Anti-Imperialism in Latin America:

US Interventionism, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Revolution, 1953-2006

1) What is the nature of the relationship between Latin America and the United States since 1898?

2) What were the origins of the Cuban Revolution? How has the Cuban Revolution managed to survive so long?

3) Will the Revolution survive Castro?  What is its legacy?

4) Who is Castro’s successor in the region?

Key Terms:


1) Jacobo Arbenz


2) Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

3) Platt Amendment

4) Good Neighbor Policy

5) The “Samoza Standard”

6) The Platt Amendment

7) Batista

8) Che Guevara & the Cult of Che

9) 26th of July Movement

10) Fidel Castro

11) “Special Period” (1990s)

I. Independence and US Intervention in Latin America, 1815-1945

• Latin American Independence, 1804-1825

• The Monroe Doctrine (1823)

• The Spanish-American War (1898)

• The (Theodore) Roosevelt Corollary (1904)

• US Interventions in Latin America (1895-1930s) and the Rise of Anti-Americanism

· FDR’s “Good Neighbor Policy” (1933-1954)


· US Intervention in Latin America since 1954:  Some Examples


o Guatemala, 1954: CIA Coup

§ Jacobo Arbenz

o Dominican Republic, 1964-65

o Chile, 1973

§ Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet (2006)

o El Salvador’s Civil War (1980-1992) and Death Squads

o Nicaragua, 1981-1989

§ The Sandinistas vs. the Contras (Iran-Contra Scandal)

o Grenada, 1983

o Panama, 1989

§ Manuel Noriega

o Haiti, 1994-1995, 2004

§ Jean-Bertrande Aristide’s “Resignation”

o Venezuela, 2002?  The Coup against Hugo Chavez

o “Plan Colombia,” 2000-present

II.  The “Independence” of Cuba, 1895-1958

• The Cuban War of Independence, 1895-1898 & The Spanish American War

• The Platt Amendment and Cuban Independence, 1901-02

• US Intervention, “Supervised” Independence, and Economic Domination, 1906-1933

• The Batista Regimes, 1933-1944 and 1952-1958

III.  Castro and the Cuban Revolution, 1953-1962

• Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born 1926)

• The 26^th of July Movement (1953) and the Birth of a Legend

• Castro, Che Guevara, and Fight Against Batista, 1956-1959

o Herbert Matthews (The Man Who Invented Fidel Castro)

o The Cult of Che:  Symbol and Reality

• The Making of a Communist, 1959-1965

o Victory, 1959

o Land Reforms and Nationalizations

o Education and Health Care

o Taking over the Communist Party

o One-Party Dictatorship

• Cuba and the Cold War

o Castro, Khrushchev and Kennedy (1960)

o US Embargo and The Bay of Pigs (1961)

o The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) [Iraq, 2002] [Iran, 2009]

IV. Real Independence and the Costs of Revolution, 1962-2006

• Ambivalent Relationship:  Cuba and the Soviet Union

• Exporting Revolution

o Latin America (Bolivia) and the End of Che Guevera

o Intervention in Angola and Ethiopida, 1975-1991

o Support for the ANC (African National Congress, South Africa)

Mandela and Castro

• The Symbol of Defiance:  The United States, Cuba, and anti-Imperialism in Latin America

o The US Embargo: Should it end? Why is it still in place?

o Emigration and Exiles: 1 Elian Gonzales Case

o Castro, The Third World, and the American Left

• The “Special Period” and Castro’s Remarkable Survival, 1991-2006

• Castro’s Successor?  Raúl Castro, Hugo Chavez, Luiz Lula da Silva?