A running list of US interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean after World War II
Nicolás Maduro isn’t the first regional leader to be toppled directly or indirectly by the US
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 .