The Cold War in Latin America
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 15, Lesson 14
A discussion of the Cold War in Latin America, focusing on the United States' involvement in political conflicts in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The U.S. government's fear of the spread of communism led to interventions that had significant consequences for the people of those countries.
Operation Condor adapted from Statewide Dual Credit World History | CC BY-SA
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the United States had become increasingly afraid of communism spreading throughout Latin America following the Cuban Revolution. To stop the spread of socialism and communism in Chile and Argentina, Nixon’s government supported a program known as Operation Condor. Operation Condor was a covert campaign of political repression and state terror carried out by right-wing dictatorships in South America from 1975 to 1983. It involved intelligence operations, coups, and assassinations aimed at eliminating left-wing sympathizers. Operation Condor had devastating effects in Chile and Argentina. Thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by the regimes. The campaign targeted not only suspected guerrillas but also students, labor leaders, intellectuals, and anyone deemed to be a threat to the ruling juntas. The widespread disappearances and extrajudicial killings created a climate of fear and severely damaged the social fabric of both countries, leaving lasting scars that continue to impact these nations today.
Nicaragua and the Contras adapted from Statewide Dual Credit World History | CC BY-SA
With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, relations between the United States and the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua became an active front in the Cold War. The Sandinistas were a left-leaning political organization that had led a successful revolution against the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979. They implemented social programs aimed at improving literacy and healthcare, which garnered them popular support, especially among the poor. However, the Reagan administration insisted that the Sandinistas posed a Communist threat, reacting particularly to the support provided to them by Cuban president Fidel Castro, as well as the Sandinistas’ close military relations with the Soviets and Cubans. The Reagan administration also wished to protect U.S. interests in the region which were threatened by the policies of the Sandinista government.
Regan’s government quickly suspended aid to Nicaragua and expanded the supply of arms and training to the Contras, Nicaraguan rebels who had fled to neighboring Honduras. American pressure against the Nicaraguan government escalated throughout 1983 and 1984. Meanwhile, the Contras began a campaign of economic sabotage and disrupted shipping by planting underwater mines in Nicaragua’s Port of Corinto, an action condemned by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as illegal. The UN General Assembly also passed a resolution in order to pressure the U.S. to pay the fine. The U.S. refused to pay restitution and claimed that the ICJ was not competent to judge the case.
On May 1, 1985, Reagan issued an executive order that imposed a full economic embargo on Nicaragua, which remained in force until March 1990. However, in 1982, legislation was enacted by the U.S. Congress to prohibit further direct aid to the Contras. Reagan’s officials attempted to illegally supply them out of the proceeds of arms sales to Iran and third-party donations, triggering the Iran-Contra Affair of 1986 – 87.
Mutual exhaustion, Sandinista fears of Contra unity and military success, and mediation by other regional governments led to the Sapoa ceasefire between the Sandinistas and the Contras on March 23, 1988. Subsequent agreements were designed to reintegrate the Contras and their supporters into Nicaraguan society in preparation for general elections.
El Salvador adapted from openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/
Many thousands of Salvadoran migrants have entered the United States each year, especially during and after the El Salvador Civil War. That war began in 1979 with a military coup supported by the United States, which feared that radical leftist elements in El Salvador were destabilizing the country and leading it in a direction contrary to U.S. Cold War interests.
By supporting the coup with money, military training, and the sharing of intelligence reports, the United States hoped to return stability to El Salvador, but the opposite occurred. Many in El Salvador felt the military government was illegitimate and staged protests and resistance. The military responded with violence of its own, such as a deadly attack on demonstrators in 1980. There were also rightist paramilitary groups, often referred to as “death squads,” fighting against leftist guerrilla forces in the countryside and committing murders and massacres. As the country descended into chaos, many left and found refuge in the United States.