The Monroe Doctrine, one of the cornerstones of American foreign policy and an expression of US sovereignty over the Western Hemisphere. Since then, the history of relations between the United States and Latin America has been a long one of military interventions, economic pressures, and ideological tensions that have often left deep political and social scars.
In December 1823, US President James Monroe declared that any intervention by the old European powers in the American continents would be considered an “act hostile to the United States”. Thus was born the Monroe Doctrine, one of the cornerstones of American foreign policy and an expression of US sovereignty over the Western Hemisphere. Since then, the history of relations between the United States and Latin America is a long history of military interventions, economic pressures and ideological tensions that have often left deep political and social scars.
FROM TERRITORIAL EXPANSION TO CANNON DIPLOMACY
Between 1846 and 1848, the war between the United States and Mexico sealed American territorial ambition, culminating in the annexation of Texas, California, and New Mexico, events that were later mythologized by folklore and Hollywood.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the US developed a new strategy towards its southern neighbors, the “diplomacy of the dollar and warships.” Investments, American companies that exploited local workers (like United Fruit), the construction of canals like the Panama Canal, and military landings in Nicaragua were part of a reality where Washington’s economic and military power went hand in hand, writes La Repubblica.
THE COLD WAR AND IDEOLOGICAL Clash
After World War II, with the outbreak of the Cold War, any leftist movement in Latin America was seen by Washington as a communist threat. From Fidel Castro’s Cuba to the Sandinistas’ Nicaragua, the United States responded with support for authoritarian regimes, coups, and proxy wars.
In 1961, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Although President John F. Kennedy later promoted the “Alliance for Progress,” aimed at peaceful economic cooperation, his successors continued interventionist policies, from the overthrow of the democratic president of the Dominican Republic, Juan Bosch (1965), to support for dictators like Pinochet in Chile.
DICTATORSHIP, VIOLENCE AND THE PAINFUL LEGACY
In the 70s and 80s, the continent was engulfed in a wave of violence, the “guerra sucia” in Argentina, persecutions in Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador, with the CIA and US services involved in covert operations to contain the “red menace”. Historian John Coatsworth of Columbia University estimates that the US intervened at least 41 times in Latin America to overthrow local governments.
The continent’s culture and literature have not remained indifferent. Names such as Gabriel García Márquez, Ariel Dorfman and Roque Dalton have recounted the consequences of these policies through novels and poems that denounce violence, repression and the loss of freedom.
FROM CARTER TO OBAMA, HOPES AND RETURNS AFTER
With Jimmy Carter’s rise to power in 1976, there was a brief period where human rights and transparency were placed at the center of American policy. Barack Obama, a few decades later, attempted a diplomatic reestablishment with Cuba, signaling an epochal change in hemispheric relations.
However, the geopolitical rivalries of the 21st century, with Russian influence and Chinese economic expansion in Venezuela and Cuba, have revived old tensions. Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric towards the Nicolás Maduro regime and the presence of the US fleet in the Caribbean are eerily reminiscent of the past.
A BITTER LESSON
Two centuries after James Monroe’s speech, the balance remains unclear, as when the United States has respected the sovereignty of its neighbors, Latin America has progressed toward democracy; when it has chosen intervention, the results have been dictatorship, social wounds, and long-term hostility.
As the Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton, murdered for his beliefs, wrote, “Here politics costs lives, and if you don’t know, it’s better to remain silent.” This is an eternal warning to those who think that ideals can be exported by force.
