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

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... (...)