ABSTRACT
The United States helped Cuba to free itself from Spain in 1898, and then acquired a base at Guantánamo in Cuba on a lease running to 1999. It got Panama to break away from Colombia in 1903, and then built the Panama Canal. Other small exSpanish states in the region also became, in effect, protectorates of the US, which, until the 1930s, repeatedly sent troops to stop civil wars or restore order. Several of these states (Costa Rica being a notable exception) became notorious for oppressive military or right-wing rule. In 1954 a leftist government in Guatemala was ousted by rightist exiles who, with American backing, launched an invasion from Honduras. In 1965 US forces were sent to stop a civil war in the Dominican Republic, but were soon replaced by troops from other OAS countries (72), who also withdrew after elections had been held.
