President Trump's pressure campaign against Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro continues a long tradition of U.S. involvement in the region, rooted in the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. This history includes both covert and overt actions aimed at protecting American interests and countering perceived threats like communism. While some interventions achieved short-term goals, many led to unintended consequences and mixed outcomes.
The Monroe Doctrine, announced by President James Monroe in 1823, initially warned European powers against interfering in the Western Hemisphere. President Theodore Roosevelt later expanded it into the "Big Stick" policy, justifying unilateral U.S. actions as a regional policeman to advance interests, including military force alongside diplomacy.
After World War II, U.S. focus shifted to combating communism, intensified by Fidel Castro's 1959 Cuban Revolution. "During the Cold War, intervention was mostly covert. In the 1980s, you begin to see more overt actions," notes Eduardo Gamarra, a professor at Florida International University. This era emphasized strategic denial, deterring foreign influences—from Europeans in the 19th century to the Soviet Union postwar.
Edward Murphy, a history professor at Michigan State University, explains that the U.S. and right-wing Latin American governments viewed communism as a non-indigenous ideology to be eradicated under the Monroe Doctrine's logic.
Key examples illustrate the varied results:
- In 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup in Guatemala against President Jacobo Árbenz over land reforms affecting the United Fruit Company, installing authoritarian rule and inspiring repression elsewhere.
- The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion failed to topple Castro, prompting the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and a lasting U.S. embargo that strengthened Cuba's ties with Russia.
- Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada (1983) ousted a Marxist government, protecting U.S. students and leading to stable democracy.
- Reagan's support for Nicaraguan Contras against Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas sparked the Iran-Contra scandal; Ortega later won elections and shifted to authoritarian rule.
- The 1989 invasion of Panama removed Gen. Manuel Noriega amid drug ties, fostering economic growth and democracy, though debated as truly successful.
By the mid-1980s, U.S. policy pivoted to the drug war. Recent actions against Venezuela, including strikes on drug boats and oil tanker seizures, echo this interventionist legacy, often yielding complex legacies rather than clear victories.
