US Intervention In Nicaragua During The Cold War – History 3072, History of Modern Latin America

James A Woods wrote in Problems In Modern Latin American History “In this context of extreme political and ideological polarization, U.S. policy makers sometimes encouraged the Latin American military to seize the reins of civil authority before it was too late… (Woods, p 238). Just one example of this US intervention is in the nation of Nicaragua with what is known as the contra war and the Iran-contra scandal. As mentioned in the documents, the Iran-contra scandal was when Ronald Reagan and his administration sold weapons illegal to Iran in order to then give that money to the contras in Nicaragua to fight against the left-wing Sandinista government. Under Ronald Reagan the United States foreign policy continued to be one of combating the spread of communism which is why they believed it was justified for them to take such actions against the Nicaragua government at the time. Furthermore, another policy was to allow the CIA to secure training bases in Honduras and Argentina and training to the rebels. The CIA itself also had a lot of covert operations against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua such as “the mining of Nicaraguan rivers and harbors and attacks on Nicaraguan shipping — aimed at “arms interdiction” (Criminal Liability of President Bush) This policy ultimately led the United States to send millions of dollars in financial support to the contras. All these policies were enacted because the USA believed that everything was on the table when it came to end the spread of communism to nations around the world. Even if this meant the use of a paramilitary and death squads in Nicaragua backed by illegal money through the CIA, in the end, the ends justify the means to the united states and they saw stopping communism as more important than the lives of the people of Nicaragua. As mentioned in the Criminal Liability of President Bush, “How can anyone object to the US encouraging third parties to provide help to the anti-Sandinistas under the finding? The only problem that might come up is if the United States were to promise to give these third parties something in return so that some people could interpret this as some kind of an exchange.” (OX Reagan 2 in U.s. v. Poindexter at ALU0096995.)” The people of Nicaragua live were affected by the contra wars. As the contras acted as a paramilitary force, and as death squads to the people they saw as opposition many human rights were violated The United States backed Contras committed multiple cases of human rights violations these include, attacks on civilians, the kidnapping of combatants, kidnapping of civilians, mistreatment of prisoners. In Criminal Liability of President Bush, it refers to the contras as a paramilitary force and in other documents, it mentions how they were conducting illegal activities.This relates to the readings as it goes to illustrate another example of the USA inciting a war in an effort to be anti-communist in Latin America.