A Decade of Crisis in Central and South America

Abstract

While Central and South America had never been subject to direct North American colonial rule as in the other two case studies of this book (the Ottoman and European empires in the Middle East and North Africa), since the Monroe Doctrine and its corollaries (G. Smith 1994) it has nonetheless been seen as within the unquestioned sphere of influence of the United States — the ‘unofficial empire’ (Poitras 1990, 106) where no foreign intervention was accepted. Material security interests behind this claim to the hemisphere were manifold. The Caribbean and Central and South America constitute the direct neighborhood of the United States which it wants to keep allied. The Caribbean and Central America especially are often referred to as the ‘third and fourth border’ of the United States due to their geographic proximity. Connected to this is the interest to keep the sea lanes free, most importantly the Panama Canal. In addition, but maybe less importantly, the United States has military bases in Central America and imports some strategic raw materials like oil, copper, and bauxite from the region and even though their amount does not seem vital to US security interests, George Kennan once called them ‘our raw materials’ (in P. H. Smith 2000, 126).