Topic > Relations between the United States and Latin America

The beginning of US involvement with Latin America began with John Adams' seemingly heroic creation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which stated that no non-American country could interfere with Latin America politics, but in reality this act was greeted with skepticism by many locals and was seen as a tool of imperialism that the United States could use against Latin America. US policies implemented throughout the 20th century in Latin America, although under the guise of being beneficial to all parties involved, revealed that the failure of democracy and economic development in Latin American countries was imperative for l US agenda of preserving their country. energy. National sovereignty, on behalf of Latin America, was not a public goal of the US government and was actively fought to establish political supremacy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay By looking at US-LA relations during and after the Cold War, we can begin to understand why the US government so often failed to achieve its goals. proclaimed objectives for Latin America. As communist ideologies branched out from Russia and the Russian Revolution of 1917, they began to influence great leaders around the world and move towards implementing political control. The Latin American governments of Honduras, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, and many other countries began to adopt similar political views. Tensions between the United States and Latin America increased during the Cold War (1947-199) when achieving the abolition of communism – by any means necessary – became a priority for US policies. When democratic governments in Latin America strayed too far from U.S. norms of how an anti-communist country should behave, the U.S. military stepped in to undermine and attempt to overthrow these opposing governments (Gilbert 1). An example of the lengths the US government will go to to further its political agenda was the human rights abuses by US-backed and sponsored militant death squads during El Salvador's civil war, which led to the deaths of 80,000 citizens and who knows how many others are unclassified. torture, rape, and other acts of brutalization did indeed occur. Under the reign of US President Nixon, Latin American leaders began seeking control of large-scale industries and natural resources in order to eliminate the pandemic of poverty and dependence on other nations. In 1973, Nixon pledged to overthrow the regime of Salvador Allende, the then president of Chile who had many communist and socialist ties and planned to expropriate American-owned copper industries without compensation to alleviate Chile's economic crisis. Nixon began by authorizing $10 million to the CIA to stop the Allende regime, denying Chile multilateral loans through international financial institutions, which weakened the Chilean economy; then encouraged right-wing conspirators to overthrow Allende (Legler, Lean, and Boniface 75). The definition of successful economic growth and the strategies to achieve it were completely different between Latin America and the United States. The most beneficial policy, from the US perspective, has been the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). They were trying to promote it as the next world economic system because it helped ensure the continued existence of US democracy and foreign control. So, when countries and leaders,.