U.S. in Latin America, 1820-1945

U.S. in Latin America, 1820-1945 • 1823 Monroe Doctrine • 1898 Spanish-American war annexation of Cuba, Puerto Rico • 1903 Panama Canal treaty Roosevelt corollary to Monroe Doctrine • Marine invasions: Caribbean, Central Am • 1933 FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy

U. S. Interventions in the Caribbean & Central America 1898-1945

Cold War • 1951 Military Asst. Act U.S. aid to Latin American armies for internal security missions • aimed to establish pro-U.S. governments • many of them military dictatorships • John Foster Dulles—Sec’y State1953-61 defined opposition to U.S. corporate interests as communist & security threat

Guatemala: Arévalo 1945-51 1945 constitution limited presidential power abolished forced labor enfranchised literate women prohibited press censorship criminalized racial discrimination required equal pay for equal work 1947 labor code: right to decent work conditions, social security, formation of unions, paid maternity leave Required UF Co to comply w/ labor laws

Guatemalan: Arbenz 1951-54 1950 74% farm land owned by 2% pop’n 1952 law expropriated landholdings over 223 acres, w/compensation • distributed to landless peasants • 100,000 families received land by 1954 UF CO: owned >55,000 acres, 15% under cultivation—remainder as reserves

U.S. & Guatemalan Revolution CIA trained rebels led by Col. Castillo Armas U.S. imposed arms embargo on Guat. attacked when Arbenz received arms from Czechs Castillo Armas & CIA overthrew Arbenz, 1954 • Castillo Armas installed as president • brutalized Arbenz’s supporters (8,000 killed) • revoked land reforms, ignored labor laws Agriculture returned to export focus

Cuba: Fulgencio Batista charistmatic, mulatto son of sugar worker Led officers who overthrew Cuban gov’t, 1933 reformist legislation & end to Platt Amend. U.S. supported Batista as strong man 1940s wartime prosperity funded populist reforms & gov’t corruption 1952 Batista emerged as dictator repressed strikes, abolished Communist party & unions economy stagnated—rampant unemployment

Che Guevara, Motorcycle Diaries "I will be on the side of the people … I will take to the barricades and the trenches, screaming as one possessed, will stain my weapons with blood, and, mad with rage, will cut the throat of any vanquished foe I encounter."

Castro’s rise as revolutionary leader • 1953, failed in assault on army barracks revolutionary mvmt. grew during his imprisonment • released in 1955 and went to Mexico met Che Guevara, co-revolutionary • 1956, failed in second attack on Cuba troops fled to mountains, gained recruits anti-Batista rebel groups flourished in Havana army crippled by corruption & cronyism • in 1959 Batista fled to Miami, his U.S. support eroding Castro emerged, victorious

Castro’s economic goals • land reform • agricultural diversification • econ & political independence from U.S. Cultivated alliance with Soviet Union, to replace U.S. as buyer In 1960, expropriated U.S. oil cos. when they refused to process Soviet crude

Castro’s early reforms • expropriated 85% of land from estates to smallholders & co-ops most became state administered farms • 40% increase in workers’ wages • lowered utility rates • improved rural housing & roads Problems: rationing goods due to import redux administrative & technical failures of centrally planned economy

Achievements of Cuban Revolution • high employment, social support for unemployed • free & universal public education & health care • national child care • expanded higher education, esp. for women • improved rural housing & high home ownership • health & technical aid to poor countries Failures: authoritarianism repeal of civil liberties personalistic cult of Castro

Health in Cuba and U.S., 2000 Life expectancy Inf. mortality/1,000 Cuba 76.2 6.4 U.S. 77.1 7.1 U.K. 77.7 5.8 Data from U.S. Census Bureau & CDC

U.S. opposition to Castro Castro’s success could “give encouragement to communist-nationalist elements elsewhere in Latin America and [potentially expose] United States property owners to treatment similar to that being received in Cuba, and prejudice the program of economic development espoused by the U.S. for Latin America which relies so heavily on private capital investment.” 1959, State Dept. docs.

U.S. in Latin America, 1820-1945