I’ve noticed considerable confusion over why South American countries seem to be more anti-US than they used to be. The answer lies in former US efforts to suppress democracy, encourage terror, and even teach torture in those nations.
“The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.” – Dan Mitrione,United States government security advisor for the CIA in Latin America, and instructor in the art of torture teaching techniques in Uruguay during the nation’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship.
US intervention continues to haunt Latin America, a region overrun with brutal military dictatorships during the 1970’s and 80’s. Dictatorships coordinated torture, assassinations and disappearances under a US-backed program in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The program, called Plan Condor, was a shared strategy in Latin America’s Southern Region during the 1970s and 80s and had Washington involvement.
Human rights groups claim that tens of thousands were killed during South America’s darkest period during the 1970’s and 1980’s under the military dictatorships. Military governments came to power via well planned coups in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. In Argentina alone, an estimated 30,000 people were forcefully disappeared.
Now nearly 30 years later, long standing impunity has overshadowed efforts for regional integration and return to democratic rule. Throughout the region, the road to justice has been slow. Argentina has taken the lead in trying former military and police after amnesty laws protecting military have been overturned in 2005. However, Uruguay and Brazil still uphold amnesty laws preventing human rights trials from taking place. While in Chile justice is possible, the nation grapples with dictator supporters in government who continue to hold up legal proceedings…
…The slogan “Never Again” was adopted with the hope that Argentina and other countries in the region, including Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, ruled by violent military dictatorships would never repeat that dark chapter in history. Decades have passed since the end to the dictatorships in the region and much heralded “return to democracy.” But many of the old systems of repression remain. In Argentina a key human rights witness, Julio Lopez remains missing after his 2006 disappearance. Survivors in the region continue to face threats and security issues on the brink of their testimonies in trials. Much of the files and top-secret information has yet to be released about the crimes the military coups committed.
Plan Condor united the nations in a plan to wipe out dissidents regionally through state imposed terror. Now, governments in the Southern Cone have the opportunity to work together to revisit the past and investigate the crimes which continue to be a social stigma scarring the respective countries. Without justice and with outstanding impunity, history is likely to repeat itself… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Toward Freedom>
Between the ellipses, the author updates the progress in each of these nations. If you click through, it’s worth the read.
During the Nixon and Reagan years, the US engaged in state sponsored terrorism in which the body count far and away exceeded the number of people killed in Al Qaeda sponsored Terrorism. September 11 is just as famous in South America as it is in the US. On September 11, 1973, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the GOP helped orchestrate the coup in which elected President Salvador Allende was murdered and replaced by the infamous Agosto Pinochet. Thousands were fatally disappeared in its wake, including a US reporter. His story is accurately portrayed in the movie Missing. Kissenger feared that Allende might nationalize Chile’s copper mining and smelting to benefit Chile’s people, pushing out US corporations in the process. This is the case about which we have the most evidence of GOP involvement. However Henry Kissinger was indicted in several countries in the region. Reagan and GHW Bush were more involved repressing Central American nations for their resources, while GW ChickenHawk had plans to conquer eight nations in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Only GOP incompetence in conducting our two current wars saved the other six.
So why is this important now? We need to understand that wars of aggression and state sponsored terrorism are nothing new. It’s how the GOP does business. They must be kept out of power.
Furthermore, Obama may be continuing the war in Afghanistan to placate Republicans. The Bush/GOP puppet Karzai is no better than Pinochet. Following the GOP example is the wrong way to proceed.
23 Responses to “Why South America Distrusts the US”
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If Jon Stewart catches on already, the populace can’t be far behind.
“Take a stable nation and we will all f*ck it up.”
Jon Stewart got that one right, Ivan.
Our entire history is filled with examples of the U.S. not minding its own business and trying to bully Central and South American countries. We have consistently propped up corrupt, dictatorial regimes whose only real support came from their military or their tiny, wealthy elite. Look at this list of repeated US attempts to exert control and dominance over these nations through economic leveraging or outright military intervention:
1880 Argentina
1891, 1973 Chile
1891, 1914, 1994, 2004 Haiti
1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1907, 1910, 1912, 1981 Nicaragua
1905, 1908, 1912, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1958, 1964, 1989 Panama
1898, 1906, 1912, 1917, 1961, 1962 Cuba
1898 Puerto Rico
1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, 1982 Honduras
1913, 1914 Mexico
1914, 1916, 1965 Dominican Republic
1920, 1954, 1966 Guatemala
1921 Costa Rica
1932, 1981 El Salvador
1947 Uruguay
1983 Grenada
1987 Bolivia
2002 Venezuela
This is nothing to be proud of. It is a miracle that any country south of our border has anything to do with us, or that Castros and Chavezes haven’t sprung up everywhere. For, we loudly deplored Soviet domination of eastern Europe after World War II, but here in our own backyard, we have long had a similar set of satellites we have used and abused for our own purposes.
Well said, Jack.
That’s a long list of disgusting intervention on our part.
It most certainly is!
Great post – very informative.
Thanks, Kevin. 🙂
Is there any country that the Repubs haven’t fucked up? Seriously, mind your own damned business. Kissinger is a war criminal and should be serving time at the Hauge.
No.
There are several nations to which Kissinger cannot travel, because he would be extradited to the Hague were he to do so.
I’m looking forward to Oliver Stone’s next movie; it’s all about Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador (and South America in general) moving to the left, and the reasons behind this. The movie has interviews with Chavez and other Latin American presidents. I think “South of the Border” is the title. Should be very interesting and informative.
That does sound interesting, Tom. Would you keep us posted please?
For a while now I’ve been thinking about the USA and why we’re hated and at the very least not trusted.
Well this post shed some light on that one. Seems to me we’ve become the new Britain. That tiny little island had it’s hands into every part of the globe at one time. I guess greed rules the world.
We in this country had better look inward for answers. You know the Repubes hate it when Obama admits we have made mistakes. Meanwhile the world is astonished that we would own up to anything. We’ve been in 42 wars or conflicts since WWII. Nothing to be proud of.. We need to leave the World alone and of course that would include South America.
Tim, that’s an excellent comparison. The difference is that Britain practiced territorial imperialism. The US gave that up in favor of economic imperialism. Instead of ruling outright, we ally with a ruling elite individual or class and govern for the benefit of US corporations through them. They get a big enough piece of the pie to live ostentatiously. The people get the shaft.
Who the HELL can blame them? And to ice that cake, we have Klan Brewer and Gruppenführer Arpaio. I wouldn’t have any use for us either.
Nobody can blame them, but the GOP sure tries to.
I sure as hell can’t blame them for hating us. I can’t remember the SA country but there was a huge protest when Nixon visited. I have it in my mind that he had to cut his visit short but I could be wrong on that.
Leslie, I’m not sure, but I think it was Bush.
As long as we have a CIA that is not really answering to anyone, this will continue under any Administration.
Here is the biggest problem with accepting help from the US: You don’t know when it is going to stop. This can be good or bad, depending on where you are in the chain of events. I am certain that the US has screwed up the very government it was trying to help/create more than a few times by ‘helping’ too much. However, if a political wind blows in the US, be careful. You might end up an intelligent freedom fighter in some backward country, fighting against something big, and suddenly the US support is gone. That might leave you a little hacked off. You may use the knowledge taught to you by the CIA and some of the connections to create a small, but extremely effective, group of militants. But, why should that bother the big, bad US? What are they going to do? Bomb an African embassy (or 4)? Ram planes into buildings? Oh, wait…
How long before there comes a group out of South America that becomes as effective as Al-Queda? Whether angry about what was done, or what wasn’t done, is completely irrelevant. A group of people resourceful enough, and angry enough can do amazing things, as we have seen first hand here, and second hand all over the world. Yeah, we don’t need another Harry Truman. We need another Teddy Roosevelt with his isolationist policies, but not as extreme as his were. Like it or not, 2008 proved the existence of a true world economy.
Otis, I realize that this has gone on on both sides of the aisle. I don’t think we can be isolationist anymore. But I do think we need to shift our thrust in the world from Theory X (Zero Sum Gain) to Theory Z (Win Win).
The integrity of our government seems to never catch up with the leaders in power…. by that I mean, why would Barack Obama’s administration be espousing foreign policies that uphold these non-diplomatic strategies? I boggles my mind. But I realize, it’s so true. TomCat! What a wonderful education! TY. Stunning piece. The commentary is nearly as informative!
Thanks Gwen. Policies like this develop a momentum of their own. Once begun, the consequences for stopping them can be more severe than those for abandoning them.
Naomi Klein goes into great detail about Op Condor in her book The Shock Doctrine. Basically, I think the U.S. was motivated by Cold War anti-communism (e.g., because Allende wanted to nationalize things), Friedmanist neoconservatism (or neoliberalism, if you will), and the protection of U.S. corporations’ investments. Which could be boiled down to one thing, really, since the anti-communism was mostly a phony excuse (Allende was *not* a communist), and the Friedmanist philosophy served U.S. interests well.
Milton Friedman brought disgrace to both his country and economists, BTW, through his active role as an adviser – guru, really – in Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship. He knew of the atrocities and yet stayed there. In fact, he simply had to have known that his “reforms” couldn’t be implemented without great force and repression. All those who admire Friedman willfully ignore this.