On Jan. 3, 2026, President Donald Trump authorized an attack on Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his rendition to New York. Once there, he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
While the episode was a departure from more recent, comparatively hands-off American policy in the region, it was very much aligned with a long post-World War II history of U.S. interventions designed to change unfriendly regimes into friendly ones. In addition to direct military interventions, the CIA supported numerous coups across the region during the Cold War.
Guatemala, 1954
The first major post-World War II intervention was in Guatemala. “Using psychological warfare, propaganda and economic pressure, the CIA helped create a rebel army that toppled the Guatemalan government” of Jacobo Árbenz in 1954, said Responsible Statecraft. The leader’s land reforms had been “met with fierce opposition from Guatemala's elite and the U.S. government, which had economic interests” tied to the United Fruit Company. As a ploy for stability, it didn’t work — Guatemala suffered through a 36-year civil war that began in 1960 and experienced multiple coups.
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Cuba, 1961
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized a covert program to train 1,400 Cuban exiles in Guatemala to invade and topple the still-young communist regime of Fidel Castro. A series of strategic errors, including the failure to keep the plans a secret along with a misappraisal of the Castro government’s military capabilities, led to an embarrassing disaster.
The exile force landed at the Bay of Pigs on the morning of April 17 and was immediately pinned down. More than 100 were killed and Kennedy was forced to bargain for the more than 1,200 survivors who were taken prisoner. A “major embarrassment for the United States and the Kennedy administration,” the Bay of Pigs fiasco “strengthened Castro’s power in Cuba and pushed him to pursue closer relations with the Soviet Union,” said The New York Times.
Brazil, 1964
In 1964, the U.S. threw its support behind a military coup to oust Brazilian President João Goulart. The U.S. “launched Operation Brother Sam, a plan to lend logistical support to the Brazilian military’s effort to take control of the Brazilian government,” said the Library of Congress, although “additional material support proved unnecessary” to complete the coup. The military would rule for the next 21 years as a close Cold War ally of the United States before a transition to democracy took place in 1985.
The Dominican Republic, 1965
In 1963, the U.S. had backed a coup against the democratically elected leftist government of Juan Bosch. In 1965, pro-Bosch military forces launched their own rebellion against the junta and the country was plunged into civil war. Under the pretext of protecting American citizens and preventing the emergence of another Castro-like regime, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the deployment of 42,000 Marines to the capital of Santo Domingo on April 28, 1965, where they collaborated with forces loyal to the junta and quickly defeated the rebels.
The following year, Bosch was defeated at the ballot box by junta-backed former president Joaquín Balaguer. During 12 years of “harsh rule” under Balaguer, “democracy was trampled, corruption ran rampant and social reform was denied,” said The Wilson Center.
Bolivia, 1971
While much less well-known than the 1973 coup in Chile, the CIA also provided support in 1971 to oust the leftist government of President Juan José Torres in Bolivia. Torres was replaced by a lengthy military dictatorship led by Hugo Banzer, during which “more than 14,000 Bolivians were arrested without a judicial order, more than 8,000 were tortured — with electricity, water, beatings — and more than 200 were executed or disappeared,” said Harper’s Magazine. The country remains politically troubled today.
Chile, 1973
The CIA backed the ouster of the democratically elected government of socialist President Salvador Allende in 1973. While the agency had a more prominent role in a failed 1970 coup attempt ordered by U.S. President Richard Nixon, the 1973 coup is widely considered one of the worst offenses of American foreign policymakers during the Cold War. Allende committed suicide that year when it was clear the coup had succeeded. His successor, General Augusto Pinochet, ruled with an iron fist for 17 years, leaving behind a trail of “40,175 victims, including torture, executions, detentions and disappearances,” said Amnesty International.
Nicaragua, 1979
A socialist government led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front took power in Nicaragua in 1979, and the recently inaugurated administration of Ronald Reagan wanted to overthrow the government as part of its Cold War policy of “rollback” against communist regimes. Reagan “approved an operation in which the CIA would aid Nicaraguan rebel insurgents — who were fighting the newly established socialist Sandinista government — with the goal of preventing the spread of Communism,” said The Miller Center. Because Congress refused to allocate money for Reagan’s Nicaragua venture, the campaign also led to the Iran-Contra scandal when the U.S. sold weapons to Iran and used the proceeds to back the Contras.
Grenada, 1983
The long shadow of the Bay of Pigs could be seen in the U.S. invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada, with a population of less than 100,000 people, in 1983. A socialist government had seized power in a bloodless coup in 1979, led by Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Fearing a growing alliance with Castro’s Cuba and fixated on Bishop’s plans to build an international airport capable of accommodating Soviet aircraft, President Ronald Reagan planned for an invasion and finally got his opportunity when military hardliners deposed and later executed Bishop. On Oct. 25, 1983, Reagan dispatched a small combined military force to overthrow the regime. The intervention was “popular within the United States, serving as proof of concept that Reagan was a tough anti-Communist,” said The National Interest.
Panama, 1989
Before the Persian Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush authorized an invasion of Panama to topple the country’s de facto dictator, General Manuel Noriega. It was a dizzying turn of events, given that Noriega was only recently considered a reliable Cold War ally and CIA informant who had provided intelligence to the U.S. about leftist movements for decades. But his deepening involvement with Colombia’s Medellín Cartel and increasingly authoritarian rule triggered a crisis that Bush resolved with a swift invasion that began on Dec. 20, 1989, and concluded with Noriega’s surrender to U.S. forces just two weeks later. His overthrow was a “decisive assertion of U.S. military force for a new American president in a moment of global tumult,” said The New Yorker.
Haiti, 1994
In 1991, the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown in a military coup. The resulting military junta compiled a horrific human rights record and instigated a mass migration of Haitians to the United States, which became a campaign issue in the 1992 presidential election. The new administration of Bill Clinton began preparing to overthrow the junta. Ultimately, the U.S. did not have to fire any shots. With “American planes in the air” carrying 3,900 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, the “generals buckled and agreed to leave” on Sept. 16, 1994. U.S. forces ended up facilitating the transfer of power back to Aristide rather than fighting the Haitian military. The intervention “has been all but forgotten by many Americans,” but may have been a “key contributor to many of the problems that now endure in Haiti,” said Time.
