By Stansfield Smith

During the 21st century, the US, working with corporate elites, traditional oligarchies, military, and corporate media, has continually attempted coups against Latin American governments which place the needs of their people over US corporate interests.  Soft coups, a new strategy, are a significant change from the brutal 1970s military hard coups in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, etc. A central US concern in these new coups has been to maintain a legal and democratic facade as much as possible.

Successful soft coups depend on mobilizing popular forces in anti-government marches and protests. Some revolutions are heavily funded by the US and European NGOs, such as USAID, NED, National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute, Open Society Foundations, and the Ford Foundation. They make use of organizations professing “human rights” (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International), local dissident organizations, and even liberal-left media (Democracy Now) to prepare the groundwork.

Three mechanisms have proven to be successful. First, economic warfare on a country, through sanctions and outright blockades, creates discontent against the targeted government. Second, increasing use of corporate media, social media, and CIA social media to spread disinformation (around “human rights,” “democracy,” “freedom,” or “corruption”). Third, lawfare uses the appearance of democratic legality to bring down those defending their country’s national sovereignty. Related` are the electoral coups (Haiti, Honduras, and Brazil) where the US helped engineer a stolen election.

Some attempted coups failed because the people mobilized to defend their governments, and because of timely defensive solidarity declarations by the Latin American bodies of the OAS, UNASUR, and the Rio Group. Today, the Rio Group no longer exists, UNASUR is much weakened, and the OAS is now fully under US control.

US Backed Coups and Attempted Coups

2001 Haiti. Haitian paramilitaries based in the Dominican Republic launched an attack on the National Palace, seat of President Aristide’s government. The attack failed, but until 2004 these paramilitaries launched numerous raids into Haiti, playing a key role leading to the 2004 coup perpetrated directly by US troops.

2002 Venezuela. The US government partially funded and backed the short-lived April coup against Hugo Chavez.

2002-3 Venezuela. Management of the state oil company PDVSA organized an “oil strike,” actually a lockout of the oil workers, to drive Hugo Chavez out of power. This again failed in early 2003.

2003 Cuba. Before the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq, John Bolton claimed Cuba was a state sponsor of terrorism, producing biological weapons for terrorist purposes, just as Iraq was falsely claimed to have WMDs. The US increased its anti-Cuba propaganda and increased funding to “pro-democracy” groups, while anti-Cuban rightwing groups escalated activities. The US paid “dissident” groups to organize protests, then leave for the US, where they were never prosecuted. The goal was to create the appearance of disorder. Combined with alleged biological WMDs, an international intervention could thus be requested to restore order. Cuba squashed this movement.

2004 Haiti. In an older style coup, US troops invaded Haiti, kidnapped President Jean Bertrande Aristide, and exiled him to the Central African Republic.

2008 Bolivia. An attempted coup involved rightwing leaders and some indigenous groups from Bolivia’s lowlands financed by the US. Seeking to separate the richer Media Luna region from the rest of the country, in the process they killed 20 supporters of President Evo Morales. Between 2007-2015, the NED gave $10 million in funding to some 40 economic and social institutions and to NGOs. US embassy cables showed it sought to turn social and indigenous movements against the Morales government.

2009 Honduras. Honduran military forces under orders from the US seized President Manuel Zelaya, brought him to the US military base at Palmerola, then exiled him to Costa Rica. This began an era of brutal neoliberal narco-trafficking regimes that ended in 2021 with the landslide election of Xiomara Castro, Zelaya’s wife.

2010 Ecuador. In September a failed coup against President Rafael Correa by military and police units backed by the indigenous organizations CONAIE and Pachakutik. The US had infiltrated the police and armed forces, while the NED and USAID funded these indigenous organizations.

2011 Haiti. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed 200,000, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton imposed Michel Martelly as president after threatening to cut off US aid. Clinton demanded that Martelly be named one of the two runoff candidates, although not recognized as such by the Electoral Council. Despite a voter boycott, Martelly was announced as the winner of the “runoff.” One reason why most Haitians boycotted was that the most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, was excluded from the ballot. The Haiti elections were funded by USAID, Canada, the OAS, and the European Union.

2012 Paraguay. President Fernando Lugo was scapegoated for a land occupation confrontation between Campesinos and the police, which led to 17 deaths. He was removed from office without a chance to defend himself in a lawfare coup.

2013 Venezuela. After the April election that Nicolas Maduro narrowly won, Henrique Capriles, the US-supported loser, claimed the election was stolen and called his supporters to violent street protests. Due to the strength of the UNASUR countries at the time, the US could not convince other countries to reject Maduro’s victory.

2014 Venezuela. Led by Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado, the coup resulted in 43 deaths and aimed to drive President Maduro from power. Again, the US could not get other Latin American governments to denounce Maduro, either in UNASUR or in the OAS.

2015 Ecuador. Between 2012 and 2015, $30 million from NED went to political parties, trade unions, dissident movements, and media. In 2013 alone, USAID and NED spent $24 million in Ecuador. This paid off in 2015 when CONAIE, thanking USAID for its funding, called for an indigenous-led uprising. Marches began and concluded in Quito with an uprising and general strike. The attempted coup failed.

2015 Haiti. A new electoral coup for the presidency was funded by the US for $30 million. Both the US and the OAS refused Haitians’ demands to invalidate the election. Supporters of opposition parties were shot with live and rubber bullets by police, killing many. President Michel Martelly’s chosen successor Jovenel Moise became president.

2015 Guatemala. The US engineered a coup against right-wing President Otto Perez Molina because he was not sufficiently subservient.

2015 Argentina. Argentine prosecutor Alber Nisman was evidently murdered days after he made bogus criminal charges against President Cristina Fernandez, claiming she was involved in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. This was used to create a scandal, unseat her, and bring neoliberals back to power. The case was used to disrupt the Kirchner coalition from winning another presidential election.

2015-2019 El Salvador. El Salvador’s right-wing opposition backed by the US sought to destabilize the government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.  A conservative media smear campaign was launched against his administration, together with a surge in gang-driven homicides that the police chief said was part of a callous campaign to drive up body counts and remove the FMLN government. Sanchez Cerén and other former FMLN officials later became targets of a “lawfare” destabilization strategy.  

2016 Brazil. US-backed right-wing movements launched a campaign against President Dilma Rousseff of the Workers Party for “corruption.” Aided by the corporate media, they organized a series of protests in Brazil’s largest cities throughout 2015. In 2016 a massive political demonstration brought together more than 500,000 people in support of impeaching President Rousseff. She was finally impeached and removed from office in a successful lawfare coup.

2017 Venezuela. Violent protests, led by Leopoldo Lopez, sought to oust President Maduro, leading to 126 fatalities. The protests ended after the elections for the National Constituent Assembly.

2017 Honduras. The US supported an electoral coup by President Juan Orlando Hernández involving widespread electoral fraud and government killing of protesters. The US quickly recognized him as president and pressured other countries to do the same, even though the OAS itself had called for a new election.

2018 Nicaragua.  US-backed violent protests, supported by anti-FSLN media and social media disinformation campaigns, sought to remove President Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas party. After two months, public sentiment turned strongly against the violent protests and they disintegrated.

2018 Brazil. Former President Lula de Silva was the leading candidate to win the presidential election but was imprisoned due to a lawfare operation of the US and Brazil’s right-wing, using bogus corruption charges. Bolsonaro won the election, aided by a fake news operation that sent out millions of WhatsApp messages to Brazilian voters.

2019 Venezuela. In January, Juan Guaido declared himself president of Venezuela after being assured of US recognition. On April 30, the Guaido-Leopoldo Lopez’ planned uprising outside an air force base flopped. Later, a mercenary attack from Colombia failed to seize President Maduro in the presidential palace.

2019 Bolivia. The US engineered a coup against Evo Morales, using a social media campaign to falsely claim he stole the election. The OAS played a key role in legitimizing the coup. The disastrous coup government of Jeanine Anez lasted for just over one year.

2021 Cuba. The US-orchestrated and funded protests against the Cuban government in July and November. The US sought to build a new generation of counter-revolutionary leadership by creating new “independent” press and social media platforms. Again, these failed miserably.

2021 Bolivia. In October, the rightwing tried to organize a coup and general strike, demanding the release of imprisoned former President Anez. The attempt was successful only in Santa Cruz province. Later, supported conservative organizations led a rally of 1.5 million to the capital, to defend the MAS government.

2021 Peru. The right-wing oligarchy used lawfare unsuccessfully to unseat new President Castillo, a leader from the popular indigenous movement, seeking to remove him for being “permanently morally incapable.”  A newer lawfare has been brought against him for “corruption.”

2021 Nicaragua. The US planned to repeat the 2018 Nicaragua protests, combined with a concocted campaign that the Ortega government had imprisoned US-financed opposition “pre-candidates” before the presidential election. This coup attempt failed but the US and OAS refused to recognize the election results.

In 2022 we can expect the US to continue “regime change” operations against Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, and now Chile with the election of progressive President Boric.

This list of 27 US-backed coups and attempted coups in the first 21 years of this century may be incomplete. 

The US regularly interferes in what it considers its colonies to both impose neo-colonial regimes and maintain regimes that open their markets to the US without conditions. Under the facade of “democracy promotion”, Washington works to advance the exact opposite goal. Governments and leaders that stand up for their people and their national rights are the very targets of “democracy promotion” coups.

Besides US funding of NGOs and rightwing groups, many liberal and liberal-left alternative media and NGOs in the US now receive corporate funding, which pushes their political outlook. These NGOs and alternative media give a false humanitarian face to imperialist intervention.

Regime change operations are now openly being used at home against the US people, as seen in the confusion and political divisions in the US population, manufactured by the 2016 Hillary Clinton Russiagate disinformation campaign against Trump, and in the Trump 2020 stolen election disinformation campaign against the Democrats. For those opposed to US interventionism, there must be exposure of these new sophisticated methods of soft coup interference, with a demand that the sovereignty of other nations be respected, together with demands by the US people against internal manipulation by corporate rulers.

                                                                                           Source: Popular Resistance, 1/7/22