Poison Cigars Propaganda and Coups Litter C I A History in Latin America hbx media net checksync php Alan Yuhas October 16 2025 Fidel Castro whom the C I A made at least eight plots against speaking with reporters in 1964 in a car An assault rifle lies in the seat pocket Credit Jack Manning The New York Times By Alan Yuhas Oct 16 2025 The United States has a long and often sordid history of intervening in Latin America Washington once went to war with Mexico landed troops on Cuba and invaded Panama to depose its ruler But for much of the 20th century U S involvement in the region was in the hands of the C I A Now long after the Cold War’s end the Trump administration has secretly authorized the agency to conduct covert action in Venezuela according to U S officials stepping up a campaign against the country’s authoritarian leader President Nicolás Maduro 1 7 The order has once again raised the specter of operations by an agency that had its hands in coups assassination plots and the contra fight against Nicaragua’s leftist government in the 1980s Here are some of those high-profile operations 2 7 A coup in Guatemala Image Guatemala’s elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán left with Luis I Rodríguez a senator from Mexico in 1954 Credit Bettmann via Getty Images 3 7 When Guatemala’s democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán was overthrown in a coup in 1954 the Eisenhower administration described it as an uprising against a Communist government allied with the Soviet Union But the coup had been supported by the C I A which drew up assassination lists and discussed recruiting exiles to take part according to files released decades later President Dwight D Eisenhower approved a request to give the insurgents bombers and C I A pilots helped build an opposition force Mr Árbenz had also made powerful enemies in a major U S corporation the United Fruit Company His government had tried to confiscate unused land owned by the company to redistribute it under a land reform plan and to pay compensation for the understated value the company had claimed on tax payments After the coup Guatemala fell into three decades of civil war under a series of military leaders An investigation by the Roman Catholic Church found that 150 000 people were killed and 50 000 were forcibly disappeared in the conflict estimating that 80 percent of the casualties were caused by Guatemalan troops The Bay of Pigs invasion Image Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro looking out from a tank during the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961 Credit Raul Corrales GRANMA via Associated Press 4 7 After Fidel Castro swept to power in Cuba in 1959 his government’s relations with Washington swiftly unraveled The C I A soon began making invasion plans helping arm and train an anti-Castro force at a secret base in Guatemala The agency carried out the disastrous attack in April 1961 The plan called for Cuban exiles backed by the C I A to overthrow Mr Castro’s Communist government as C I A pilots bombed part of the Cuban air force About 1 500 Cuban exiles were dropped on the island outnumbered underequipped and quickly defeated by the Cuban military which captured nearly 1 200 of them A scathing 150-page review into the operation found that almost none of the C I A officers involved spoke Spanish and that it had created a “complex and bizarre organizational situation” with little chance of success “The agency was going forward without knowing precisely what it was doing ” the report said Assassination attempts Image The automobile where Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina the authoritarian leader of the Dominican Republic was assassinated in 1961 outside the Dominican capital Credit Bettmann via Getty Images The C I A made at least eight plots to kill Mr Castro according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report that was partly released in 1975 and fully disclosed long afterward 5 7 Some plots went much further than others One scheme “involving the use of underworld figures ” went so far as to send poison pills to Cuba and dispatch teams there the report said Another plan involved giving weapons and other assassination devices to a Cuban dissident including a poison pen The agency also explored plots to use cigars treated with a botulinum toxin an “exotic seashell” rigged to explode in an area where the Cuban leader went diving and a diving suit contaminated by the bacteria that causes tuberculosis The C I A also supplied weapons to the dissidents who assassinated Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina the authoritarian leader of the Dominican Republic in 1961 And a C I A agent also helped a team of Bolivian soldiers capture Che Guevara in 1967 in a mission that ended with Guevara’s execution A ‘coup climate’ in Chile Image Chilean Army troops firing on La Moneda the presidential palace in Santiago Chile on Sept 11 1973 during a coup led by Gen Augusto Pinochet As soon as Salvador Allende took office as the Socialist president of Chile in 1970 the Nixon administration began planning action against him worried he could become a model for other countries The C I A sought to “create a coup climate” by maximizing pressure on the Chilean government according to declassified U S documents 6 7 The covert operations included a C I A -funded anti-government propaganda media campaign blocking loans to Chile from multilateral financial institutions offering secret funds to foment strikes and assuring the Chilean military it had full U S support Handwritten notes by the C I A director at the time showed some of the president’s instructions “One in 10 chance perhaps but save Chile” “not concerned risks involved” “full-time job — best men we have” “make the economy scream ” 50 Years Ago a Bloody Coup Ended Democracy in Chile A Senate committee investigating covert actions in Chile found that there was little evidence linking the U S government to direct involvement in the military coup that came to pass according to the State Department In that coup in September 1973 surrounded in the besieged presidential palace Mr Allende eventually ordered everyone still with him to surrender He stayed behind and shot himself The military junta was led by Gen Augusto Pinochet who for the next 16 years consolidated power in a repressive regime accused of widespread torture executions and disappearances 7 7