For being direct accessories to genocidal grand theft of their own countries, the following stand accused as the puppet dictators of the U.S. This Imperialist tactic goes all the way back to the Romans and their client Herod. If you ever got the impression that time was standing still and the people of the world were, for thousands of years, hanging almost endlessly in limbo waiting for something to happen, you were right.
But Herod is history and his purpose is to demonstrate how long this tactic has been around. The following list of client dictators demonstrate our problem as it stands at this moment in the eternal present waiting for the page of Imperial History to be turned. U.S. corporate progress may be achieved in the company of these tyrannical despots. The West may enjoy cheap commodities but this is what they really cost.
The information below in this Chapter has been recounted in previous chapters but here is organised by US Client Dictator. The idea is to demonstrate once more their similarity of behaviour and that none of their actions are one-offs or accidents, but part of the systematic pattern of US behaviour abroad.
Lucas (Guatemala)
1980 – US continue aid to Dictator Lucas directly and via arms from Israel, Argentina and others.
1982 – Rios Montt massacres. Amnesty report widespread massacres – destroying entire villages, tortured and mutilated locals, mass executions, burning of livestock and land. 50,000 dead in the last 2 years, most of them Mayan Indians. US aid continues.
1983 – 1 million homeless Indians. Rate of assassinations double and abductions quadruple (to 100/month).
1984 – since 1960 … 100,000 killed, 100 political assassinations/month, 10 disappearances/week, 100,000 orphans, 1/2 million displaced. 20,000 Guatemalans dying of starvation every year. Lowest life expectancy in Central America (49 years), 35% of children (up to 60% in rural areas) die before age 5, 80% of agricultural labour force in servitude to land-owners and labour contractors – a “Nation of Prisoners”. But ample resources, good economic growth, concentrated wealth. But a communist tyranny would be worse so that’s why the Americans stick with Lucas! Again demonstrating that economic growth can be a bogus indicator of progress.
Jose Napoleon Duarte (El Salvador)
1980 – Majano removed from junta, Jose Napoleon Duarte installed as President. Carter’s “Matanza 2” starts. Church Human Rights tabulates 8,062 political murders. World War 2 Italian fascist murderer Stefano delle Chiaie advises Major Roberto d’Aubuisson on anti-subversive tactics.
Colonel Ricardo Lau (Honduras)
1985 – Colonel Lau head of FDN, the main contra force aimed at Nicaragua. formerly in Somoza’s Nicaraguan National Guard before the Sandinista revolution. Now training Death Squads in El Salvador and Guatemala.
Arias (Costa Rica)
1986 – Arias’s Civil Guard violently repress a peaceful demonstration by landless campesinos. Many serious injuries.
The Somosa family (Nicaragua)
1936 – US install the first of the 41 year dynasty of client dictators – the Somoza family. In the meantime US corporations United Fruit and the Rosita Mining Company set about supplying the US commodity exchanges.
1959 – Military aid to US client Somoza rises sevenfold, economic assistance doubles.
1961 – US use Nicaragua to launch the invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
1978 – 100,000 since 1960s fled from Somoza regime.
Fulgencio Batista (Cuba)
1952 – Batista stages another coup to avoid election defeat – abolishes the constitution, dissolves congress, outlaws the Communist Party and got more aid from the US to expand the military.
General Pinochet (Chile)
1973 – Pinochet coup in Chile, backed by US and their expatriate Nazi associates in Bolivia including Klaus Barbie, notorious in France during the second World War as the “Butcher of Lyon”.
Papa Doc Duvalier (Haiti)
1957 – US client “Papa Doc” Duvalier elected. Haiti becoming a byword for poverty, repression and the notorious Tontons Macoutes, Papa Doc’s private army. US aid for the Duvalier dictatorship continued at about $70 million per year right through until the fall of Baby Doc 30 years later.
1971 – Papa Doc passes his brutal legacy to Baby Doc.
1985 – 40,000 fled since 1979.
1986 – Duvalier dictatorship falls. Baby Doc embezzles $900 million as he flees into exile.
Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic)
1937 – Trujillo kills 15-20,000 Haitians to prevent “Africanisation” of population.
1960 – Trujillo owns 65-85% of the economy, irritating the Americans. Removed. Juan Bosch elected.
1963 – Juan Bosch ousted in coup. US install Trujillo.
1965 – Bishop of Santiago reports 70% of peasants live on the border of starvation.
1965 – Constitutionalist coup to restore Bosch. 23,000 US troops invade to “protect Americans”, oust Juan Bosch for not selling plantations to US companies. Fraudulent election to legitimise invasion. Death squads, torture, repression, poverty, malnutrition, slave labour conditions, mass emigration increased, as did US investment opportunities. Subsequent “free and fair” elections the following year establish US favourite Balaguer.
1985 – Church based group report 20% of population live in absolute poverty. Central Bank report 90% malnutrition. 54% illiteracy. 63% earn less than minimum monthly wage of $58.
Diem (Vietnam)
1956 – Height of Kennedy’s anti-communist hysteria – “Vietnam represents the cornerstone of the free world in South East Asia… red tide of communism” etc. All this while the US’s dictator Diem enjoyed “inspiring political liberty” courtesy of the US, by slaughtering the locals in a typical Latin American-style terror state.
Suharto (Indonesia)
October 1965 – A CIA coup murders anti-American Generals and is blamed on the communists, although pro-American Suharto somehow survives. Second coup places Suharto at the head of a new, anti-communist Government who slaughter several hundred thousand peasants and secure Indonesia’s riches for foreign corporations. Events described by the New York Times as “a gleam of light in South East Asia” with “spectacular investment opportunities”.