The Detriments of US Intervention in Latin America

US intervention is a common occurrence in
Latin America.  The US intervenes in
Latin America more than any other region in the world. The
United States is so involved in Latin American politics because of the manifest destiny.  For some reason, the thinking is that it is worse to have something happen on the same continent than if it happened on the other side of the world.  Unfortunately, US intervention tends to make things worse in
Latin America.  The
United States helps ruthless dictators slaughter their own people. 

            The US funds and trains the School of the
Americas, which has committed atrocious acts.  One of the more notable thing they did was massacre thousands of El Salvadoreans.  The School of the Americas is a school which trains soldiers in
Panama, who then are mercenary soldiers who fight in various Latin American countries.  The soldiers are trained to fight the poor and the indigenous people.  They work to subvert local authorities.  Human rights organizations are appalled at the atrocious human rights violations that are committed at their hands.  They generally target human rights workers as well as nameless peasants.  They rape, beat, and torture innocent people.  Instead of protecting the people, like a good military should, they force oppression on the people, killing any and all dissidents.  The
US authorities do not accept this reality but delude themselves into thinging it a perfectly good organization.  The government foundation says that the actions that created the massacres were done by rogue soldiers who were bloodthirsty before they came to the School of the
Americas.  They explain that they do a great deal of good as well, showing a tape of a soldier helping a child.  The problem is, that was staged.  Nothing of the kind ever occurs.  The fact that they teach the soldiers how to torture people shows that it is not this great organization.  Roy Bourgeous fights against the School of the
Americas and he has been tortured for his efforts.  Even if they are right that the soldiers were that way beforehand, the school should not allow them in and they should also know what these soldiers will do with their knowledge.  The School of the
Americas could not continue without US support.

            The
US also supported the Guatemalan army of a right-wing dictatorship.  The United Nations produced a report about the Guatemalan military, describing in details grave human rights violations.  About 200,000 peoplpe were slaughtered by the Guatemalan army.  The army went after anybody who expressed any sort of dissent.  For example, Rigoberta Menchú Tum’s family became fugitives when they got involved in unions.  They caught her brother and tortured him extensively.  They struck him with stones, ripped off his nails, cut off the soles of his feet, skinned his head, and did many other horrible things.  Then, they showed his family all his scars, poured gasoline all over his body, and then set him on fire.  Bishop Juan Gerardi Confedra was beaten to death with a cement block in his garage by the military for fighting for human rights.  These are just a few examples of the atrocious acts they committed and the
US supported it.

            When Salvador Allende was democratically-electec in Chile as a socialist president, the
US backed the military to order to overthrow a democratically-elected president.  Salvador Allende was a good person who fought for the poor.  He sped up agrarian reform so that peasants could have land, including indigenous people, which was unheard of at the time, he raised worker’s pay, and he eliminated sweatshops.  Just because he happened to be a socialist, the
US helped overthrow him and then replaced him with an evil dictator named Pinochet.  The CIA was also behind efforts to sabotage Allende and make his plan to raise the economy fail.  In the end, Salvador Allende committed suicide, unable to surrender - another noble man lost to the arrogance of the
US.  Without US aid, none of this would have been possible.

            In addition, the
US backs Mexican military in order to eradicate the Zapatistas.  When the Zapatistas create an uprising, demanding better rights, the
US condemns them as terrorists.  They do not want control of the government but want justice for poor and indigenous people.  They want the land in
Chiapas to go back to communal land so that the people there could take advantage of the rich resources instead of the big corporations doing so. 
Chiapas is a very poor area, which is full of resources and the peasants want the land back.  This whole uprising would not have even happened if it were not for NAFTA, a US program to increase trade between the US and
Mexico.  All it did was sell off Mexican property to American corporations who took advantage of the people.  It created more jobs there, just like they wanted, but it was for cheaper wages.  Luckily, the movement was not killed off like the others.  The military could have taken over
Chiapas, with its 12,000 troops, but could not because of broad public support.

            None of these these things would be possible wihtout US aid.  By supporting these dictatorships, the
US is punishing those who fight for the same rights that Americans have.  The
US justifies its actions by saying that it is done in order to fight communism.  The US does not want another
Cuba.  That does not justify all this bloodshed.  The
US says that it wants to promote democracy everywhere but that is a lie.  If that were true, then the
US would not have supported these dictatorships and militaries.  Americans wonder why they are hated and this is part of the reason.

            The
US has intervened more than any other country has in modern times.  One never sees other countries funding and training foreign armies.  Usually, when the
US trains foreign armies, it usually has negative effects.  Since most of the
US’s aid to Latin Ameirca is in that form, it obviously does not have positive results.  It is bad to help foreign armies because it could eventually be used against the person who helps them or it hurts innocent people.  In terms of Latin America, it has not ever been used against the
US, so it is generally considered fine.  The problem is, it is used against innocent people, which is wrong as well, because it defies the intent behind the aid, which is to help the country become better.  The problem is, the
US thinks this is a good approach.  They believe that killing innocent people is a positive thing.  Otherwise, the
US would stop the aid.  The
US tries to manipulate other countries in order to achieve an individual goal.  In this case, the
US is doing it to feed a particular ideology, which is that communism is evil.  It is true that many communist governments are corrupt and wicked, but the
US’s approach is extreme.  It goes beyond fighting people who believe in communism but also includes people who try to help the poor.  Now that the war against terror is the battle du jour, even more dictatorships will be sponsored who are “fighting the war against terror” when in reality it is a war against anybody who disagrees with the government or poses any kind of threat to the dictatorship.  By sponsoring dictatorships, the
US can remain in control and in power.  The
US can continue to be superior to everyone and everything.  The
US is not a beacon of light to the world.  It is a force of darkness.