Past events aren't a definite excuse for today's situations. Yeah, the U.S. interfered in many countries, including some that are super successful today, e.g., Taiwan and South Korea.
But many Latin Americans never stop blaming U.S. interventions for everything. Of course, blame a boogeyman instead of wreckless internal economic policies.
Yes, that's exactly why Russia was meddling and Bashar al-Assad was torturing/raping/murdering: to keep that pesky Western influence away.
The noble citizens of Syria obviously accept these human rights violations as a much better option than... allowing decadent Western concepts like "liberal democracy" or "pluralism" into their country.
That's why they're sitting peacefully and not putting their lives on the line for the prospect of a risky future that only seems better compared to a present full of horror, right?
Unfortunately, like in Asia or Europe, the US never stopped interfering in the democratic process of South America. Still today, many of those countries are defacto western colonies and lack any independence. And the few who dare proclaiming themselves as Republics tend to end up on western blacklists.
Still today, many of those countries are defacto western colonies and lack any independence.
Can you name even one?
The only one to which the phrase "lacks any independence" could meaningfully apply is Puerto Rico. But even that's not really true, as it continually holds status referenda in favor of actually joining the US over independence. Most recently by a margin of 50-30 - and just a few weeks ago, in fact.
Argentine here — the US helped the military coup that overthrew democracy in Argentina and waged a "Dirty War" that saw people drugged and thrown out of helicopters. People born in the 70s grew up while that was happening. It's still living memory.
The US (and other western countries) dictate the price of raw material exports, and drain countries like Argentina of the best talent. They dictate freight rates. To the extent western capital is willing to invest in the country, it is to build roads/rails that take raw materials from the countryside to the ports in Buenos Aires so that a small class of bourgeois vendidos can sell out the nation's national wealth like a fire sale.
Macri is beloved by western media because he's willing to let the IMF and Federal Reserve dictate social policy in Argentina. Slash pensions, crush labor power, etc. My family voted for him and now my grandma needs us to send more dollars over so she can afford to live. Lot of parallels IMO to people on public assistance voting for Trump in the US. There were other solutions possible besides austerity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...