US policy towards Central American countries

[communist_kyle]

is and always has been driven by economics?...

[Ander]

Hasn't US policy everywhere always been driven by economics?

Take a look at US foreign policy towards Central America in the last several decades. A constant concern has been the protection of corporate interests and profitable markets. A prime example being the Guatemalan coup in '54, supported by the CIA after big fruit company interests were threatened by populist land reforms. Cuba, another example, continues to be attacked economically by the US to this day. And don't even get me started on the American-funded Contras, trained to sabotage the "communist" Sandinista government.

[Comrade_Scott]

i thonk what he means is that where as america has tread with at least some ammount of caution in other areas they treat South and central america like shit and do as the please beleving that they have the "divine right" to rule over the people

[ComradeR]

The US views Latin America as it's "backyard" and thus in a sense as it's territory where it can do as it pleases. Of course lately the US has been losing control over it, as it has also been in many other parts of the world.

[R_P_A_S]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12, 2007 10:00 am
The US views Latin America as it's "backyard" and thus in a sense as it's territory where it can do as it pleases. Of course lately the US has been losing control over it, as it has also been in many other parts of the world.
And it pisses me off how Mexico is just headed more to the right as other countries are making the split.

[ComradeR]

Originally posted by R_P_A_S+November 12, 2007 10:33 am--> (R_P_A_S @ November 12, 2007 10:33 am)
[email protected] 12, 2007 10:00 am
The US views Latin America as it's "backyard" and thus in a sense as it's territory where it can do as it pleases. Of course lately the US has been losing control over it, as it has also been in many other parts of the world.
And it pisses me off how Mexico is just headed more to the right as other countries are making the split. [/b]
Agreed, in fact the US seems to be trying to shore up it's control over Mexico by working with the right-wing government there to create the “Mérida Initiative” which is in effect a "Plan Mexico".

[Ander]

Originally posted by Comrade_Scott+November 11, 2007 04:54 pm--> (Comrade_Scott @ November 11, 2007 04:54 pm)i thonk what he means is that where as america has tread with at least some ammount of caution in other areas they treat South and central america like shit and do as the please beleving that they have the "divine right" to rule over the people[/b]
The United States has been treating Latin America as its backyard for almost 200 years since the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine. Soon after the Monroe Doctrine was introduced, the idea of Manifest Destiny was put into circulation around the mid-1800's. This idea basically stated that Americans were "destined" to aggressively expand westwards and annex all of the territory up to the Pacific coast. As for the native Mexicans living in that territory? They were either removed or killed.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the current president, Theodore Roosevelt, decided to add on to the Monroe Doctrine. His addition, the "Roosevelt Corollary," plainly stated that America had the right to interfere in the affairs of Latin American countries in order to maintain order. This was also known as "big stick diplomacy," referring to Roosevelt's quote "speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far."

From Wikipedia:

Theodore Roosevelt
"All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. 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 in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."

Since then we have seen multiple US interventions throughout the length of the Cold War in Cuba, Grenada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brasil, etc. In fact, I'm not sure if there is a single Latin American country (excluding some smaller islands) that the US has not laid its filthy paws on.

As for this split, while a number of countries are following this socialistic, anti-imperialist, anti-American program, the United States still has strong footholds in Latin America, most notably in Mexico and Colombia.

[Dros]

Policy in every imperialist country has always been based on economics.

The only reason the U.S. doesn't fuck around with Africa as much as it does with Asia and South and Central America is that if you get involved to deaply with Africa you end up funding a genocide or something which hearts U.S. cred. Which is not to say the U.S. doesn't exploit Africa just it doesn't do it to the extent it does in the Americas.