Lorena Cruz
Professor Morrison
CALS 219
10 March 2013
The Effect of United States intervention Central American and Caribbean countries endured years of dirty wars that caused major damage to the two regions. The U.S., seeing economic and political interest in the countries of Central America, played a major role in funding dirty wars. The point of U.S. intervention was to fight socialist and communist movements in the country. In a Socialist nation, it would be impossible to own large portions of land. The United States had huge interest to prevent this because if the land was redistributed, it would not allow the U.S. to have any large export plantations in nations like Guatemala and Nicaragua. The United States supported government overthrows to prevent Socialism and Communism, but also caused severe devastation among the residents of these countries. The Spanish-American War was a sign of United States imperialism and empirical power. When the war ended, so did the Spanish Empire, and it’s Caribbean colonies were now a part of the United States. The Platt Amendment created permanent United States presence in Cuba, even though their main goal had been to become an independent nation. The Platt amendment is a direct effect of the United States’ political interest, because it stated that they U.S. would continue having control of Guantanamo Bay, and that Cuba had to consider U.S. interests when making foreign policies. United States intervention in the Caribbean was very politicized. The Red Scared during WWII was a huge motivator for intervention in the Caribbean. U.S. intervention in these countries caused extreme devastation. In the Central America, the United States was funding death squads that murdered innocent peasants of the poor Central American countries. In the United States mainland, the effect of these interventions were seen through increased immigration into the United States from these regions. During the Guatemalan Civil War, out of fear and seeing no better option, residents began immigrating to the United States. In Cuba, anti-Communists were encouraged to come over to the United States, establishing a presence of Cubans in Miami, that would continue to