U.S. Interventions in Latin America

raquelgoulartra
2 days ago
2 min read

This article is published in collaboration with Statista

by Anna Fleck

A lot has changed over the past 72 hours. For Venezuelans, the events will have been particularly momentous. In a rapid attack, U.S. special forces entered the compound of now-deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and abducted both him and his wife, before flying them to the United States. The operation was accompanied by U.S. airstrikes targeting multiple sites in the capital of Caracas, with at least 80 people reportedly killed. Maduro is now in New York and is set to face trial today on drugs and weapons charges.

The capture has prompted a wide range of international reactions, from condemnation in Moscow to support from Argentina, where President Javier Milei is an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Among Venezuelans, both inside the country and within the diaspora, responses have been mixed, combining relief and celebration at the fall of Maduro with deep uncertainty over what will follow.

Although the abduction of Maduro was unexpected, the United States’ intervention in Venezuela is hardly the first in the region’s history. As the following chart illustrates, several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced direct U.S. involvement, though to varying degrees. Among these are Mexico, which was invaded in 1846 during the Mexican-American war following the U.S. annexation of Texas. Panama was invaded in 1989, when Washington sought to depose the country's de facto ruler, General Manuel Noriega. Cuba was invaded and occupied by U.S. forces in 1898, during the Spanish-American War and later became the site of the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Elsewhere, U.S. involvement took different forms. In Guatemala, the CIA orchestrated Operation PBSuccess in 1954, a covert coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz. In Chile, the United States supported the military coup that deposed President Salvador Allende in 1973.

Other countries experienced more indirect forms of involvement. During the 1970s, the U.S. supported Operation Condor, a regional campaign of coordinated political repression carried out across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay with Brazil, Peru and Ecuador joining later.

Many of the areas shown in blue on this map are not sovereign states, but rather territories and dependencies of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France.

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