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The general distrust exhibited by many Latin American nations towards the US can be linked to the question of the CIA's influence and machinations. The CIA has, over the years, supported rebel/terrorist groups and despots all across Latin America. No fewer than fourteen nations in the region have been subject to operations carried out by the US intelligence community. Beginning as early as 1952 these interferences have continued into this millennium with at least seven nations in the region being targets of CIA operations since 2000. The CIA and by association the government of the US have and are still trying to effect the politics and course of history in the regions.

At the beginning of the 20th Century the US method of dealing with uncooperative' governments was to simply send in the Marines. The most decorated Marine in history, General Smedley Butler, in his book "War is a Racket", explains how he had helped make safe for business': Mexico (Tampico), Haiti , Cuba, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. After WWII the American people had little stomach to continue the racket, but many of the politicians and businessmen still had to do their deeds.

The CIA filled this niche perfectly, able to go into a country and enlist politicians and other desperate men to further their goals. Various tactics and strategies allowed the CIA to make great effect with a relatively small investment. By using dis-imformation and manipulation of media outlets it is possible to affect the political landscape without firing a shot. If it becomes necessary to fire shots, a small extremely violent rebel group or death squad is not much more difficult to arrange.

In 1954 the CIA overthrew its first democratically elected Latin American president. Guatemala's President Guzman was a leftist and even if the people of Guatemala wanted one, the US didn't. Funding and training of a rebel' force was undertaken and soon let loose resulting in atrocities and violence that over the next 40 years saw over 140,000 Guatemalans dead or disappeared.

As recently as 2007 the CIA has been accused by Venezuela of trying to influence political policy and decision making within the South American nation. These claims have been vehemently denied by the US, but they denied involvement in Guatemala, and a half dozen other places, so the truth is going to be hard to find. Perhaps a few decades will set it free.

As long as the people of the region are not allowed to decide for themselves the path their nations take, there will be turmoil in the region. As long as the CIA and their handlers are allowed to subvert and pervert these wishes the blood, at least in part, will be on their hands. If the leaders and politicians who plan these actions would only read a history book, instead of rewriting them, they'd see that their plans are doomed to fail. A population will eventually get what they want.

Guatemala has again elected a leftist leader, a half a century and over 140,000 lives after the last. Chances are he won't be run out of town, his supporters rounded up, but you never know what or who the CIA might do.

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