ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the proposition that US policy has been driven primarily by the economic interests of private companies supported by the government. It discusses specific economic issues confronting US policymakers in Latin America: the foreign debt problem and the expropriation of property. An essential contention of the economic dominance perspective, however, is that the pervasive US corporate involvement in Latin America has made it impossible for the United States to tolerate political developments that threaten those interests. One of the major points of economic disagreement between Latin America and the United States is the lack of access to US markets for manufactured products. Economic assistance provides a means not only for supporting friendly governments; more importantly, it is a mechanism by which Latin America's economic future can be tied to US economic interests. Representative or US policy toward expropriation is the Hickenlooper Amendment adopted by Congress in 1962.
