The consequences of CIA-sponsored #RegimeChange in #LatinAmerica

Samuel Absher, Robin Grier, Kevin Grier
December 2023

Abstract

"The CIA intervened regularly in Latin America politics during the #ColdWar, in some cases going as far as bringing about regime change. We study the economic, political, and civil society effects of CIA-sponsored regime change in five Latin American countries and find that these actions caused moderate declines in real per-capita income and large declines in democracy scores, rule of law, freedom of speech, and #CivilLiberties. Our findings show that any benefits to come out of these interventions should be weighed against the large costs that were imposed on the people living in these countries.

Introduction

"The CIA actively intervened in Latin American politics during the Cold War. Supporting the US's anti-#Castro stance became a CIA-litmus test for Latin American presidents. Even if the president in question was not himself socialist, the CIA worked to destabilize governments if they did not align with the US on #Cuba questions. This seems ironic since President Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress in 1961, a program designed to 'promote political democracy, economic growth, and social justice in Latin America.' At times, the CIA justified electoral interference in part by claiming that the missions were promoting democracy. Levin (2019, p. 840), for example, points out that 'a former senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official defended the American electoral interventions in Chile by claiming that 'the[ir] purpose… had been to preserve the democratic constitutional order.'

"Using Berger et al.’s (2013) list of CIA-sponsored regime change, we identify five such cases in #LatinAmerica: #Ecuador (1963), #Brazil (1964), #Chile (1964), #Bolivia (1964), and #Panama (1981). We use a multiple-treatment synthetic control model to estimate the average effect of these sponsored regime changes on real incomes, democracy, and civil society. Our results show that these CIA interventions had serious political, economic, and civil repercussions for the targeted countries."

Read more:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0176268023000964

#USBackedCoups
#History #RedScare #CorporateColonialism #HumanRights #FreeSpeech

#CIA publicly acknowledges 1953 coup it backed in #Iran was undemocratic as it revisits ‘Argo’ rescue

The coup overthrew Prime Minister #MohammadMosaddegh and cemented the rule of Shah #MohammadRezaPahlavi.

Oct. 12, 2023, 2:33 PM EDT / Source: The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — "While revealing new details about one of the most famed CIA operations of all times — the spiriting out of six American diplomats who escaped the 1979 U.S. Embassy seizure in Iran — the intelligence agency for the first time has acknowledged something else as well.

"The CIA now officially describes the 1953 #coup it backed in Iran that overthrew its prime minister and cemented the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as #undemocratic.

"Other American officials have made similar remarks in the past, but the CIA’s acknowledgment in a podcast about the agency’s history comes as much of its official history of the coup remains classified 70 years after the putsch. That complicates the public’s understanding of an event that still resonates, as tensions remain high between #Tehran and Washington over the Islamic Republic’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, its aiding of militia groups across the #Mideast and as it cracks down on dissent."

Read more:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cia-publicly-acknowledges-1953-coup-backed-iran-was-undemocratic-revis-rcna120154

#USBackedCoups #History

Inside #OperationPBSuccess, When The #CIA And A #BananaCompany Destroyed #Guatemalan #Democracy

By Kaleena Fraga | Edited By Jaclyn Anglis
Published April 5, 2021
Updated November 9, 2023

"In 1954, Operation PBSuccess dismantled Guatemala’s newfound democracy — so that an American fruit company could continue to profit off the old government’s #corruption.

"Throughout the early 20th century, an American multinational corporation called the United Fruit Company — now known as #ChiquitaBrands International — controlled vast swaths of Guatemalan land and production. Aided by a corrupt #autocracy, it received little pushback over decades of economic #exploitation.

"But in the 1940s, a democratic #revolution and calls for #justice threatened to undermine United Fruit’s position. So the company leveraged its powerful connections inside the #WhiteHouse — painting the new Guatemalan government as a dangerous #Communist administration in the process.

"As a result, the CIA launched Operation PBSuccess: a sweeping coup that destroyed the country’s democracy, installed a dictator, and sparked a decades-long #CivilWar and genocide of the #Indigenous #Mayan people.

Read more:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/operation-pbsuccess

#UnitedFruitCompany #IndigenousPeople #Genocide
#Guatemala #USBackedCoups
#CIA #History #RedScare #CorporateColonialism #ChiquitaBananas #Chiquita

10 Times America Helped Overthrow a Foreign Government

The US has long facilitated regime change to support its own strategic and business interests.

By: Becky Little
Published: June 7, 2022

"Throughout its history, the United States has used its military and covert operations to overthrow or prop up foreign governments in the name of preserving U.S. strategic and #business interests.

"U.S. intervention in foreign governments began with attacks on and displacement of sovereign #TribalNations in North America. In the 1890s, this type of imperialist activity, fueled by the idea of #ManifestDestiny, expanded overseas when the U.S. overthrew the #HawaiianKingdom and annexed its islands. As America annexed more overseas territories for its empire, it began to intervene frequently in other countries’ governments—particularly those in its backyard.

"'During the early 20th century, the United States intervened relentlessly in the #Caribbean Basin,' says Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and author of Overthrow: America’s Century of #RegimeChange from Hawaii to Iraq.

"After World War II, the United States began using the newly established Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow governments all over the world in a more covert manner. U.S. leaders rationalized many of these interventions as necessary for preventing the spread of #communism according to the #ColdWar domino theory. Similarly, 21st-century leaders would later defend U.S. #MiddleEast interventions as necessary for fighting terrorism.'"

Read more:
https://www.history.com/news/us-overthrow-foreign-governments

#NativeAmericans #Hawaii #Cuba #Iran #Guatemala #Congo #SouthVietnam #Chile #Nicaragua #Afghanistan #Iraq #USBackedCoups #CIA #History #RedScare #WarOnTerror #Genocide #CorporateColonialism

via @extremearturo

Plotting a Violent Coup on #Venezuela

#ErikPrince has been vocal about his willingness to violently overthrow #NicolásMaduro and is now recruiting U.S. Senators in that effort

https://www.antagonistmag.com/2024/09/22/plotting-a-violent-coup-on-venezuela/

#USBackedCoups #Academi #RickScott #MarcoRubio #ChristianNationalists