In the week of June 6-10, 2022, the U.S. will host the “Summit of the Americas” in Los Angeles. According to the State Department, the objectives reflect the role of the U.S. in Latin America, and are (supposedly) to “dramatically improve pandemic response and resilience, promote a green and equitable recovery, build strong and inclusive democracies, and address the root causes of irregular migration.” In that light, we have collected a subset of the "American Crime" series at revcom.us detailing only a small sampling of the crimes committed by the U.S. against the people of Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
- A cornerstone in the emergence of the U.S. as a world power was the invasion and theft of half of Mexico in 1846-1848 in large part to expand the inhuman enslavement of kidnapped Africans from whose blood and bones much of the “start up” wealth of this system was torn.
- For decades the U.S. trained Latin American torturers and brutal tyrants who committed the most horrific crimes against humanity to enforce its interests at the “School of the Americas.”
November 2005: Thousands of people gather outside the gates of Fort Benning during the annual protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the Army's School of the Americas. Each cross has the name of a person killed by U.S.-backed military in Latin America. (AP photo)
- The U.S. orchestrated a fascist coup in Chile in 1973 followed by Operation Condor (a campaign of political assassination and state terror against any form of dissent in Latin America) that enforced brutal exploitation and suffocated culture, critical thinking and dissent for decades.
September 11, 1973, the Chilean military, with political guidance and secret backing from the U.S., carried out a military coup, dropping bombs on La Moneda, the Chilean presidential palace. President Salvador Allende died in the coup.
- The U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic in 1965 and repeatedly invaded Haiti to enforce conditions of the most brutal poverty and exploitation.
On April 28, 1965, the U.S. sent thousands of troops to invade the Dominican Republic in order to brutally crush the mass armed rebellion that arose on April 24.
- When people in Central America rose up in the 1980s against obscenely corrupt U.S.-backed tyrants, the U.S. funded, trained and backed a reign of terror against Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
In El Salvador a right-wing government backed by the U.S. suppressed a leftist rebellion in a 12-year war beginning in 1980—killing and torturing more than 70,000 people in a country with a population of about six million. Above: "Death squad" victims in San Salvador, El Salvador, 1981.
- The super-exploitation of the people of Mexico, from border maquiladoras to export-focused agriculture, was intensified through NAFTA.
In the low-wage border “sweatshops,” called maquiladoras, the factory owners hired young women for their dexterity and youthful energy. But they were also preferred because, in societies (on both sides of the border) dominated by patriarchy and misogyny, women are more exploitable—could be put to work for long, exhausting hours, often with no breaks and very short lunch periods with pay lower than their male counterparts.
- Under Obama, Hillary Clinton orchestrated a fascist coup in Honduras to maintain the rule of brutal oligarchs and replace a mildly reformist elected president.
