guatemala, NY
– Castro redistributes land
to over 200,000 families
• Eisenhower plans
invasion
– CIA Director: Allen Dulles
– CIA-trained Cuban exiles
– Some say Mafia involved
• JFK becomes president
• 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
• 13 day standoff
• “Khrushchev Blinked”
Embargo: 1963
1963: The Embargo Begins
• U.S. Federal Law:
- No ECONOMIC exchange of any sort with
Cuba: ILLEGAL!
• Economic embargo still in effect
• The rest of the world trades with Cuba
• What about the Roosevelt Corollary:
- Is it in our interest to continue the
embargo or should we trade with Cuba?
BACARDI
• Bacardi was
originally a Cuban
company
• They saw the writing
on the wall (Cuban
Revolution) and left
Land of Paradox!
Currencies!
Cuban Peso
Cuban Convertible
(not convertible)
Pesos
U.S. Dollars
US: Illegal tender since 1963
Cuba: “Illegal” since 2004,
charge 10% to convert
Food!
For the rest
of the world
For Cuba
Architecture!
Havana
Wash D.C.
Travel!
U.S. ENTRY / EXIT REQUIREMENTS /
TRAVEL TRANSACTION LIMITATIONS: The
U.S. Treasury Dept requires that persons subject to
U.S. jurisdiction be licensed to engage in any travelrelated transactions related to travel to, from, and
within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel
This
is
a
law!
are not licensable. This restriction includes tourist
travel to CubaNot
from a
or Cuban
through a third
law.country such as
Mexico or Canada. Travelers who fail to comply with
Department of Treasury regulations will face civil
penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the
United States and may face up to a $250,000 fine and
up to 10 years in jail.
U.S.
Cuba
The UN Vote on the Embargo:
(10/28/14)
FOR
• United States
• Israel
• Palau
AGAINST
188 countries
around the
world
(3 abstentions)
23 consecutive years that the UN has
voted overwhelmingly to end the
embargo: should it continue?
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/uk-cuba-un-idUKKBN0IH1R520141028