The United States and Latin America

1. The United States and Latin America ANT 105 Survey of Latin America

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. US Basic Strategies • 1. Strategic Denial • 2. Assertion of Dominance • Olney Doctrine 1895

6. 1. Manifest Destiny, 1823-1898 • 1823, Monroe Doctrine • 1846, Invasion of Mexico • 1855-1860, William Walker in Nicaragua

8. 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."

9. 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."

10. 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.”

11. 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)

12. French Intervention 1860s

13. 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

14. 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.”

16. 2. Gunboat Diplomacy, 1898-1929 • Outright control in Caribbean and Central America; fiction of juridical equality • At least 26 military interventions • Creation of Panama in 1903

17. 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

18. 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

19. 3. Good Neighbor Policy, 1929-1953 • 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

20. 4. The Cold War, 1953-1989 • John Foster Dulles and Guatemalan coup against Arbenz, 1954 • Role of United Fruit Company

21. Cuba • 1959 Castro takes power with goal of reducing US influence in region • 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion • 1962 Bay of Pigs

22. Kennedy Response • Isolate Castro, military assistance to other governments • Alliance for Progress

24. 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

25. Central America and the Reagan Administration, 1981-89

26. 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

27. 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

28. Guatemala • 1954 coup • Carter cuts off US military aid • Reagan gets around rules through 3rd parties • Civilian president elected, 1986 • Peace Accords 1996

29. 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

30. Other Interventions

31. 4. Post-Cold War, 1989-present

32. 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”

33. 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

34. 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

35. 4. Increasing US Exports • Lack of policies to create a good market result in worsening trade balances

36. A Return to Unilateralism • Tightening of Cuba embargo and Helms-Burton 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