central american and the caribbean

  • haiti: the failed state

    • 1915 (intervention)

    • 1916-36 (us “protectorate”

    • history of dictatorships

      • the duvaliers; papa doc and baby doc)

    • jean-bertrand aristide (elected 1990; coup 1991; us intervenes 1994)

    • poorest nation in western hemisohere

  • dominican republic

    • 1903, 1914, 1916, 1965 (us interventions)

    • personalistic dictatorship (rafael trujillo, 1936-1961)

    • 1965-66 us occupation: 20,000 us troops

  • panama

    • 1903: independence declared from columbia with the aid of us troops and ships

    • 1904-14: building panama canal

    • 1903-1969: frequent US intervention

    • 1989: us invasion to depose manuel noriega

    • 1999: us hands over canal to panama

  • nicaragua: no more cubas

    • us intervention: 1911-1912, 1925-1933

    • augusto ceaser sandino (1895-1934)

    • somoza family

      • anastasio somoza garcia (1950-56)

      • anastasio somoza debayle (“tacho”

        • 1969-1979; assinated in exhile 1980

      • FSLN (sandinistas)

        • overthrow of somoza, 1979

        • free elections in 1990 vte out sandinistas (the first time this happens)

        • daniel ortega voted back in 2006

          • has installed family dictatorship

  • puerto rico

    • 1898: occupied by us during spanish american war

    • 1917: jones-shafroth act makes puerto ricans citizens of the us

    • 1952: pr becomes a “commonwealth” or “associated free state” within us control

    • 1967, 1993, 1998, 2012, 2017: elections held in pr to decide it’s status.

    • 2017 referendum

      • three options

        • statehood: 97%

        • independence: 1.5%

        • continue current status: 1.3%

      • problem: low voter turnout

        • only 23% voted

        • popular democratic party (PPD vote)

      • vote non binding; the us congress has the ultimate say

    • 2020 plebiscite

      • november 3rd, 2020

      • 52% for statehood

      • 47% against

      • vote non binding, us congress has the ultimate say

    • what would pr statehood mean for us politics in the 2020s?

      • a lot

      • pr has a population of 3.4 million people

        • more than 21 other states

        • 2 senators

        • 4-5 representatives

        • 6-7 electoral votes

        • other states would lose congress members

      • the electoral college would change

      • the us senate would likely be solidly democratic control

    • the coquis dilemma

      • pr, if a state of the us, would statistcially rank at or near the bottom in a range of economic and educational metrics

      • however, if it were an independent country, it would be among the most stable and prosperous in the region, but without the us aid it currently recieves