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The United States launched a “full-scale strike” in military forces in Venezuela Saturday, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The United States, which has said Maduro will face criminal charges in the United States, where he was indicted years ago, has a long history of military interventions in Latin America.
Here are the main American interventions in Latin America since the Cold War.
1954: Guatemala
On June 27, 1954, Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, then president of Guatemala, was ousted from power by mercenaries trained and financed by Washington, after an agrarian reform that threatened the interests of the powerful American company United Fruit Corporation (later Chiquita Brands).
In 2003, the United States officially recognized the role of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in this coup, in the name of fighting communism.
1961: Cuba
From April 15 to 19, 1961, approximately 1,400 Cuban exiles were trained by the CIA and launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion to liberate Cuba. The plan was to use the exiles to overthrow the communist government of Fidel Castro.
At the time, fear of the Soviet Union was strong. But the mission went horribly wrong and became a problem for the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
The fighting left more than 100 people on each side.
After the Bay of Pigs, the CIA attempted to hatch other plots to overthrow Castro, including poisoning his cigar, among other implausible ideas. Other plans were in place under a Kennedy administration plan called “Operation Mongoose.”
No other attack of this magnitude was ever launched against Castro after the Bay of Pigs fiasco of April 1961.
1965: Dominican Republic
In 1965, citing a “communist threat” in the Dominican Republic, the United States sent Marines and paratroopers to Santo Domingo to crush an uprising in support of Juan Bosch, a left-wing president ousted by generals in 1963.
1970s: support for dictatorships
Washington supported several military dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s, viewing them as a bulwark against left-wing armed movements in a world divided by Cold War rivalries.
He actively aided Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during the September 11, 1973 coup against left-wing President Salvador Allende.
U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger supported the Argentine junta in 1976, encouraging it to quickly end its “dirty war,” according to U.S. documents declassified in 2003. At least 10,000 Argentine dissidents disappeared during this period.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil joined forces to eliminate left-wing opponents in “Operation Condor”, with the tacit support of the United States.
1979: Nicaragua
In 1979, the Sandinista rebellion overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. U.S. President Ronald Reagan, concerned about Managua’s alignment with Cuba and the Soviet Union, secretly authorized the CIA to provide $20 million in aid to the counter-revolutionaries, the Contras, partly financed by illegal arms sales to Iran.
The civil war in Nicaragua lasted until April 1990 and cost 50,000 lives.
1980: Salvador
President Reagan also sent military advisers to El Salvador to crush the rebellion of the Farabundo Marta National Liberation Front, or FMLN, in a civil war that lasted 12 years and left 72,000 dead.
1983: Granada
On October 25, 1983, U.S. Marines and Rangers intervened on the island of Grenada after the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by a far-left junta and as the Cubans were expanding the airport, presumably to accommodate military planes.
At the request of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, Reagan launched Operation Urgent Fury with the stated goal of protecting a thousand American citizens.
The operation, widely deplored by the United Nations General Assembly, ended on November 3, with more than 100 dead.
1989: Panama
Maduro’s capture took place 36 years to the day after US forces. arrested former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Noriega rose to prominence in Panama’s military government before taking control in 1985. He spent years in the CIA’s pay, aiding U.S. interests in Latin America, before falling out of favor with Washington in the late 1980s.
Former President George HW Bush ordered the US military to invade Panama in late 1989, sending 24,000 troops to overthrow Noriega’s government. The operation left 23 American soldiers dead and hundreds more injured. “Operation Just Cause” officially killed 500 people in total. NGOs have counted the toll by the thousands.
Noriega hid in the Vatican embassy before surrendering to American authorities on January 3, 1990. He was taken to the United States to face drug trafficking charges. His fall led to the end of Panama’s military dictatorship. He spent more than 20 years in prison in the United States, then extradited to France and Panama. He died in 2017.
