![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
12-09-2023, 12:38 PM
John Kirk
Professor Emeritus of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada
Stephen Kimber
Professor of journalism at the University of King’s College
11 Sep 2023
......
On September 11, 1973, a military junta, led by General Augusto Pinochet, overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende. What followed was a 17-year dictatorship which tortured 40,000, killed more than 3000 and “disappeared” more than a thousand others. Hundreds of thousands were forced into exile.
The Nixon administration in the United States encouraged and supported the coup that paved the way for these atrocities.
Since former US President James Monroe effectively announced a protectorate over the Western Hemisphere in December 1823, known as the Monroe Doctrine, the US has been interfering in nations across Latin America, often in pursuit of its own interests, but always under the guise of protecting democracy and human rights in its “backyard”.
......
The US did not end its destructive meddling in Chile’s affairs after successfully instigating a coup against its democratically elected leader either.
Three years into Pinochet’s murderous rule, in June 1976, Kissinger personally visited the Chilean capital, Santiago, to reaffirm Washington’s support for the dictator.
......
Kissinger advised Pinochet on how to improve his image in the international arena and dismissed all criticism of his regime’s human rights record as “leftist propaganda”. “In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here,” Kissinger told Pinochet, who had by then already killed and disappeared thousands of his regime’s detractors “We want to help, not undermine you,” he added. “You did a great service to the West in overthrowing Allende.”
The coup against Allende in Chile was perhaps the most destructive US interference in Latin America, but it was not the first of its kind and would not be the last either.
By the time it started working on destabilising the Allende government in Chile, Washington had already engineered a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954, invaded the Dominican Republic with 24,000 troops in 1965, and made countless attempts to assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
......
it went on to fund as a proxy army some 6,000 “contras” to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, offer military training to the armies of the region’s many dictators at the School of the Americas, and invade Panama with 24,000 troops to depose its de facto ruler.
Regrettably, destructive US efforts to control its “backyard” continue to this day.
.......
Washington is still inflicting immeasurable suffering on the peoples of the Americas to ensure that they are all governed in a way that does not challenge US interests. It, for example, still keeps Cuba on the list of countries supporting terrorism in the hopes that the consequent economic distress would trigger a coup. It has also confiscated billions of dollars of Venezuelan property and is making the Venezuelan economy “scream” with its sanctions to arrange for the demise of its government, paying no attention to the suffering of its people. It condemns ...... “the troika of tyranny” (Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua), but says little about the corrupt right-wing governments in El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and, until recently, Colombia, Honduras and Brazil.
......
Exactly 50 years since Allende’s demise ...... the threat of US intervention continues to loom large over Latin America.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/...s-meddling
Professor Emeritus of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada
Stephen Kimber
Professor of journalism at the University of King’s College
11 Sep 2023
......
On September 11, 1973, a military junta, led by General Augusto Pinochet, overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende. What followed was a 17-year dictatorship which tortured 40,000, killed more than 3000 and “disappeared” more than a thousand others. Hundreds of thousands were forced into exile.
The Nixon administration in the United States encouraged and supported the coup that paved the way for these atrocities.
Since former US President James Monroe effectively announced a protectorate over the Western Hemisphere in December 1823, known as the Monroe Doctrine, the US has been interfering in nations across Latin America, often in pursuit of its own interests, but always under the guise of protecting democracy and human rights in its “backyard”.
......
The US did not end its destructive meddling in Chile’s affairs after successfully instigating a coup against its democratically elected leader either.
Three years into Pinochet’s murderous rule, in June 1976, Kissinger personally visited the Chilean capital, Santiago, to reaffirm Washington’s support for the dictator.
......
Kissinger advised Pinochet on how to improve his image in the international arena and dismissed all criticism of his regime’s human rights record as “leftist propaganda”. “In the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here,” Kissinger told Pinochet, who had by then already killed and disappeared thousands of his regime’s detractors “We want to help, not undermine you,” he added. “You did a great service to the West in overthrowing Allende.”
The coup against Allende in Chile was perhaps the most destructive US interference in Latin America, but it was not the first of its kind and would not be the last either.
By the time it started working on destabilising the Allende government in Chile, Washington had already engineered a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954, invaded the Dominican Republic with 24,000 troops in 1965, and made countless attempts to assassinate Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
......
it went on to fund as a proxy army some 6,000 “contras” to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, offer military training to the armies of the region’s many dictators at the School of the Americas, and invade Panama with 24,000 troops to depose its de facto ruler.
Regrettably, destructive US efforts to control its “backyard” continue to this day.
.......
Washington is still inflicting immeasurable suffering on the peoples of the Americas to ensure that they are all governed in a way that does not challenge US interests. It, for example, still keeps Cuba on the list of countries supporting terrorism in the hopes that the consequent economic distress would trigger a coup. It has also confiscated billions of dollars of Venezuelan property and is making the Venezuelan economy “scream” with its sanctions to arrange for the demise of its government, paying no attention to the suffering of its people. It condemns ...... “the troika of tyranny” (Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua), but says little about the corrupt right-wing governments in El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and, until recently, Colombia, Honduras and Brazil.
......
Exactly 50 years since Allende’s demise ...... the threat of US intervention continues to loom large over Latin America.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/...s-meddling
