How China is Using Latin America to Threaten the US

China's global influence continues to grow as it has partnered with Latin American countries, gaining a foothold closer to the United States. In today's video, we delve into how China has managed to seize Latin America from the US and why gaining access to the West is a major advantage to China.

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[Girli-ul]

As a Latin American i can assure you that we much rather Chinese soft power than American hard power.

[AzureSkyCiel]

"How could China steal Latin America [from the U.S.]?"

I think it has something to do with the U.S.'s previous policies on Latin America involving funding terrorist groups in the name of preventing Communism all for the sake of protecting fruit imports.

[edgarrobledo]

The problem is that the United States often treats Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, as if they are merely sources of economic gain. Instead, the United States should aim to treat Mexico as a valuable partner, rather than a subordinate or inferior entity. Unfortunately, current policies and actions by the United States government appear to be pushing Mexico in a direction that does not prioritize a healthy and equitable relationship between the two countries.

[Daniboy]

Here are some USA interventions that make we, Latin Americans, so skeptical about the U.S.:

*• 🇦🇷 Argentina:*
The 1976 coup d'état was tacitly supported by the U.S. during Gerald Ford's presidency.
The American government would also go on to politically support the brutal Argentine Military Dictatorship until 1982, when the Falklands War happened and the U.S. sided with the UK.

*• 🇧🇴 Bolivia:*
The U.S. government supported the 1971 coup d'état led by General Hugo Banzer that toppled President Juan José Torres, replacing a military dictatorship with another military dictatorship.

*• 🇧🇷 Brazil:*
João Goulart was the president of Brazil since 1961, in this year, the Brazilian president Jânio Quadros resigned, and he, as the democratically elected vice-president, assumed power, however, his process of becoming president was chaotic since a part of the population and politicians accused him of being a communist, and even tried to block him from assuming power, he in the end was successful but there still were many conspiracies in the population and military that accused him of being a communist, the Brazilian relations with the U.S. during his presidency soured.
Political tensions within Brazil ended up on the military taking over the government and overthrowing João Goulart in 1964 through a coup d'état, in which the U.S. sent their Navy and Air Force to support the Brazilian military rebels through Operation Brother-Sam.
The U.S. also politically supported the Brazilian Military Dictatorship that followed the coup d'état until its end in 1985.

*• 🇨🇱 Chile:*
Since 1970, Chile was governed by the democratically elected marxist Salvador Allende, who was doing socialist reforms throughout the country, the American president Richard Nixon, in fear of Chile "becoming another Cuba", ordered an "Economic War" agaisnt Chile, the Chilean economy soured, and political tensions in the country begin to rise.
In the end, the U.S. backed a coup d'état that happened in 1973 putting general Augusto Pinochet into power, starting a period of military dictatorship until 1990.
During this period, the Americans retained close relations with Augusto Pinochet.

*• 🇨🇺 Cuba:*
After 6 years of effort, U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista's authoritarian government was finally overthrown in 1959 by the Cuban Revolution, however, the new government that surged was a socialist one, which worried the U.S., who imposed an economic embargo on Cuba that is on force to this day.
In 1961, the U.S. trained some exiled Cuban soldiers and sent them to the Bay of Pigs to attempt an invasion, which failed, Cuba then to protect itself from another U.S. invasion, asked for defense to the Soviet Union, which later led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
(I am NOT defending Fidel Castro, ok?)

*• 🇬🇹 Guatemala:*
After decades of dictatorship, the Guatemalan Revolution finally returned the country to a free and fair liberal democracy in 1944, after some years, Jacobo Árbenz was elected in 1951, and he started making some changes within Guatemala, that envolved taking unused owned land and giving to the poor people to profit, these changes affected the United Fruit Company, an extremely powerful American company that owned a lot of Guatemalan land, the UFC after seeing its land being taken away, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government, accusing Jacobo Árbenz of being communist.
In the end, a coup d'état with direct involvement from the U.S. took place on 1954, Jacobo Árbenz was overthrown and Castillo Armas assumed power as a military dictator, putting the country back into a period of military dictatorship again.
Later political chaos ended up on a 36 year long civil war (1960–1996), that resulted in almost 200, 000 deaths, with the majority of these deaths being from indiginous people.

*• 🇭🇹 Haiti:*
The U.S. military occupied Haiti July 28, 1915, when 330 U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the National City Bank of New York convinced the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, to take control of Haiti's political and financial interests.
The invasion and subsequent occupation was promoted by growing American business interests in Haiti, especially the National City Bank of New York, which had withheld funds from Haiti and paid rebels to destabilize the nation through the Bank of the Republic of Haiti with an aim at inducing American intervention.

*• 🇭🇳 Honduras:*
In 2009, the U.S. supported a coup d'état that overthrowed the president Manuel Zelaya and brought up an interim government led by Roberto Micheletti into power.
Although many agree that Manuel Zelaya was indeed doing illegal things during his presidency, it is important to note that the military of the interim government that assumed after the coup d'état was responsible for many human right abuses in clashes with pro-Zelaya protesters.

*• 🇵🇦 Panama:*
The U.S. was a close ally of the military dictator Manuel Noriega until his involvement in racketeering and drug trafficking started to be exposed, the U.S. after seeing those crimes started to be "ashamed" of him, and in 1989 he was deposed in an American invasion.

*• 🇵🇾 Paraguay:*
The U.S. supported Alfredo Stroessner's military dictatorship that lasted 35 years, this was because of Stroessner's anti-communist policies and participation in Operation Condor, which earned him the support of the U.S.

*• 🇲🇽 Mexico:*
In 1913, during the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. supported a coup d'état that overthrowed the democratically elected however somewhat unpopular president Francisco I. Madero, putting general Victoriano Huerta into power as a military dictator, this event became known as the "Ten Tragic Days".
This instigated a new phase of the Mexican Revolution, where all warring factions united to take Victoriano Huerta out of power.

*• 🇳🇮 Nicaragua:*
In 1912, during the Banana Wars period, the U.S. occupied Nicaragua as a means of protecting American business interests and protecting the rights that Nicaragua granted to the United States to construct a canal there.
The intervention, utilizing the U.S. Marine Corps, was sparked by a rebellion that opposed the United States. After quelling the rebellion, the U.S. continued occupying Nicaragua until 1933, when President Herbert Hoover officially ended the occupation.

*• 🇵🇪 Peru:*
The U.S. supported Francisco Morales Bermúdez's military dictatorship as part of Operation Condor, and funded anti-communist actions from the oppresive regime.

*• 🇺🇾 Uruguay:*
The U.S. politically supported the Uruguayan civic-military dictatorship from 1973 to 1985, because of its anti-communist policies, the U.S. even funded the regime as part of Operation Condor.


All these things that I mentioned caused deaths, disappearances, conflicts and an overall deep damage throughout Latin America, *that's why some of us prefer China over the United States, * it is not necessarily because China is _"better", _ (China has done pretty bad things here too), but because the U.S. has such a bad history and reputation here, especially with people who have lost family members in the conflicts above.

[paraptorkeetcreations]

You completely left off what America and our corporations have done to Latin America since the 70s. Most of those countries have legitimate beef with us.

[GraniteInTheFace]

Using the words like stealing influence implies that the US owned Latin America. Which might be true considering what they did to steal Latin America in the first place.

[tyrael]

It's so hypocritical to say that China is a villain here. As if USA hasn't been treating South America like that before them.

[lotusnegra]

"When China invests in a country, it's not out of the kindness of their hearts but because they expect a return on their investment in the future"

You don't tell me??

So US just gives money freely to countries?

[Jenni_Franca]

As a latin american, only one of these two countries helped overthrowing democracy and installing a military dictatorship in my country so 🤷‍♀️ Hint: it was NOT China

[christianwagschal]

I love how this video implies the status quo american colonialism was benevolent

[BantuEconomicServices]

imagine calling china the bad guy for doing a softer version of what america does

[lotusnegra]

It's funny how the video treats China as the villain and US as the heroes, like how US doesn't do to Latin America exactly the same thing China does.

[jeanelle]

You can´t steal something that never belonged to someone else in the first place.

[ShinigamiInuyasha]

US: Why? WHY DO YOU GO WITH CHINA DON'T YOU SEE THEY'RE EVIL?
LATAM: You've done worse to us
US: BUT I DO IT WITH GRACE!

[kilian]

This video was very imbalanced in how it portrayed both the USA and China, it could've been done in a much better way. Also Latin America is not a "thing" to be lost

[G]

Latin America was left alone by the United States if you ignore the severe revolutions you’ve caused

[ARES-zffz]

This video was very informative and accurate in many ways. However you seem to think anyone owned us or whatever. China is not a threat to us but a better business partner. Another big factor is the anti Americanism that has presence across all the American continent, and was very well earned to say the least. China is not getting closer to us, we are both getting closer to each other because it is for good economical purposes. We are not the US so we don’t have any sort of anti Chinese vision or whatever. We want what’s better for us with whoever is more convenient. If the video wanted to make China bad and the US look good, it did the exact opposite.

[ricardosandoval]

As a Mexican it's actually really surprising that fact that U.S is losing a lot of power over Mexico I don't know if it's because every country is stating to become tired of U.S bullying but they are losing a lot of the influence around the world

[Daniesalvesguigui]

I love how disconnected from reality some americans seem to be, i know it is not like that with everyone, but the way this guy talks about this topic makes it look like the countries in question are just puppets states LOL

[granatmof]

South American Countries have to look to their own self interest. The US has undermined democracies in South America for the last Century and a half. Maybe if the US viewed South American Countries as allies instead of puppets it would be different. This is chickens coming home to roost. It will become ironic when Cuba and Mexico hosts Chinese military bases

When you look at relationships with India and other countries that play both sides you'll see its fairly strait forward in the future for better relationships on equal terms for US relations in the future.