ABSTRACT
The United States has played a significant role in shaping Latin American politics and development. From the early nineteenth century, when it first identified the region as its “backyard,” through the Cold War and to the war on drugs, the US government has wielded enormous power and influence. The primary concern of the United States during the period following the independence of the Latin American nations was that they might fall under the control of European powers. During the mid-nineteenth century, US aspirations of territorial conquest were driven by “Manifest Destiny,” the belief that the United States had the right to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. The United States emerged from World War II more powerful, and with a renewed interest in Latin America. In April 1961, the US government sponsored the Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles who were armed and trained in Central America by the CIA.
