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The United States Relations In Latin America, 1900–1999

 

The US overthrow of Guatemala in 1954 happened squarely in the middle of a century of American imperialism in Latin America. For context, here’s a brief history of the U.S. relations with its neighbors in the 20th century.

 
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20th century US/LatAm Timeline

This timeline comes directly from NC State University

  • 1901 Platt Amendment to Cuba's new constitution gives the U.S. the unilateral right to intervene in the island's political affairs.

  • 1901-11, 1903: Repeated interventions in Colombia's Panama provice, capped by Theodore Roosevelt intervenes to assist Panamanian independence from Colombia. The resulting Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty makes the US sovereign "in perpetuity" in the ten-mile wide Panama Canal Zone.

  • 1903, November 3: U.S. staged revolution of Separatist groups against Colombia begins 

  • 1903, November 13: the US formally recognized the country of Panama.

  • 1903, November 18: the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed. The treaty allowed for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land 10 miles (16 km) wide and 50 miles (80 km) long, (16 kilometers by 80 kilometers) on either side of the Panama Canal Zone. In that zone, the US would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity".

  • 1903, March 21: United States deploys several naval ships near Puerto Cortez, Honduras along with 45 US peacekeeping troops were deployed to “maintain order,” although many believe it was to protect U.S. companies, like UFCo

  • 1903, November: United States navy is deployed to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic after rebel troops fire on two American merchant ships.

  • 1904, 1912: (Theodore) Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine declares the U.S. to be the policeman of the Caribbean. US forces place the Dominican Republic under a customs receivership.

  • 1905: US Marines land in Honduras.

  • 1906-09: Under the Platt Amendment, US forces occupy Cuba and direct its political and economic development.

  • 1909-12: William Howard Taft promotes "Dollar Diplomacy," based on the erroneous belief that increased US investment will bring stability and economic prosperity to Latin America.

  • 1912: United Fruit Company begins operations in Honduras and later becomes a major force throughout Central America.

  • 1912-25: US Marines intervene in Nicaragua.

  • 1914: Panama Canal opens.

  • 1914: US forces shell and then occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico.

  • 1915-34: US Marines stationed in Haiti.

  • 1916: Pancho Villa raids Columbus, New Mexico.

  • 1916-17: US Expeditionary Force under Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing unsuccessfully pursues Pancho Villa in northern Mexico.

  • 1916-24: US Marines occupy the Dominican Republic.

  • 1917: Zimmermann Telegram revealed in which Germany offers to help Mexico recover territory lost to the US in exchange for support in the First World War.

  • 1917-22: US troops in Cuba

  • 1918: US army lands in Panama to protect United Fruit plantations.

  • 1920-21: US troops support a coup in Guatemala.

  • 1923: Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes renounces the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. US begins moving away from interventionism.

  • 1926-33: US Marines occupy Nicaragua and fight against the nationalistic forces led by Augusto Cesar Sandino.

  • 1933: FDR announces "Good Neighbor Policy".

  • 1933: US offers to intervene in El Salvador to put down a peasant rebellion. The Salvadoran military dictator refuses, then murders thousands of peasants.

  • 1934: US abrogates the Platt Amendment of 1901.

  • 1936-79: US supports three different Somozas as dictators of Nicaragua.

  • 1938: Lazaro Cardenas nationalizes Mexican oil industry, including many US holdings.

  • 1945-89: Cold War ideology drives US Latin American policy.

  • 1947: Rio Pact signed, providing for mutual defense against Communism.

  • 1948: Organization of American States formed

  • 1954: CIA overthrows constitutional government of Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala.

  • 1956: US-supported dictator Anastasio Somoza assassinated in Nicaragua.

  • 1957-86: Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier rule Haiti as dictators, with US support.

  • 1955, 1958: Vice President Richard Nixon meets strong anti-American sentiment on his "good will" tour of Latin America.

  • 1959: Dictator Fulgencio Batista, supported by the US until 1958, flees Castro's revolution in Cuba.

  • 1957: US high school students in the Panama Canal Zone burn a Panamanian flag, sparking riots that kill and injure more than 100 people.

  • 1960: CIA plots to depose or assassinate Fidel Castro in what is eventually named "Operation Mongoose."

  • 1961: Eisenhower administration breaks diplomatic relations with Castro in Cuba.

  • 1961: Failed Bag of Pigs invasion of Cuba

  • 1961: US-supported dictator Rafael Trujillo assassinated in the Dominican Republic.

  • 1961-69: Kennedy's Alliance for Progress tries to bring reform and development to Latin America.

  • 1962: Missile Crisis with Cuba and USSR

  • 1964: Brazilian President Joao Goulart overthrown by the military, with covert US support.

  • 1965: US forces, fearing a Communist takeover, occupy Dominican Republic.

  • 1969: Rich Slatta makes his first trip to Latin America, to Peace Corps training in Puerto Rico and service outside Panama City, Panama.

  • 1970-73: US and multinational corporations work covertly to overthrew socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile. He dies in the September 1973 military coup.

  • 1977: US and Panama sign a new treaty providing for Panamanian control of the canal in 1999.

  • 1977-80: President Jimmy Carter makes human rights a major goal in his Latin American policy.

  • 1980: Mariel boatlift brings 125,000 Cubans to the US.

  • 1981-86: Reagan administration officials secretly direct counter-revolutionary (contra) forces against the Nicaraguan Sandinista government. More than a dozen Reagan administrator officials are convicted of a variety of crimes in the "Iran-Contra Scandal."

  • 1981-88: Reagan administration strongly supports the Salvadoran military in their fight against the FMLN guerrillas.

  • 1982: Argentina invades the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, held since 1833 by Great Britain. Reagan administration officials debate for two weeks before siding with Great Britain.

  • 1983: Reagan orders US forces to invade the island of Grenada to halt Cuban work on an airstrip.

  • 1986: Congress begins investigations of the Iran-Contra scandal

  • 1989: End of the Cold War diminishes Latin America's significance in US foreign policy.

  • 1989: George Bush orders "Operation Just Cause," the invasion of Panama to capture CIA collaborator and dictator Manuel Noriega.

  • 1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union creates problems in Cuba and introduces a "Special Period."

  • 1992: NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement : 500th anniversary of Columbus's Caribbean landing gives rise to widespread meetings and protests against imperialism, rejuvenation of indigenous rights movements. Guatemalan Rigoberto Menchu Tum wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

  • 1993: US, Mexico, and Canada form NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

  • 1994: Threatened invasion of Haiti by US troops

  • 1994: Summit of the Americas meeting in Miami

  • 1996: Helms-Burton Law increases economic boycott of Castro's Cuba.

  • 1997: Bill Clinton visits several South American countries and speaks of extending free trade to more of the region.

  • 1997: Clinton seeks "fast track" authority in negotiating foreign trade. Congressional Democrats resist; Republicans generally support.

  • 1990s: High levels of drug trafficking, massive foreign debt, economic dependency, rain forest and coral reef destruction, illegal immigration to the US, and other problems continue to face the US and Latin America.

  • 1999: Five Cuban spies arrested and jailed in the US. Cuba insists they were fighting US-condoned terrorist attacks by Cuban exiles.

  • 1999: Venezuela elects a constitutional assembly that challenges the power of the legislature and creates a political crisis.

  • 1999: Panama begins sole operation of the Panama Canal.

 
 
 

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