Top 10 reasons Latinoamericanos no les gustan Los Estados Unidos

** Por favor, note that this is not a list of reasons Latin Americans don’t like the people from the US. However, one way to instantly hit a sharp note is by referring to oneself as an “American” – better to go with norteamericano/a (North American, which technically encompasses Canada and Mexico as well) or estadounidense (if your tongue can handle it..) And though it goes without saying, this is by no means an exhaustive list, nor am I an authority on such things as the history of US/Latin American relations, but I hope it makes for a good jumping point as I often find my public education, or rather my memory, somewhat lacking.

#1 Monroe Doctorine (1823) Americans for America aka

Dear Europe,

Get out of our hemisphere.

With Love and Bravado,

your rebellious former colony US of A

Now this little move could be interpreted in two ways. 1) Gallant, protective, well meaning. The independent colony of the United States wanted to give its support to their newly/still working at independence in some places neighbors to the south. Plus, the rambunctious young US was also telling European crowns that they were not going to rule the whole world, at least not this hemisphere. 2) Scheming, glint of expansion in the eyes, with a need to prove themselves on an international level alongside the European monarchs. Now you may have guessed that the second interpretation is the prevailing perception in the Latin American point of view, and some say that perception is reality. Annnd, looking at amap of the US in 1823 there are some BIG differences, which leads to…

#2 The Mexican American War breaks out in 1845 resulting from Texas, an annexed state of Mexico, joining the US. When it’s all said an done, the US gets/takes half of the Mexican territory.. Texas, California (where gold is discovered the year after..), Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Wyoming – the Rio Grande becomes the US Mexico border. (Something called Manifest Destiny hits the headlines, which also doesn’t do much for the argument against assumed expansionist aspirations.)

#3 Spanish American War (1898) breaks out after the battleship USS Maine sinks in Cuba under unknown circumstances. There had been on again off again revolts in Cuba against the Spanish colonial power for a few decades. With the sinking of Maine the US became directly involved. Resulting in the US gaining Cuba (who opted to regain independence with the Platt Amendment caveat – which said the US reserved the right to send in troops to ensure stability, which happened on three occasions), Puerto Rico (even today is given the option of independence, but with around 3% support in the polls remains a US Commonwealth), the Philippines (who opted for independence) and Guam (an unincorporated territory of the US)...In case you’ve been wondering just when all this territory stuff came in to play and landed us with a couple more quarters over our 50 star collection.

#4 Panama Canal (1904 – 1914 and beyond) The US assists Panama with their independence from Columbia in exchange for the Canal.

#5 Roosevelt Corollary (1904) extension of the Monroe Doctrine (please see above) that basically says if/when parts of Latin America (specifically the Caribbean islands and Central America) default on loans from Europe the US will step in.

#6 Pancho Villa (1916)

#7 Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy (1933) state’s the US won’t intervene – fine, we’ll get out of your business. This is followed by a wave of authoritarian governments and militaries becoming involved/ruling through coup d’états throughout much of Latin America, while the US and Europe are focused on WWII.

“He’s an SOB, but he’s our SOB.” – Roosevelt

During this time US is then blamed for NOT getting involved.

#8 The Cold War takes main stage and the pendulum of US involvement swings back as the CIA enters the scene. Guatemala in 1954. Then Cuba…. Castro and the revolutionaries, including world renowned Che Guevara, take power in 1959. As new Cuban government aligned with the Soviets things went from to bad to super duper bad with the Bay of Pigs in 1961. More Cold War, soviet hunting leads to US intervention in the Dominican Republic (1965).

* 1967 in Punte del Este, Uruguay at a meeting of the leaders of the America half are wearing military uniforms.

#8 Carter creates the Bureau of Human Rights (1979) thus creating the annual Human Rights Report on each country in the world. Latin America is somewhat split as some wonder who made the US the judge/ who is going to report on the US and those with more leftist leanings living under military juntas and dictatorships.

#9 1990’s Plan Columbia is rolled out under Bush Sr. and continued under Clinton - $1 Billion to fight FARC

* 1994 Clinton hosts the Summit of Americas in Miami, FL – all 34 are elected leaders, 2 are wearing skirts.

#10 2000’s Iraq war is NOT popular and prison photos don’t help… (see Carter’s Human Right’s Report above)