Almost all Latin American crises of the 1960s and 1970s were influenced by the USA. Whether it was Brazil's dictatorship, the coup in Chile or the Cuban Missile Crisis - at some level, American politics were involved.
Brazil's first "national security" dictatorship was established in 1964 with the support of the United States. Washington, fearing an expansion of a perceived communist threat following the Cuban Revolution, rallied behind the coup leaders - making Brazil the first "national security" dictatorship in the region. Many opponents of the regime fled to Chile, where Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup - also with the support of the United States. Almost simultaneously, the secret services of Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay joined forces under the code name "Operation Condor" to track down and eliminate their opponents.
But in Nicaragua, a bloody civil war broke out and brought the leftist Sandinistas to power. This gave rise to a period of hope across the continent for greater independence from the United States. But Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981 marked a new era in relations with Latin America.
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