Undermining Democracy in Latin America: El Salvador, Venezuela and Beyond

Undermining Democracy in Latin America: El Salvador, Venezuela and Beyond
By Michael Welch, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, and Prof. James Petras
Global Research, March 29, 2014

Having lost eighteen of nineteen elections, their chances of taking power or replacing the government through electoral channels …are virtually nil, and so what I think they’ve decided on as a strategy is to create chaos, insecurity, and especially engage in violence that cuts the link between the government and the people.”

- Professor James Petras


There is a long history of US covert intervention throughout the world in order to overthrow governments which seek to put forward programs or other initiatives which benefit their own citizens over the interests of US-based corporations.

So for instance, in 1953, when the elected Prime Minister Mossadeq of Iran moved to renationalize the country’s oil reserves, thereby undermining the interests of the British controlled Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the CIA in concert with Britain’s MI6 engineered a coup to oust him and install the brutal Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The coup plot included bolstering pro-Shah forces and organizing anti-Mossadeq protests. [1]

Likewise in Guatemala in 1954, the CIA plotted the overthrow of the elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán following his initiation of socio-economic reforms, interpreted by the US as ‘targetting directly against American interests in the country.’ [2][3]

Perhaps most famously, the CIA directed the coup in Chile which toppled a democratic government and installed a brutal dictatorship in 1973.

More:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/undermining-democracy-in-latin-america-el-salvador-venezuela-and-beyond/5374824