The Cold War in Latin America: Timeline of Key Events and Individuals

1899

The United Fruit Company was founded; it later became a powerful foreign corporation in Guatemala.

1954

The CIA launched Operation PBSUCCESS to overthrow Árbenz using propaganda, opposition forces, and economic pressure.

1953

Fidel Castro led a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba and was arrested.

1956

Castro returned to Cuba from exile in Mexico with a small rebel force, including Che Guevara.

Early 20th century

Guatemala experienced extreme land inequality, with a small elite controlling most land while many Indigenous Maya peasants remained landless.

1951

Jacobo Árbenz was democratically elected president of Guatemala.

1952

Árbenz introduced Decree 900, an agrarian reform law that redistributed unused land to landless families.

Early 1950s

The United States viewed Árbenz's reforms through the Cold War policy of containment and feared Guatemala could become communist.

1954

Árbenz resigned and Carlos Castillo Armas came to power, making Guatemala an example of successful US-backed covert intervention.

1959

Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba and Fidel Castro took power after the Cuban Revolution.

1959-1960

Castro introduced reforms such as land redistribution, nationalisation, free healthcare, and free education.

1960

Cuba aligned more closely with the Soviet Union, and the United States imposed trade embargoes.

1960-1961

The CIA trained around 1,400 Cuban exiles in Guatemala to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro.

15 April 1961

Initial US-backed air strikes against Cuba failed to destroy Castro's air force.

17 April 1961

Cuban exiles from Brigade 2506 landed at the Bay of Pigs.

April 1961

The Bay of Pigs invasion collapsed within three days, embarrassing Kennedy and strengthening Castro.

14 October 1962

A US U-2 spy plane photographed Soviet missile sites being built in Cuba.

16 October 1962

President Kennedy was informed of the Soviet missiles and began secret meetings with his advisers.

22 October 1962

Kennedy announced a naval quarantine of Cuba in a televised address.

24 October 1962

The naval quarantine went into effect, and some Soviet ships turned back.

26 October 1962

Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message suggesting the possibility of a negotiated settlement.

27 October 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis reached one of its most dangerous points as Kennedy and Khrushchev exchanged messages.

28 October 1962

Khrushchev agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba.

1963

A direct Hotline was established between the US and USSR after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963

The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed, showing some easing of Cold War tensions.

1970

Salvador Allende was democratically elected president of Chile as leader of the Popular Unity coalition.

1970

Nixon ordered the CIA to prevent Allende from taking office or create conditions to overthrow him later.

1970-1973

Allende pursued the "Chilean road to socialism" through democratic and constitutional methods.

1970-1973

Chile experienced inflation, shortages, strikes, protests, and political polarisation under Allende.

11 September 1973

The Chilean military launched a coup against Allende; La Moneda was attacked and Allende died.

1973

General Augusto Pinochet became the leading figure in Chile's military junta.

1973-1990

Pinochet ruled Chile as an anti-communist military dictator.

1970s

Operation Condor coordinated repression between right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America.

1990

Pinochet's dictatorship ended and Chile began transitioning away from military rule.

United Fruit Company

A powerful American corporation that dominated Guatemala's banana industry, controlled land and infrastructure, and influenced US concerns about Árbenz's reforms.

Jacobo Árbenz

The democratically elected president of Guatemala who introduced land reform and was overthrown in the 1954 CIA-backed coup.

Carlos Castillo Armas

The pro-American Guatemalan military leader who came to power after Árbenz was overthrown in 1954.

John Foster Dulles

The US Secretary of State during the Guatemalan Coup who helped frame Guatemala as a communist threat.

CIA

The US intelligence agency involved in covert operations in Latin America, including Operation PBSUCCESS in Guatemala and the Bay of Pigs plan against Cuba.

Fulgencio Batista

The US-backed Cuban dictator overthrown by Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel Castro

The Cuban revolutionary leader who overthrew Batista in 1959, introduced socialist reforms, and aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union.

Che Guevara

An Argentine Marxist revolutionary who helped Castro's rebel movement during the Cuban Revolution.

John F. Kennedy

The US president during the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis.

Brigade 2506

The group of Cuban exiles trained by the CIA to invade Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Nikita Khrushchev

The Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis who agreed to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba.

Salvador Allende

The democratically elected socialist president of Chile who pursued the "Chilean road to socialism" and was overthrown in 1973.

Richard Nixon

The US president who opposed Allende and authorised CIA efforts to undermine his government.

Henry Kissinger

Nixon's National Security Adviser who played a key role in US Cold War policy toward Chile.

Augusto Pinochet

The Chilean general who became dictator after the 1973 coup and ruled Chile until 1990.

Popular Unity

A left-wing Chilean coalition that supported Salvador Allende and his democratic socialist programme.

Operation PBSUCCESS

The CIA-backed covert operation that overthrew Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954.

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