America for the Americans: A History on CIA Intervention in Latin America
- ayouthviewpoint
- Mar 13
- 14 min read
By Javier Rovira
Section I: "YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE."
On July 26, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act mandating the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the CIA. The wars of the early 20th century proved the importance of espionage in warfare through the practical efforts of the British MI6 and the Organization of Strategic Services, the American precursor to the CIA, in the war effort during World War II. The world would now enter the golden age of espionage, and through the efforts of the CIA, the age of American interventionism. The postwar world order was divided between two great powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, between capitalism and communism. The Americans now had to compete to maintain their place as the leader of world politics, and now, due to the Cuban Revolution, they had to protect their interests in their hemisphere.
Since the 1820s, the Americans have shown their domineering attitude over the Western Hemisphere. Through their proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine, they placed themselves as the head of the free world and the moral protector of the Americas against European colonial powers. In the following century, they presented themselves as just that, interfering in Latin American affairs as they pleased in hopes of fomenting American interests in the region through staging, seeding instability, and revolutions in Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. This web of influence, which the Americans wove, extended to all aspects of the Latin American republics, dominating the political and economic states of the nations. Primarily, this took place through the rise of the "banana republic," a term coined by the American author O. Henry to describe the politically unstable Latin American nations, originally Guatemala and Honduras, where American corporations, like the United Fruit Company, controlled the goings-on of the nation. The United States government backed these "banana republics" through military interventions, the designing of covert operations, and the establishment of puppet regimes to maintain control and suppress any movements that threatened American economic dominance. The control of the American master over the slave republic was vast, and by the 1940s, the hemisphere would turn around the rule of American interest, but that would not last forever as, just ten years later, communism would fester in the Western Hemisphere.
During the years 1952 to 1954, the CIA launched Operation PBFortune, the aptly named Operation PBSuccess, to overthrow the Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz. To the dismay of American interests, Árbenz had enacted land reforms that redistributed property from large landowners. The reform would also include the property of the United Fruit Company, alarming American President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had close connections with the company and feared Guatemala was drifting toward communism, which would act as a domino toward the fall of American control in the continent. In response, the CIA launched a covert PsyOP operation that included the creation of propaganda campaigns through the making of fake revolutionary newspapers and radio shows, the placing of economic pressure through naval blockades, and the funding of a small paramilitary invasion led by Carlos Castillo Armas. Through the tactical use of radio broadcasts, leaflet drops, the bribery of military officers, and air raids, the operation created the illusion of a much larger uprising than there was, leading to Árbenz's resignation on June 27, 1954. As a result, Castillo Armas took power, reversing Árbenz's reforms and establishing a military dictatorship, plunging Guatemala into decades of political instability and civil war. The coup became a blueprint for future U.S. interventions in Latin America, reinforcing Eisenhower's policy of containment, but this policy would not always work, and a revolution was brewing only 90 miles from the American coast.
SECTION II: HANNIBAL AT THE GATES
By the time of the Cuban revolution, the CIA had already established itself on the world stage, ensuring the security of American interests with political leaders, evidenced by their correspondence with the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and the outward American support of him through the revolution. However, the CIA's involvement in the Cuban revolution was not as clear-cut as it may appear. As stated by Tad Szulc in his book Fidel, A Critical Portrait, "It is a safe assumption that the CIA wished to hedge its bets on Cuba and purchase goodwill among some members of the Movement, if not Castro's goodwill, for future contingencies." The book claims that the CIA offered no less than $50,000 to the members of the July Movement in Santiago, showing how the CIA was willing to support whoever would protect American interests in the region. While the revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, was largely outspoken about his socialist policies and ideals, the Americans, especially the CIA, still believed that with enough pressure, he would also bend the knee to American demands as many Latin American revolutionaries had before; little did they know how wrong they would be. As the Cuban revolution came to an end and Castro's rule was beginning, the Americans could see the writing on the wall, and they knew that communism had entered their hemisphere. The federal government tried to push its military might upon Cuba in the Bay of Pigs invasion to stifle the growing communist threat to disastrous results, leaving the CIA as the last organization that could solve the Castro problem.
In 1961, the CIA launched Operation Mongoose, a targeted attack on the stability of Castro's regime. If the CIA could destabilize Cuba and forcefully start another Cuban revolution, they could accomplish two things: firstly, they would regain control of the hemisphere and push out Soviet influence in the Caribbean, and secondly, they would prove that communism cannot work in the Americas and stop the rise of revolutionaries in the rest of Latin America. Under the leadership of General Edward Lansdale, the operation saw CIA operatives infiltrate Cuba to carry out bombings of industrial sites, contaminate sugar exports, and disrupt trade routes, looking to isolate the nation and force it to return to the American market. The CIA staged overt radio broadcasts to spread anti-Castro propaganda, and they introduced forged documents and counterfeit currency to destabilize the Cuban economy. In a desperate bid to eliminate Castro, the CIA devised a series of outlandish and often Looney Tunes-esque assassination attempts, including poisoning his cigars, infecting his wetsuit with deadly bacteria, poisoning the cow that made the milk for his ice cream, and rigging an exploding seashell in his favorite diving spot. Meanwhile, the CIA trained and armed Cuban exile groups in an attempt to incite rebellion, though Castro's security forces consistently thwarted their efforts, and they rallied very little popular support. Despite the CIA's efforts, Cuba would remain under Castro, grow a closer relationship with the Soviets, and prove that communism could take root in America.
SECTION III: “INIMICUS INIMICI MEI”
The success of the Cuban revolution materialized all the fears that the CIA had possessed about communism spreading in the Hemisphere. Eisenhower's containment policy had officially and decisively breached. The communist weeds had finally reached America's backyard, and the CIA was going to yank them out. In the coming decades, the American government would take it upon itself to demonstrate aggressive interventionism in South America through the practice of coup-ing any leader who might have shown any leftist tendencies. In 1964, the Americans launched Operation Brother Sam, which sent the Navy and Air Force into Brazil to help the military overthrow Brazilian President João Goulart after he showed leftist tendencies and proposed agrarian reforms in Brazil. The coup's success led Americans to develop their next strategy for Latin America: the proliferation of South American Dictatorships through Operation Condor.
Operation Condor was a system of cooperation between American-backed dictatorships in South America to ensure the repression of socialist ideas. The leftist ideals, governments, and movements that had begun to rise in the region were seen as direct threats to the stability of American political and economic dominance, and through Condor, the CIA helped establish a transnational network of surveillance, abduction, torture, and assassination. With economic backing from the United States, military regimes in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia coordinated efforts to eliminate political dissidents, trade unionists, and intellectuals suspected of leftist sympathies. One of the most prominent examples of Condor and its devastating effects on their populations was the 1973 coup against the democratically elected socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende. The election of Salvador Allende meant a silent revolution to many Chileans, a way in which Chile could prove to the rest of the world that it was more civilized than its neighbors, most of whom had fallen under military dictatorships. To others, the election of Allende was to be the death of the nation, the final nail in the coffin that progressive governments had been building in the nation. Allende was a threat to the CIA, and he needed to be disposed of immediately and aggressively. The CIA would initiate what they would call their Track I initiative to get rid of Allende through the constitutional overthrowing of Allende by allegedly bribing members of the Chilean Legislature to try and impeach Allende. After the failure of this track, they moved on to track II, where they financed anti-Allende propaganda in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, which was owned 70% by an American telecommunications company. Nevertheless, Allende's government took root; it tried to pass various reforms to liberalize the nation. With the help of foreign interference from members of Operation Condor, the results of these reforms would cause an immense social and economic crisis in the nation. In response, on September 11, 1973, the Chilean military, who had trained under the U.S. Army School of the Americas and led by Augusto Pinochet, would bomb the Presidential Palace, resulting in the death of Allende. The coup would then put in power a military junta that rounded up any members of the socialist party, any person who had associated themselves with leftist groups, or anyone who had been close to people associated with these ideas. The American government wholly supported the regime despite the murdering and silencing of its population.
The success of the Chilean coup and its later repression of the leftist tendencies within the government demonstrated an evident precedent that Operation Condor was the best way to destroy leftist thought within South America. The CIA had tried to do things covertly before and deal with threats in the region as they arose; now, it was different. The Americans would no longer play by the rules of engagement. The war against communism was the war against vermin, and when you deal with vermin, it does not end when you get rid of one or two pests: you must get rid of the hive. That is precisely what the Americans would do for the coming century. Under Condor, the right-wing military regimes that the Americans installed in South America would share intelligence and coordinate cross-border assassinations of political dissidents. Argentine and Chilean secret police, in collaboration with the CIA, kidnapped and executed activists, journalists, and leftist leaders who had run to Europe and the United States. The Argentine "Dirty War" saw the "disappearance" of 30,000 people. One of the most common strategies used by the secret forces was to detain or drug the opposition, placing them in planes that would then drop them off into the Atlantic. In Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, faces of the opposition were also kidnapped, tortured, and executed under the supervision of the same clandestine systems as in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The CIA provided training, funding, and intelligence-gathering technology to facilitate this terrorist organization, ensuring that anyone who did not follow the rules of the American-backed dictators would never be heard from again.
More than just financially supporting the actions of the governments, the CIA would also work to arm, train, and fund the creation of paramilitary death squads in these countries. Through direct American intervention came the founding of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, Bolivia's Operation Banzar, and Chile's DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional), which would carry out the government's dirty work abroad. One of the most infamous events regarding these groups and Operation Condor would be the 1976 car bombing in Washington, D.C., of Orlando Letelier. During the time of Salvador Allende's presidency, Letelier had worked many jobs within his cabinet, working first as the ambassador to the United States, and by the time of Pinochet's coup, he had been working as the Minister of Defense. Naturally, after the bombing of the presidential palace and the death of Allende, Letelier became a clear target for Operation Condor and the Chilean repression campaign, leading to his arrest. After years of torture and detainment in Tierra del Fuego, Letelier would be released, and he would then move to Washington, D.C., where he would speak out against the injustices occurring under Pinochet's dictatorship and lobby for United States intervention in the region, little did he know that the Americans had a prominent role to play in the Pinochet regime. The CIA saw his lobbying threatening their continued intervention in the region and called in the DINA, authorizing them to eliminate the problem. On September 21, 1976, while driving through Embassy Avenue, Letelier's car exploded beneath him, and now there was no longer a threat against American interests. For the following years, the CIA would cover up the event and Chilean involvement in the attack.
SECTION IV: A NEW WORLD ORDER
While the CIA continued its involvement throughout the world and its seemingly eternal fight against the KGB and communism, the most curious thing occurred: the Soviet Union collapsed. The world order that had ruled the world since 1945 had finally come to a decisive end, and the Americans remained the victors. Now that the Americans were left without a clear superpower to oppose them over their dominance over South America, and Operation Condor began to fall under external criticism, it was time for the Americans to switch gears. The intervention in South America could no longer be played as the noble cause of protecting them from the communist threat. Whatever intervention that would take place would now expose itself for what it was: Americans looking out for American interests. The new century was fast approaching, and the role of Americans within the regime shifts in Latin America came under more and more criticism, leading to a gradual decrease in the known cases of the era. Nevertheless, there still exist examples of possible CIA intervention within the continent, the most prominent of these being within Venezuela. Since the election of Hugo Chavez to the presidency of Venezuela in 1998 and the success of his "Revolución Bolivariana," the country has been running away from American control. Under his command, it transformed itself into a populist and socialist state. This led to a rise in opposition within the country and, in true Latin American fashion, a coup. In 2002, Pedro Carmona led a revolutionary militia to capture Hugo Chavez and proclaimed himself president.
Although the coup only lasted 49 days until Carmona resigned and returned power to Chavez, the Bush administration quickly recognized Carmona as the legitimate president of Venezuela. With the return of Chavez to power, the American enthusiasm in supporting Carmona gave way to allegations regarding U.S. involvement in the coup. Chavez stated that two American military officers were present at the headquarters of the coup. Additionally, a high-ranking plot member, Rear Admiral Carlos Molina, said, "We felt we were acting with U.S. support... we agree that we can't permit a communist government here. The U.S. has not let us down yet." Despite this evidence, the Bush Administration continued to deny any involvement in the plot or hold any prejudice against the Chavez government. After the coup, Venezuelan and American relations continued to strain, especially following the beginning of the Maduro administration and following coup attempts within the nation.
SECTION V: E PLURIBUS UNUM
The legacy left behind by nearly a century of American intervention within Latin America is marked by political instability and strife. In less than a hundred years, there have been around 41 regime changes in Latin America that the U.S. had known involvement in; in 19 of these, there were direct military actions from the American government. Every time the CIA got involved in the affairs of another nation, they left destruction in their wake. An investigation from the European Journal of Political Economy titled "The consequences of CIA-sponsored regime change in Latin America" stated that the countries in which the CIA intervened saw a strict decline in life quality afterward. The average income per capita would decrease by 10%, the democracy score would decrease by around 200%, and the quality of life would decrease by 25% to 35%. The American government ensured investors' safety within the countries they helped overthrow, whether it directly helps the protection of the United Fruit Company, like in Central America, or through the reprivatization of social welfare within the members of Operation Condor, opening more doors for American domination. These coups would destroy the lives of the actual Latin Americans who lived in these nations, throwing them into poverty while Americans thrived in their markets.
The social impact of the CIA's actions cannot be undermined. The campaigns of oppression and persecution perpetrated by the Agency led to the deaths and displacement of millions. The consequences of this are felt most prominently today; as Americans combat the wave of immigration and the drug epidemic, they must recognize that it is their doing. With the support of constant coups and civil wars, the region of Latin America would see an exodus of civilians who wish to put an end to the violence and the growing gang/cartel control within these nations. As a result, entire generations have been forced to flee their homelands, seeking refuge in the United States, the orchestrators of their situation. The collapse of civil society in these nations allowed for the emergence of powerful criminal organizations, such as MS-13 and the Sinaloa Cartel, which filled the power vacuum left by weakened state institutions. These groups now fuel the drug trade, funneling narcotics into the United States, contributing to the very epidemic that American policymakers claim to fight and the deaths of 110,000 Americans in just 2023.
The CIA was the ruler of the world, especially Latin America, for nearly seventy years. They controlled policy and ensured their interests would spread throughout the world, usually to the dismay of the native populations. The immense power of the Agency would be criticized within the very governments that first truly attempted to utilize their powers abroad, the Kennedy Administration. President Kennedy would famously say, "I will splinter the C.I.A. into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds." The threat this Agency has posed to world stability has been incredible; they have incited coups within friendly nations, murdered political dissidents, and have been involved in the silencing and targeting of their fellow citizens. The Central Intelligence Agency and its connection with Latin American instability is the most tried and true tale of recklessness. In their single-minded attempt to fight their opponents in the Soviet Union and stop the spread of communism, they unleashed a threat to their nation, which caused their internal division. The American Eagle built a nest for itself on the American continent, the CIA plucked at it and left it bare and fragile. Now, time will tell whether the sins of the father shall fall upon the son.
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i blame you for mater making another cuban missile crisis committee, THANKS ROVIRA