Lecture 5: United States influence in Latin America part II

1
Lecture 5 United States influence in Latin
America (part II)

• Geog 313

2
The Jones Act 1917

• Jones Act (1917)- imposing U.S. citizenship on
  all Puerto Ricans over the unanimous objection of
  their House of Delegates.
  
• For the next thirty years, the island remained a
  direct colony.
  
• Its Anglo governors appointed by the president,
  its population virtually ignored by Congress, and
  U.S. policy toward it controlled by a handful of
  American sugar companies.
• By 1930 and 1940 Puerto Rico became notorious as
  the poorhouse of the Caribbean and the hotbed for
  strikes and anti-American violence.
  
• Not until 1948 did Puerto Rico be allowed to
  elect their own governor.

3
The Jones Act 1917

• The Jones Act in 1917 was another monumental
  event in Puerto Ricos history and gave Puerto
  Rican People a dual citizenship.
  
• Puerto Ricans could enter the United States
  legally and have all the privileges and
  responsibilities of a natural citizen. The
  Jones Act provided the Puerto Ricans with a dual
  culture, language, and identity.

4
Gunboat Diplomacy (1901-1928)

• The United States regularly intervened through
  the Monroe Doctrine in the new fragile
  countries.
  
• Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and
  Haiti were occupied by U.S. military forces for
  extended periods and kept under control by naval
  intimidation.
• Between 1901-1928 the United States intervened
  fifty times in the region.

5
FDRS Good Neighbor Policy

• Why a change of policy?
• -Military intervention was counterproductive.
• -Cost money.
• On March 4, 1933 Good Neighbor Policy became
  official.
  
• I would dedicate this nation to the policy of
  the good neighborthe neighbor who resolutely
  respects himself Respects the right of others
  (FDR at inaugural address).
• In other words, the United States would no longer
  answer calls to support one or another side or
  even to supervise elections in the region.

6
FDRS Good Neighbor Policy

• The U.S. introduced a more active diplomacy,
  spying, a forceful military diplomacy, political
  manipulation, and economic persuasion to further
  its interests.
• FDR introduced an economic aid program. Ex. Cuba
  and other Latin American countries received such
  aid.
  
• Second, U.S. military presence continued from
  several naval bases in the Caribbean and Panama
  Canal Zone.
  
• Third, diplomacy took a more active role by the
  president visiting Latin American countries.
  
• Lastly, political back dealing established
  governments that were willing to work with the
  United States.

7
FDRS Good Neighbor Policy

• What was the legacy?
• Created a legacy of dictatorships during 1930s.
• These dictatorships were chosen by U.S. to
  safeguard U.S. interests.
  
• Received special protection and received special
  treatment.
  
• This authoritarian regimes exercised absolute
  authority as long as it protected U.S. interests.

8
FDRS Good Neighbor Policy

• Who where these dictators?
• -Dominican Republic Rafael Trujillo
• (1931-1961)
• -Nicaragua Anastacio Somoza (1936-1956)
• -Cuba Fulgencio Bautista (1940-1958)
• -Paraguay Alfredo Stroesner (1954-1989)

9
Nicaragua

• U.S. Intervention
• William Walker proclaimed himself president in
  1855.
  
• In 1908, the Marines invaded in an effort to
  control and direct Nicaraguan politics.
  
• Then in the late 1920s and early 1930s United
  States Marines invaded again.
  
• After the last invasion the U.S. established and
  maintained the National Guard.
  
• Somoza was the Director of the National Guard
  whom later became the dictator.
  
• When Franklin D. Roosevelt was asked how he
  could support that son of a Somoza, he is said
  to replied Somoza may be a son of a but hes
  our son of (Winn, p. 257).
• Somoza was educated and trained in the School of
  the Americas.
  
• United States established a embargo against the
  Sandinista government.

10
Cuba

• First U.S. occupation government American
  fortune hunters. Ex. United Fruit Company
  acquired 200,000 acres for peanuts. Tobacco
  Trust in the U.S. controlled 90 of the export
  trade in Havana cigars.
• Second, General Charles E. Magoon, ended up
  looting the country. Ex. When Magoon arrived,
  Cubas national treasury had a 13 million in
  surplus when he left Cuba had 12 million in
  debt.
• Third, in 1912 U.S. soldiers returned to put down
  a radical revolt by black sugar workers.
  
• By then ten thousand Americans were living in the
  Island they controlled the railroads, public
  utilities, mining and manufacturing companies,
  sugar and tobacco plantations, shipping, and
  banking concerns.
• Fourth, President Wilson dispatched troops to put
  down a rebellion after the U.S.-backed candidate
  won.

11
Cuba

• In 1933 President Roosevelt concluded that
  Machado had to go.
  
• By the time that U.S. diplomats arrived, a
  nation-wide strike toppled and both Machado and a
  U.S. backed transitional govt.
  
• The new govt was led by Ramon Grau San Martin,
  embarked in an radical transformation of the
  country by abolishing the Platt Amendment, gave
  women the right to vote, and decreed a minimum
  wage and an eight-hour day.
• He lasted only 100 days!!!!!!!!!!

12
Cuba

• The U.S. insisted to Fulgencio Batista, the new
  commander of Cuban Army to stage a coup.
  
• Batista ruled from 1934-1944 as both army
  strongmen and president.
  
• In 1944, Grau San Martin won the presidency and
  his party stayed in power for the next eight
  years, but his government proved to be the most
  corrupt in Cuban history.
• Batista staged a coup in 1952 and governed until
  1958 when Fidel Castro came to power in January
  1, 1959.
  

13
Cuba

• 1959 Cuban Revolution
• Bay of Pigs (1961)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

14
Dominican Republic

• The U.S. Presence-in the Dominican Republic,
  began with nineteenth century Ulises Heureaux who
  racked up 34 million dollars in debt to foreign
  creditors.
• He hatched a refinancing plan in 1892 to avoid
  bankruptcy. The U.S. firm, the Santo Domingo
  Improvement Company, came to the rescue of
  Heureaux in exchange for control of the national
  bank and one of the two national railroads.
• In 1905 a financial crisis hit the Dominican
  Republic. European powers threatened
  intervention in order to collect their money.
  
• President Roosevelt was worried about sea lanes
  to the unfinished Panama Canal and offered to
  consolidate the debt with a new loan from a New
  York bank.
• In return, the Dominican government would turn
  over all customs revenues to a U.S.-appointed
  agent. No longer would they be able to raise
  government spending or increase taxes without
  U.S. consent.

15
Dominican Republic

• From that point on, United States overseers
  established new legal reforms to benefit foreign
  investors.
  
• In 1906, the Dominican government was persuaded
  to grant tax exceptions to all sugar produced for
  export.
  
• In 1911, it was easier for sugar growers to
  enlarge their holdings.
  
• For example the New York-based Barahona Company,
  which was organized in 1916. By 1925, it had
  amassed 49,400 acres largely from buying,
  communal holdings and became the second largest
  plantation
• The Central Romana mushroomed in size from 3,000
  acres in 1912 to 155,000 acres in 1925.
  
• By 1924, twenty-one sugar companies controlled
  438,000 acresa quarter of the countrys arable
  land. More than 80 percent of it belonged to
  twelve U.S. companies.
• As land subsistence farming diminished, staples
  had to imported from the U.S. and the prices of
  food skyrocheted.
  
• From 1916-1924, U.S. Marines occupied D.R. and
  dissolved the legislature, imposed martial law
  and press censorship, and jailed hundreds of
  opponents.
• In 1919, a custom law opened the country to
  imports by declaring 245 U.S. products duty-free,
  while it sharply lowered tariffs on 700 others.
  
• The surge of imports that ensued drove many local
  Dominican producers out of business.

16
Dominican Republic

• Another impact of the U.S presence was the
  creation of a national police.
  
• The army built a modern force that could control
  the population permanently after they had left.
  
• One of the early recruits was a former security
  guard for one of the sugar companies, Rafael
  Leonidas Trujillo.
  
• In 1920, President Warrren Harding won and
  dispatched diplomat Summer Welles (the same that
  help Batista coup) to organize the retreat of
  American troops.
• Rafael Trujillo was elected president after
  waging terror against his opponents.

17
Dominican Republic

• In summary, prior to Trujillo the U.S.
  involvement in D.R. established a political,
  military, and economic dependency. As well as an
  anti-American sentiment in D.R. and political
  division.
• When Dominican officials did not comply with
  Washington demands, Yankee warships appeared
  offshore.
  
• In the first seventy-two years of independence,
  Dominicans experienced twenty-nine coups and
  forty-eight presidents.
  
• During Trujillos reign of terror for more than
  thirty years, he established the most notorious
  dictatorship in the hemisphere until his
  assassination in May 1961 with the help of the
  CIA.
• Books such as Gabriel Garcia Marquezs The Autumn
  of the Patriarch and Mario Vargas Llosas The
  feast of the Goat describe the rule of Trujillo.
  As well as, a movie In the time of the
  Butterfly.

18
Lecture 5 United States influence in Latin
America (part II)

• Geog 313

19
Guatemala1954

• Jacobo Arbenz (professor) was elected president
  of Guatemala.
  
• He was influenced by FDRs forceful intervention
  in the economy to protect common citizens from
  economic harm. Mexican revolution and his exile
  for a decade in Argentina.
• Introduced land reforms and seized some idle
  lands of United Fruit Company.
  
• CIA organized a small force to overthrow him and
  began training in Honduras.
  
• Arbenz sought the United States for military help
  but was denied.
  
• Arbenz bought arms from Czech (proving that he
  was red).

20
Guatemala

• United States Intervention
• The land and labor reform introduced by President
  Jacobo Arbenzs administration was a clear threat
  to the properties owned by the powerful U.S.
  United Fruit Company.
• In 1954, the CIA under the administration of
  President Dwight Eisenhower overthrew the elected
  President Jacobo Arbenz, because of his socialist
  views and reforms (Orr 127).
• The death of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 set the stage
  for a power struggle for the countrys affairs,
  leading to military control of the governments
  over the next decades.
• The intervention by United States was a turning
  point, sending Guatemalan politics into chaos for
  the next thirty years.

21
Alliance for Progress

• What was the Alliance of Progress?
• In the late 1950s, U.S. Vice President Richard
  Nixon visited.
  
• During his visit he was forced out of Lima and
  nearly assaulted in Caracas. The tour
  subsequently was abandoned.
  
• Fidel Castros revolution took place in Cuba in
  September 1959.
  
• This prompted President Kennedy to propose an
  Alliance for Progress (1961).
  
• It was a 10-year plan to hasten development in
  Latin America.
  
• The plan sought to
• promote democracy,
• accelerate development,
• sponsor agrarian reform,
• Improve housing,
• Working conditions,
• Education,
• Public health,

22
Alliance for Progress

• Why didnt it work?
• Latin American countries were not ready to
  cooperate and implement the goals.
  
• The United States provided over 10 billion to
  the aims of the plan.
  
• Military regimes took hold in many Latin American
  countries and the aid helped to support old
  regimes rather than promote democracy and
  progress.
• The social and economic problems identified in
  the plan were not addressed
  
• Either because individual countries lacked of
  resources or political will or both.
  
• No country had the financial, technological, and
  urban planning resources to control
  urbanization.
  
• Few countries tackled the issue of agricultural
  reform.

23
Chile

• Salvador Allende (socialist doctor-politician)
  was elected president of Chile in 1970.
  
• He came close to winning the 1964 election but at
  the last minute his attempt was thwarted by a
  deal among conservatives and by U.S. aid to his
  opponents.
• The election in 1970 was split three ways but
  gave a slim plurality (36.5) to Allende.
  
• Allende nationalized major banks and insurance
  companies, cooper giants, telephone and electric
  power industries (This involved over 200
  companies some U.S.-owned companies).
• Extended the vote to illiterates and land
  distribution.
  
• He would recognize Cuba and carry friendly
  relations with all nations, including socialist
  and communist ones.

24
Chile

• By 1972, problems emerged.
• Oppositions in the governments began
  collaborating to block his reforms.
  
• U.S. cut off international loans.
• Unions, workers, employers, housewives, peasants,
  and other groups began protesting.
  
• Lefties groups including armed guerrillas began
  strikes against conservative parties.
  
• The army and police began counterinsurgency
  operations.
  
• September 11, 1973 Chief of Staff Augusto
  Pinochet organizes a coup (1973-1989).

25
El Salvador

• Political causes
• Farabundo Marti, a communist, organized a rural
  rebellion in 1932 in an attempt to end the social
  inequalities of the country.
  
• La Matanza- the government ruled by the oligarchy
  responded by killing 20,000 to 30,000 peasants in
  1932, a precursor of the civil war that rose
  during the 1980s.
• After the success of dismantling the revolt of
  1932, the Salvadoran elite and the military
  formed a partnership that would allow them to
  control the country for the next fifty years.
• Ruben Zamora gives a brief explanation of the
  reason why it was necessary for the country to
  enter into a civil war by saying, There was no
  political space (Winn 527).
• First, the opposition tried the electoral route,
  but they encountered fraud and repression.
  
• Second, the resistance experimented with
  extra-parliamentary politics and tried
  demonstrations. The response by the government
  was violent suppression.
• Third, adversaries formed a rare alliance with
  the military to participate in the 1979 coup
  d'état, but it brought no change (Winn 527).
  
• Fourth, a coalition of the five leftist groups
  came together in 1979 to form the Farabundo Marti
  National Liberation Front (FMNL), as an armed
  guerrilla movement.

26
El Salvador

• U.S. Intervention
• El Salvador was a pawn in the international chess
  game between the United States and the former
  Soviet Union.
  
• U.S. president Ronald Reagan campaigned against
  the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere
  and the threat it represented to United States
  security.
• The United States invested heavily to win the war
  in El Salvador.

United States Economic and Military Assistance
1953-1990
The number of U.S. personnel as of December 31,
1984 Source Booth Walker, 1993, p.
177
27
El Salvador

• The United States government did not want to be
  criticized internationally or domestically
  especially after the fiasco with the Vietnam War.
  
• As the United States increased aid to El Salvador
  approximately each year, so did the human rights
  violations.
  
• Schools of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia
  - When the war began the number of Salvadoran
  military being trained increased dramatically.
  For example, of the almost 4,000 Salvadoran
  officers trained at the Schools of the Americas
  since 1946, 80 percent of them received
  instruction since 1980 (Barry Preush, 1986, p.
  94).
• However, that did not stop the U.S. from
  investing an estimated 6 billion dollars in
  military and economic aid into El Salvadors
  civil war (Booth and Walker, 1993, p. 101).

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Case Study-Latin America

• Latin America has experienced more dynamic
  political changes than Africa and Asia.
  
• Between 1978-1993 fifteen countries made the
  transition from dictatorships and
  authoritarianism to democracy.
  
• Latin America has a history of weak political
  institutions.
  
• Ex. Constitutions..

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Constitutions in Latin America
30
Political Changes

• What factors have contributed to political
  changes in Latin America?
  
• Economic difficulties
• Hyperinflation
• Unemployment
• Debt
• Weak currencies
• Trade deficits
• Military conflicts
• The military government in Argentina was weakened
  by defeat in the Falklands and Malvinas war.
  
• Inadequate governments
• In December 23, 1972, an earthquake with a
  magnitude of 6.2 struck the capital city of
  Managua, leaving 10,000 people dead and the city
  destroyed (Leonard, 1987, p. 2).
• International aid poured into the county.
  However, Somoza and his friends took the
  opportunity to steal millions of dollars in aid.
  
• It brought international attention and helped
  unite the opposition against the Somoza regime.

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Political Changes

• What factors have contributed to political
  changes in
  
• Latin America?
• 4. Imposed sanctions
• Imposed embargos in the case of the Sandinista
  government in Nicaragua.
  
• 5. Fall of communism
• Soviet Union could no longer be alternative for
  governments.
  
• 6. Foreign policy
• For example, when President Jimmy Carter withdrew
  support from dictatorships from Nicaragua,
  Argentina, Chile, Panama, Haiti, and the
  Dominican Republic to help motivate change.

32
Political Changes-Mexico

• How long has Mexico been a Democratic
  government?
  
• In 1999, Vicente Fox of the National Action Party
  (PAN) became president.
  
• Thereby ending seventy one years of political
  dominance by the Institutional Revolutionary
  Party (PRI) dominance.
  
• Mexico was a one party system in which Presidents
  could elect there predecessors.
  
• Would the democracy continue in Mexico as the
  presidential elections continue?
  
• What about the Zapatista Movement and the
  Indigenous rights in Chiapas?

33
Political Changes-Chile

• Chiles democracy was ended when Salvador
  Allende, the countrys first elected Marxist
  president, was overthrown and killed by General
  Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
• Pinochet and the military ruled from 1973 until
  democracy was restored in 1990.
  
• Domestic and international pressure, as well as a
  growing middle-class influenced Pinochet to hold
  elections.
  
• Chile returned to its democratic roots, despite
  retaining authoritarian tendencies and Pinochet
  becoming a senator for life.
  
• Ricardo Lagos won the presidency in 2000.
• Pinochet is facing prosecution for the human
  right violations he and his government
  committed.
  
• Chile elects a women president in 2006

34
Historical Stable Govt- Costa Rica

• Costa Rica stands out in Latin America with a
  long history of stable governments.
  
• Unlike most countries, Costa Rica does not have a
  military. It was abolished by the 1949
  constitution.
  
• The ministry of public security and the ministry
  of the presidency share responsibility for law
  enforcement and national security.
  
• The Constitution established an independent
  judiciary, which enforces the democratic rights.
  
• The Costa Rican Constitution is similar to the
  United States with the exception that
  Constitution established Catholicism as the state
  religion.

35
Latin America Dictators

• Fulgencio Bautista(1933-1959)
• Fidel Castro, Cuba, (1959-2???).
• Rafael Trujillo, Dominican Republic (1930-1961).
• Somoza Dynasty, Nicaragua (1936-1979).
• Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay (1954-1989).
• Francois Papa Doc Duvalier, Haiti (1956-1971).
• Baby Poc, Haiti, (1971-1986)
• Augusto Pinochet, Chile (1973-1989).

36
Dictators

• Why are most new democratic movements reluctant
  to prosecute ex-dictators?
  
• New democracies are too fragile to confront
  ex-dictators.
  
• New leaders are more concerned about building
  democratic institutions and changing peoples
  attitudes to government.
  
• Many ex-dictators play a critical role in
  transitions to democracy and are able to
  negotiate their exemption from prosecution when
  they leave office.
• Ex-dictators usually continue to have strong
  support from the military, which is often the
  countrys strongest and most legitimate
  institution.
• Putting former military leaders in trial could
  prompt armed forces.

37
Dictators

• Why are most new democratic movements reluctant
  to prosecute ex-dictators?
  
• The new civilian government attempted to
  consolidate their power and put the past behind
  them by stressing the need for national
  reconciliation and forgiveness.
• Some former leaders escaped punishment because of
  their ability to convince new leaders that their
  brutality was justified for political
  circumstances or as part of economic
  development.
• Some ex-dictators simply die before they can be
  tried for their crimes.
  

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Threats

• What impact do you think economic reforms will
  have on political situation in Latin America?
  
• Poverty
• Corruption
• Weak Judicial System
• Human rights
• Eroding middle class
• Gangs

39
Post WWII

• Direct U.S. military intervention in Latin
  America has been rare
  
• Dominican Republic 1965
• Grenada 1983
• Panama 1989

40
U.S. Influence H.W. 3

• Pick a country and answer the following
  questions
  
• Historically how has the United States intervene
  in your country?
  
• What were the socio-economical, political, and
  other conditions of your country at that time?
  
• Argue whether the United States has been a friend
  or a foe to your country?
  
• Guidelines
• The paper must be a minimum of four pages.
• You need to include a minimum of two scholarly
  sources.
  
• Follow the guidelines in the syllabus and provide
  a title page

41
Reference

• Timeline of U.S.A. military interventions
• www.zompist.com/latam.html
• www.pinzler.com/ushistory/timeline9.html
• Other books
• Rosenberg, M. B. et al (1992). Americas
  Anthropology. Oxford University Press New
  York.
  
• Clayton, L.A. and Conniff, M. L. (1999). A
  History of Modern Latin America. Hancourt Brace
  College Publishers Toronto.
  
• Schlesinger, S. and Kinzer, S. (1982). Bitter
  Fruit The Untold Story of the Americas Coup in
  Guatemala. Doubleday Company, Inc New York.
  
• Robertson, W. S. (1946). Rise of the
  Spanish-American Republics As Told in the Lives
  of Their Liberators. The Free Press New York.
  
• Gonzalez, Juan. (2000). Harvest of Empire.
  Penguins Book New York.