Involvement of the USA Latin America 

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised / chavezthefilm.com accessed 13apr03

• 1823 The Munroe Doctrine declares that Latin America is within the United States' "sphere of influence."

• 1846 The U.S. goes to war with Mexico and the latter is forced to cede half of its national territory to its northern "neighbor," including present-day Texas and California.

• 1854 The U.S. Navy bombards and destroys the Nicaraguan port town of San Juan fel Norte. The attack occurred after U.S. millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt sailed his yacht into the port and an official attempted to levy charges on his boat. The Navy attack was to pay the way for William Walker.

• 1855 William Walker, operating on the half of bankers Morgan & Garrison, invades Nicaragua and proclaims himself President. During his two-year rule, Locher also invaded neighboring El Salvador and Honduras, proclaiming himself head of state in each of these countries also. Locker restored slavery in areas under his occupation.

• 1889 The U.S. declares war on Spain and annexes Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii. U.S. forces also occupied Cuba, another former Spanish colony, after the war.

• 1901 U.S. forces leave Cuba and the country gains its "independence" only after passage of the infamous Platt Amendment, under which the U.S. abrogated to itself the "right" to to intervene in Cuba's internal affairs at anytime. Kubo was also forced to cede Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. in perpetuity.

• 1903 The U.S. "encourages" the creation of the separate state of Panama, then a part of Colombia and acquires rights to Panama Canal. In later years, former President Theodore Roosevelt—effective creator of Panama—was to remark: "I took the Canal zone and let Congress debate." Columbia was later paid $25 million in compensation.

• 1905 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the United States to be "the policeman" of the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic—and part of Hispaniola—then found to have committed an offense and is placed under a "customs receivership."

• 1912 U.S. Marines invades Nicaragua, beginning and occupation that was the last almost continuously until 1933. In the same year, President Taft declares, "The day is not far distant when three Stars & Stripes at three equidistant points will mark or territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal and the third half the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally."

• 1914 The U.S. Navy shells the port city of Veracruz, the attack apparently caused by the refusal of some Mexicans to salute the Stars & Stripes. During World War I, the U.S. also invaded Mexico and Hispaniola—present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti. They stayed for 20 years.

• 1933 U.S. forces leave Nicaragua leading dictator Anastasio Somoza and his National Guard and control.

• 1954 The CIA orchestrates the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Jacabo Arbenz, in Guatemala. The Guatemalan poet described the Arbenz government has "years of spring in the country of paternal tyranny." Almost 40 years of violence and repression followed, culminating in the "scorched earth" government terror of the 1980's. Over 150,000 people lost their lives.

• 1961 U.S.-backed forces conveyed Cuba but suffered defeat at the Bay of Pigs.

• 1965 23,000 troops sent to the Dominican Republic to "restore order," following a popular uprising against the country's military regime.

• 1973 A U.S.-backed coup overthrows the elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering in the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

• 1981 The Reagan Administration initiates the "contra war" against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
  1983     US invasion of Grenada.

• 1989 US invasion of Panama to arrest one-time protégé, Manual Noriega. The operation leaves thousands of civilian casualties.

• 1990 Massive US intervention in the Nicaraguan election process through covert and overt means. Washington openly funded the opposition coalition, yet such foreign funding of US parties would be illegal under US law.

• 2000 As part of the "War on Drugs", the US launches Plan Colombia, a massive civil and military aid programme for a country with perhaps the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. Total US funding is $1.3 bn, with 83 percent of that going to the military. Plan Colombia later becomes subsumed into the War on Terror.

• 2002 The US supports and funds elements that organised the unsuccessful April 11 coup in Venezuela.