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Does the US have a long history of military interventions in Latin America?

Wednesday, March 17, 2021
By Gus Fisher
YES

The U.S. has provided military and/or economic support to more than 40 military coups in Latin America, by the count of one historian. These interventions include:

  • The 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico.
  • The 1916-24 U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic.
  • The 1954 CIA-backed coup against Guatemala’s Jacobo Árbenz, after he attempted to redistribute lands owned by the U.S.-based United Fruit Company.
  • The 1964 U.S.-backed coup against João Goulart of Brazil, after he proposed agrarian reform and oil nationalization.
  • The 1973 CIA-backed coup against democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile.
  • The 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, which backed a coup that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.
  • The 1989 ouster of Panama’s Manuel Noriega, supported by 27,000 U.S. troops.
  • The 2004 coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, backed by U.S. Marines.
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