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Tag: u. s. policy

  • Contributor: This time the U.S. isn’t hiding why it’s toppling a Latin American nation

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    In the aftermath of the U.S. military strike that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has emphasized its desire for unfettered access to Venezuela’s oil more than conventional foreign policy objectives, such as combating drug trafficking or bolstering democracy and regional stability.

    During his first news conference after the operation, President Trump claimed oil companies would play an important role and that the oil revenue would help fund any further intervention in Venezuela.

    Soon after, “Fox & Friends” hosts asked Trump about this prediction.

    “We have the greatest oil companies in the world,” Trump replied, “the biggest, the greatest, and we’re gonna be very much involved in it.”

    As a historian of U.S.-Latin American relations, I’m not surprised that oil or any other commodity is playing a role in U.S. policy toward the region. What has taken me aback, though, is the Trump administration’s openness about how much oil is driving its policies toward Venezuela.

    As I’ve detailed recently, U.S. military intervention in Latin America has largely been covert. And when the U.S. orchestrated the coup that ousted Guatemala’s democratically elected president in 1954, the U.S. covered up the role that economic considerations played in that operation.

    By the early 1950s, Guatemala had become a top source for the bananas Americans consumed, as it remains today.

    The United Fruit Company, based in Boston, owned more than 550,000 acres of Guatemalan land, largely thanks to its deals with previous dictatorships. These holdings required the intense labor of impoverished farmworkers who were often forced from their traditional lands. Their pay was rarely stable, and they faced periodic layoffs and wage cuts.

    The international corporation networked with dictators and local officials in Central America, many Caribbean islands and parts of South America to acquire immense estates for railroads and banana plantations.

    The locals called it the pulpo — “octopus” in Spanish — because the company seemingly had a hand in shaping the region’s politics, economies and everyday life. The Colombian government brutally crushed a 1928 strike by United Fruit workers, killing hundreds of people.

    The company’s seemingly unlimited clout in the countries where it operated gave rise to the stereotype of Central American nations as “banana republics.”

    In Guatemala, a country historically marked by extreme inequality, a broad coalition formed in 1944 to overthrow its repressive dictatorship in a popular uprising. Inspired by the anti-fascist ideals of World War II, the coalition sought to make the nation more democratic and its economy more fair.

    After decades of repression, the nation democratically elected Juan José Arévalo and then Jacobo Árbenz, under whom, in 1952, Guatemala implemented a land reform program that gave landless farmworkers their own undeveloped plots. Guatemala’s government asserted that these policies would build a more equitable society for Guatemala’s impoverished, Indigenous majority.

    United Fruit denounced Guatemala’s reforms as the result of a global conspiracy. It alleged that most of Guatemala’s unions were controlled by Mexican and Soviet communists and painted the land reform as a ploy to destroy capitalism.

    United Fruit sought to enlist the U.S. government in its fight against the elected government’s policies. While its executives did complain that Guatemala’s reforms hurt its financial investments and labor costs, they also cast any interference in its operations as part of a broader communist plot.

    It did this through an advertising campaign in the U.S. and by taking advantage of the anti-communist paranoia that prevailed at the time.

    United Fruit executives began to meet with officials in the Truman administration as early as 1945. Despite the support of sympathetic ambassadors, the U.S. government apparently wouldn’t intervene directly in Guatemala’s affairs.

    The company turned to Congress.

    It hired well connected lobbyists to portray Guatemala’s policies as part of a communist plot to destroy capitalism and the United States. In February 1949, multiple members of Congress denounced Guatemala’s labor reforms as communist.

    Sen. Claude Pepper called the labor code “obviously intentionally discriminatory against this American company” and “a machine gun aimed at the head of this American company.”

    Two days later, Rep. John McCormack echoed that statement, using the exact same words to denounce the reforms.

    Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Sen. Lister Hill and Rep. Mike Mansfield also went on the record, reciting the talking points outlined in United Fruit memos.

    No lawmaker said a word about bananas.

    Seventy-seven years later, we may see many echoes of past interventions, but now the U.S. government has dropped the veil: In his appearance after the strike that seized Maduro this month, Trump said “oil” 21 times.

    Aaron Coy Moulton is an associate professor of Latin American history at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas and the author of “Caribbean Blood Pacts: Guatemala and the Cold War Struggle for Freedom.” This article was produced in collaboration with the Conversation.

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    Aaron Coy Moulton

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  • LIVE: Americans mark 24th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks

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    Americans are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes honoring the victims.Watch a livestream of the 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon in the video player above.Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed were joining dignitaries and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.On Thursday morning, Denise Matuza, Jennifer Nilsen and Michelle Pizzo boarded a bus from Staten Island for Lower Manhattan — each wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the names and faces of their husbands, who died in the attack.“Even 24 years later, it’s heart wrenching,” said Nilsen, whose husband, Troy Nilsen, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center. “It feels the same way every year.”For Ronald Bucca, who lost his father, the FDNY fire marshal Ronald Paul Bucca, the annual memorial served as an opportunity to “educate people on that day, especially the younger generations, and learn from each other how to be resilient and deal with loss and rebuild.”Pizzo, whose husband, Jason DeFazio, also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, hoped more people could just take one minute to reflect on the day.“Younger kids don’t realize that you have to remember,” she said.The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah.LIVE: Watch a livestream below of the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade CenterThe reading of names and moments of silenceKirk’s killing prompted additional security measures around the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York.Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, had planned to attend the event in Manhattan but instead are set to visit with Kirk’s family on Thursday in Salt Lake City, according to a person familiar with Vance’s plans, but not authorized to speak about them publicly.Many in the crowd at Thursday’s ceremony at ground zero held up photos of lost loved ones as a moment of silence marked the exact time when the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center’s iconic twin towers. Family members then began reading aloud the names of the victims.At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the U.S. military were being honored in a ceremony attended by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. The president was then expected to head to the Bronx for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Thursday evening.And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.People across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events.Reverberations from attacks persistIn all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “Global War on Terrorism” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.__Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.

    NEW YORK —

    Americans are marking 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes honoring the victims.

    Watch a livestream of the 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon in the video player above.

    Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed were joining dignitaries and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

    On Thursday morning, Denise Matuza, Jennifer Nilsen and Michelle Pizzo boarded a bus from Staten Island for Lower Manhattan — each wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the names and faces of their husbands, who died in the attack.

    “Even 24 years later, it’s heart wrenching,” said Nilsen, whose husband, Troy Nilsen, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center. “It feels the same way every year.”

    For Ronald Bucca, who lost his father, the FDNY fire marshal Ronald Paul Bucca, the annual memorial served as an opportunity to “educate people on that day, especially the younger generations, and learn from each other how to be resilient and deal with loss and rebuild.”

    Pizzo, whose husband, Jason DeFazio, also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, hoped more people could just take one minute to reflect on the day.

    “Younger kids don’t realize that you have to remember,” she said.

    The remembrances are being held during a time of increased political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes a day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah.

    LIVE: Watch a livestream below of the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center

    The reading of names and moments of silence

    Kirk’s killing prompted additional security measures around the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York.

    Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, had planned to attend the event in Manhattan but instead are set to visit with Kirk’s family on Thursday in Salt Lake City, according to a person familiar with Vance’s plans, but not authorized to speak about them publicly.

    Many in the crowd at Thursday’s ceremony at ground zero held up photos of lost loved ones as a moment of silence marked the exact time when the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center’s iconic twin towers. Family members then began reading aloud the names of the victims.

    At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the U.S. military were being honored in a ceremony attended by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. The president was then expected to head to the Bronx for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers Thursday evening.

    And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

    People across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events.

    Reverberations from attacks persist

    In all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.

    The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “Global War on Terrorism” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.

    While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.

    The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.

    The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.

    In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.

    __

    Associated Press reporters Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this story.


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  • Contributor: Armenians deserve more than a transactional peace deal with Azerbaijan

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    On Aug. 8, as the White House hosted the trilateral signing of a peace agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the United States, I spoke to a group of Armenian high school students from Los Angeles. We paused to watch the news conference on a laptop in the corner of our crowded room. Their faces — curious, cautious and skeptical — mirrored a sentiment across the Armenian diaspora: hope tempered by doubt, pride shadowed by mistrust.

    This conflict’s roots run deep. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a brutal war over a region within Azerbaijan’s borders but claimed by both nations. Azerbaijanis call it Nagorno-Karabakh; Armenians call it Artsakh. A ceasefire held for years but left core disputes unresolved — over territory, governance and the right of self-determination for the region’s Armenian population.

    War erupted again in 2020. Backed by Turkey and armed with advanced weapons, Azerbaijan gained control of much of the disputed territory. The Trump administration did nothing to meaningfully intervene. For Armenians, it was a devastating loss — of land, security, trust and cultural heritage. For Azerbaijan, it was a political and military victory that shifted the balance of power.

    In December 2022, Azerbaijan launched a blockade of the Lachin corridor — the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh to Armenia — tightening its grip on a region already reeling from war. For the next 10 months, gas, electricity, internet, food and medicine were cut off to 120,000 Armenians, many of them children and elderly. Families rationed bread. Surgeries were postponed. Schools closed.

    I visited the region during this time and stood at the Armenian end of the corridor, where a silent convoy of trucks stretched out of sight up the road — each loaded with food, medicine and basic supplies, each driver knowing they might never be allowed to deliver them. The air was heavy with frustration and helplessness. In the limited coverage of the siege, the isolated Armenians spoke in hushed tones, their faces drawn from months of fear and deprivation. The International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to reopen the corridor, but Baku ignored it.

    I took pride when President Biden officially recognized the Armenian genocide — a moral milestone decades overdue. But his administration failed to punish Azerbaijan during the blockade, and it failed to prevent what came next: Azerbaijan’s full-scale military assault on Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh in September 2023. The attack lasted just 24 hours but forced more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians — virtually the entire population of the region — to flee their homes. Centuries-old communities were emptied almost overnight, and families left behind homes, businesses and places of worship, uncertain if they would ever return.

    I’ve felt conflicted watching the Trump administration’s peace-making efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On one hand, I love seeing my country, the United States, stand with Armenia and prioritize Armenian issues on the world stage. On the other, this moment feels hollow. And to me, this reflects a deeper problem: U.S. policy toward the South Caucasus has long lacked consistency, accountability and the will to confront aggressors, no matter which party is in power. And in Washington, Armenians have few friends and weak representation.

    This agreement — like much of U.S. foreign policy in the current administration — is unmistakably transactional. Armenia gains U.S. security assurances and cooperation on artificial intelligence, including support for an emerging AI hub, which is meant to anchor its Western trajectory. Azerbaijan walks away with de facto immunity instead of being held accountable for its actions against the Armenians of Artsakh, as well as arms sales and a transit corridor to Turkey. The United States gets a geopolitical trophy: Trump’s name on the corridor to Turkey, leverage in the region and an apparent diplomatic “win” to market at home.

    But this deal is far from complete. It omits the right of return for displaced Armenians to Artsakh, ignores the destruction of Armenians’ towns, homes and businesses, makes no commitment to preserve Artsakh’s cultural heritage and says nothing about prisoners of war. For many in the Armenian diaspora, these are glaring and unacceptable omissions.

    On paper, the newly named Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, the link from Azerbaijan to Turkey, is billed as a neutral, cooperative route to be administered by the U.S. In reality, it raises serious questions about Armenia’s sovereignty. The corridor will run through Armenia’s southern Syunik province — its only direct land link to Iran — and could weaken Yerevan’s ability to fully control its own borders, regulate trade and ensure unimpeded access to a vital southern lifeline.

    At best, the Aug. 8 agreement offers a slim hope for a real resolution of the region’s conflicts. If implemented fully, it could help build a more stable and prosperous Armenia for future generations. The challenge is in ensuring this deal yields a U.S. investment in reconstruction, accountability and lasting security, something more than a photo op.

    And even incomplete, flawed agreements can create openings. Armenia’s pivot West, which the deal underlines, carries risk, but it also offers the possibility of stronger security partnerships, economic renewal and cultural preservation, if those benefits reach the people who have endured war and blockade, not just the leaders who signed the papers. In recent years, Armenia has seen a surprising economic boom, driven by tech investment, tourism and a wave of returning diaspora talent. This fragile momentum could be strengthened or squandered depending on what comes next.

    I respect President Trump for pursuing peace agreements — leaders everywhere should make peace their highest priority. The Armenian American students I met on Aug. 8, who carry the inherited pain of their parents and grandparents, deserve more than symbolic gestures or transactional deals. They deserve justice and the freedom to envision a better future for their ancestors’ homeland. Ultimately, that is the hope we all share.

    Jirair Ratevosian served as senior policy advisor for the State Department in the Biden administration.

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    Jirair Ratevosian

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