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Essays on the united states intervention in latin america
Essay on USA foreign policy toward Latin America
Essays on the united states intervention in latin america
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The Guatemalan Civil War was a 20th century civil war that raged from 1954 until 1996. It has profoundly affected geopolitical relationships in Central America, as well as and US policy toward hostile governments. The war shaped geopolitics in that region and impacted not just Guatemala but the countries vested in the so-called Cold War as a whole. There is disagreement among historians, however, concerning how much US influence guided the outcome of the conflict. Through extensive research, it is clear that the United States of America’s impact on the war was both highly significant and highly detrimental to the US’s geopolitical interests. By studying the evidence, we can establish that the US acted in contrast with its own stated ideals, acting as an indispensible partner in the crimes of the Guatemalan Civil War. The seeds of the Guatemalan Civil War were sown in the early 1940s. Left-leaning dictator Jorge Ubico was forced to leave his post in response to general dissatisfaction. His replacement, Gen. Juan Federico Ponce Vaides, a powerful army officer, was deposed just two months later by a coup led by a junta of mid-level army officers. This government organized free elections, Guatemala's first ever, and the writer and philosopher Juan Jose Arevalo was elected president. Arelavo referred to his philosophy as "Arevalismo", a kind of Christian socialism that touted liberalism and labor reforms. Many critics of his policies believed them to be essentially communism or, as one put it, "an attempt to beguile a misguided poor people with the promise of happiness." Still, he was popular inside Guatemala and instituted a period of greater freedom than had been experienced previously. The US government noted Guatemala's "dr... ... middle of paper ... ... Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post. Web. 17 March 2014. . Secondary Sources: 4 Schlesinger, Stephen C., and Stephen Kinzer. Bitter Fruit: the Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. [Boston, Mass.]: Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, 1999. Print. 5 Schirmer, Jennifer G. The Guatemalan Military Project: a Violence Called Democracy. Philadelphia (Pa.): University of Pennsylvania, 1998. Print. 6 "US Foreign Policy in Guatemala." Third World Traveler, Third World, United States Foreign Policy, Alternative Media, Travel. Web. 19 March 2014. . 7 Jonas, Susanne. The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, Death Squads, and U.S. Power, 1991. Print.
America had begun to indulge in the unilateral environment afforded to it during the Cold War. As the Soviet Union began to collapse in the 1980s, the United States was on its way to becoming a solo super power. This acquisition of complete power would inevitably lead the country into new problems, including those foreign and domestic. One of the main issues that came around in the 1980s for the Unites States was the Iran-Contra Affair, which involved the Reagan Administration. With the United States readily inserting influence across the globe, the Iran-Contra Affair proved how foreign intervention can lead to scandal and disgrace in the modern world. Along with detrimental scandals, the Iran-Contra Affair showed how America’s imperialistic behavior in South America was beginning to catch up. In order to remain a dominant influence in South America, the United States had no choice but to topple governments that did not align with American ideology. Using guerillas like the Contras insinuates America’s cornerstone of doing what is necessary in order to satisfy foreign interest.
Beginning in the late 1970s Liberation Theology, Marxism, and U.S. Cold War policy collided in El Salvador culminating in a civil war that lasted over a decade and ultimately produced democratic political institutions that persist into the 21st century. Despite the prejudices against the church on behalf of government and media organizations in the U.S. and El Salvador, religious actors fought for human rights and the implementation of democratic institutions throughout the period of conflict. The Salvadoran Civil War, which occurred in the context of the Cold War, was one of the bloodiest and longest events in the history of Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The conflict lasted from 1979 to 1992, left approximately 75,000 people dead, and a country in ashes. The conflict started after the fraudulent elections of the Coronel Arturo Armando Molina (1972), who focused his term on repressing the communist political parties that wanted to work for a social reform. This aroused the anger of the popular sectors, which started to organize groups and demonstrations demanding fair election and improvement of social conditions. The government responded to their demands with savage violence, focusing primarily on the oppression of campesinos because they were the ones who supported the revolutionary leftist forces. These actions alienated the Salvadoran population even more and caused many people in the Catholic Church to start denouncing the government’s actions. Thus, as the Civil War started to rise, the church started to radicalize and to and spoke up against the government’s actions. One of its most fervent advocates was Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who during his short time as the Archbishop of San Salvador manifested hi...
Gleijeses Piero. Shattered Hope The Guatemalan Revolution and The United States, 1944-1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Immerman, R. H. Guatemala as Cold War History. Political Science Quarterly, 629. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from https://learn.uconn.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-762624-dt-content-rid-2584240_1/courses/1143-UCONN-LAMS-1190W-SECZ81-24116/guatemala%20cold%20war%281%29.pdf
David Painter’s, The Cold War: An International History and Greg Grandin’s, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War exemplify the differences that authors have on the conversation regarding the Cold War. Both authors approach the retelling of the conflict differently. Painter provides readers with a broad overview of the war, narrating it’s early beginnings to its end. Grendin approaches the conflict through a much narrow focus on Latin America, particularly Guatemala. They are interested in arguing two drastically different perspectives. Painter argues that the ever-evolving world at large affected the actions of the United States and the Soviet Union and Grendin argues that the actions of the United States lead to deadly
Barret, Alice. "Garífuna Voices of Guatemala: Central America’s Overlooked Segment of the African Diaspora."Council on Hemispheric Affairs. N.p., 14 July 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
This was the US verse the USSR, with the idea of democracy against communism. Because of the mutual assurance of destruction, there was no direct fighting between Soviet Union and America, but instead other tactics were used to prevent the spreading of communism (The Cold War). In effort to prevent this, America went to extreme measures, becoming secretive in the way in which they handled situations. In the Red Scare, a time in which American’s feared communists in the country, citizens were analyzed to determine if they were spies for Soviet, or against America’s government values. Innocent Americans were accused of these assumptions, sent to jail, shunned from society, creating a large amount of mistrust with the citizens and government. Other events during the Cold War included Coup d’états led by the American government. These consisted of actions intended to change another country’s government, in a forceful way. In 1954, the Guatemalan coup d’état was carried out by the United States CIA to change Guatemala’s government, as they feared they were taking communist actions. This took place during the Guatemalan revolution, where the reforms happening included minimum wage laws, and increase in education funding. This affected the United Fruit Company; an American company ran in Guatemala. The United Fruit Company owned 47% of Guatemalan land, most of which was unused. During the reform, Guatemala’s government redistributed that unused land to citizens, causing America to become upset (1954 Guatemalan Coup D’état). With the minimum wage laws, the UFC would also have to pay their workers more in order to stay, and they were against that. The hope was to end foreign companies leading Guatemala, but because of events around the world, the US took this as a communist threat. America teamed up with dictator Carlos Castillo Armas, to scare Guatemala into thinking he had a huge army of men coming to potentially
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “…After…” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans faced.
In recent history before the war, the United States followed a non-interventionist policy called the Good Neighbor policy and although they had tried to gain market controls in Latin America, it was more through economic means than military. During the war, there was less focus on Latin America because it was not involved in either the European or Pacific Theatre. After the war, they became heavily active involved in Latin America affairs and decided that force was more effective for establishing economic monopolies. They attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro in fear of him setting precedent for naturalization which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis and deep seeded resentment in Latin America against the United States. They also overthrew the elected head of government in Guatemala in order to protect the financial interests of the United Fruit Company although the official claim was for “containment”. As such, World War II marked the turning point for the American foreign policy towards Latin America with unprecedented belligerent behavior now dedicated to its longstanding, pre war goal of economic
The Guatemalan Civil War was a 20th century civil war that raged from 1954 until 1996. It's profoundly affected geopolitical relationships in Central America, as well as and US policy toward hostile governments. The war shaped geopolitics in that region and impacted not just Guatemala but the countries vested in the so-called Cold War. There's disagreement among historians, however, concerning how much US influence guided the outcome of the conflict
Latin America cannot be categorized as one homogenous block. In spite of sharing multiple aspects—culture, language, and history—there is not a single standard culture that distinguishes the region. One aspect of Latin American culture, regarding foreign policy, is a prevalent respect for the norm of sovereignty and non-intervention. There exists a strong disposition to follow international law as a means to prevent war or at the very least ward-off potential intervention by extraregional powers. Accordingly, the factor of self-interests and self-preservation creates a divergent spectrum of foreign policies within these countries. Thus, there is a unique propensity of domestic politics—primarily from those leaders in power—playing a major role in the development of foreign policy. These polices vary from balancing, bandwagoning, to omnibalancing be careful introducing terms without defining.
Due to the powers looming over the Third World countries, they had to make a choice to choose the government the country desired the most or become a non-aligned country.The two powers influencing these third world countries were America and Russia.Both nations had superior military power over any third-world countries at the time, along with ways of using espionage and other tactics to destroy the nation.America wanted countries to become capital, while Russia wanted neighboring countries to become communist.The two countries would sabotage the other’s progress as shown in an event in Guatemala, where the official of the country was accused of considering communism as a possible outcome.America reacted to Guatemala negatively by funding the
Cocaine is an issue in Guatemala because the drug trafficking problems of the United States were pushed into Mexico, which were then pushed into Guatemala, causing fear, intimidation, torture, and murder.
Unlike other Latin American nations that have gained scholar’s attention due to their complicated histories during the pre-Colombian era throughout the Cold War era to present day, many scholars have only recognized Costa Rica as an exception to the sea of dictatorships that began from the end of World War II and continued throughout the Cold War. However, many of the scholars have yet to explore the reasons Costa Rica was able to maintain a democratic nation during the Cold War. This research will explore the following question: Why is the importance of the Costa Rican Civil War and its role in forming the democracy that withstood later pressures that other nations would succumb to?