Transcript US – Latin American Relations

US – Latin American
Relations
Three Historical Periods
1. Imperial Era, 1790-1930s
2. Cold War Era, 1940s-1980s
3. Post-Cold War Era, 1990spresent
Imperial Era, 1790-1930s
• European rivalry for Americas
• U.S. involvement in rivalry for Western
Hemisphere
Monroe Doctrine, 1823
“….With the existing colonies or dependencies of
any European power we have not interfered and
shall not interfere. But with the Governments who
have declared their independence and maintain it,
and whose independence we have, on great
consideration and on just principles, acknowledged,
we could not view any interposition for the purpose
of oppressing them, or controlling in any other
manner their destiny, by any European power in any
other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly
disposition toward the United States….”
Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine, 1904
“It is not true that the United States feels any land
hunger or entertains any projects as regards other
nations of the Western Hemisphere save such as are
for there welfare…If a nation shows that it knows
how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in
social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays
its obligations, it need fear no interference from the
United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence
which results in a general loosening of the ties of
civilized society, may require intervention by some
civilized nation, and…to the exercise of an
international police power.”
“Gunboat Diplomacy”
• Strategy by U.S.
government to
prevent European
occupation of Latin
America
• U.S. intervenes in
Caribbean Basin 30
times, 1898-1933
Good Neighbor
Policy
Cold War Era, 1940s-1980s
Oppose all who oppose
U.S.
Support all who oppose
U.S.S.R.
Containment Policy
Must support all
free peoples
resisting
communism
(externally or
internally)
Alliance for Progress
To avoid further revolution in Latin
America:
1. Reform economic structures and
facilitate “modernization”
2. Build anti-left unions to counter
communist and socialist unions
3. Military counterinsurgency and
training
Reagan’s Return to
Containment
Rhetoric
Domino theory
Moral degeneracy of “communists”
Reality
U.S. credibility in post-Vietnam era
Maintain regional hegemony
Return to “Infantilization” of Latin America
Post-Cold War Era,
present
1990s-
Dominated by geo-economic
security concerns and
economic issues
1. Drug Trafficking/CounterNarcotics
2. Economic issues
• “Drug Certification” (1986)
• Erradication of coca and poppy fields
• Training for Latin American police
Economic
Concerns
• Consolidation
of Neoliberalism
• Expansion of
NAFTA to