Subscribe Donate
en | fr | +
Accéder au menu
Previous article : « Narrative of the dispossessed »
Next article : « The comfort of lies »

Conspiracy theories, a strange fascination

Where the conspiracies are real

Latin America got used to claiming the US was secretly behind all its problems. In many cases, that turned out to be entirely true.

by Franck Gaudichaud 

The US needs Latin America next door, Herbert Matthews wrote in the New York Times back in 1959; it would only be a second-rate power without access to Latin American products and markets. From the early 19th century, the US regarded Latin America as its backyard, to be protected (and subdued) at all costs, a stance initially presented as neighbourly solidarity. In 1823 President James Monroe condemned European imperialism and declared a doctrine of “America for Americans”, but this soon became an instrument for the domination of South America by the US.

US expansionism in Latin America, sometimes violent, sometimes discreet, played such a large role in shaping the history of the continent that many still see the “black hand” of Washington behind every obstacle faced by progressive governments. Latin American governments wanting a scapegoat for domestic problems often express anti-imperialist views, and talk of conspiracies. It is not by chance that anti-US sentiment is strong on the continent that produced José Martí : it comes from more than 150 years of real interference, dirty tricks and genuine conspiracies, all signs of a desire to dominate.

Between 1846 and 1848, Mexico lost half its territory to the US. Between 1898 and 1934, the US military intervened 26 times in Central America, overthrowing presidents and installing others. During this period the US established dominion over Cuba and Puerto Rico (1898) and took control of Panama, formerly a province of Colombia, along with its canal (1903). This signalled the start of a phase of military imperialism to bolster “dollar diplomacy”, and of monopolisation of natural resources by enterprises such as the United Fruit Company, founded in 1899.

But US imperialism did not always involve force. Robert Lansing, US secretary of state under President Woodrow Wilson, wrote in 1924: “We must abandon the idea of installing an American citizen in the Mexican presidency, as that would only lead us, once again, to war... (...)

Full article: 1 559 words.

Subscribe to read more
à notre offre d'archives


Franck Gaudichaud

Translated by Charles Goulden

 Franck Gaudichaud is a senior lecturer at Université Grenoble-Alpes and co-chair of the France Amérique Latine (FAL) society.

(1José Martí (1853-95), founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, was a herald of Latin American independence.

(2Quoted by James D Cockcroft in Mexico’s Revolution: Then and Now, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010.

(3See John Dinges, The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents, The New Press, New York, 2005.

(4Covert Action in Chile: 1963-1973” (PDF), Church report, US Senate, Washington DC, 1975.

(5“Les dessous de l’ALCA (Zone de libre-échange des Amériques)” (What lies behind the FTAA), Alternatives Sud, vol 10, no 1, Centre Tricontinental (Cetri), Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), 2003.

(6Nicholas John Spykman, America’s Strategy in World Politics: the United States and the Balance of Power, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1942.

(7See Hernando Calvo Ospina, “US: overt and covert destabilisation”, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, August 2007.

(8Jake Johnston, “What the WikiLeaks Cables Say About Leopoldo López”, Centre for Economic and Policy Research, Washington DC, 21 February 2014.

Share this article×

This message is too long for Twitter.
Facebook icon  Twitter icon