La Feber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States In Central America. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1983,1984, 1993. 368 pages plus Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography.

Central America consists of five nations and the United States played a pivotal role in shaping political and economic events in the area in the twentieth century. The ABC countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Chile historically looked towards East Europe for assistance while Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica relied on the United States. The political and economic turmoil in Central America spawned this dependence on the United States and brought an amount of inequality and unrest unparalleled in other Latin American countries. Walter La Feber in Inevitable Revolutions focuses on Central America and the turbulent events that fostered interdependence on United States aid while at the same time led to an increase in popular uprisings culminating in events leading to Central American revolutionary tactics in the 1970s and 1980s.

La Feber claims that the United States’ role in Central America remained antirevolutionary, and La Feber also argues that a United States ignorance of past history in the area caused those very revolutionary movements. The United States worked with what La Feber calls the “military-oligarchy” system from 1820-1980 in Latin America. (13) The United States supported and attempted to infiltrate the foreign nations with their own ideas of capitalism. However, in the process of introducing, or continuing, capitalistic ventures, the United States tolerated brutal Latin American dictatorships that would eventually erupt into violent popular movements against the United States’ supported military-oligarchy. A lot of the United States’ actions stemmed from a fear of communist activity. This mission led the United States into methods of suppression of popular movements for equality and ignored historical indications of past Central American revolutionary tactics to create an equitable society and not one based on dependency.

A major theme in La Feber’s work centers on the dependency theory. What constitutes this popular mythology remains a vivid background for all Latin American countries. Superior powers historically usurped Latin America’s raw material resources such as mining, oil, and agriculture products only for the benefit of the foreign or multinational company who entered into Latin America. Before the United States entry into Latin America there was Spain, Britain, and to some extent Germany occupation and intervention. The exploitation of raw materials caused the countries to become dependent upon foreign imports to make up for the monoculture which developed.

Latin American countries reverted to subsistent agriculture after the wars for independence in 1810-1824. They lacked the ability, or desire, to utilize more technological factors that were sweeping across the Western Hemisphere. A desire to increase trade and dollars led to a re-opening of global trade that encouraged exports but at the same time increased imports and foreign investment. Dr. Tom O’Brien’s book The Century of U. S. Capitalism in Latin America details United States and Latin American economic relations during the twentieth century, but historically Latin American dealings with foreign capitalism has a long relationship. (for more on this subject see The Spanish American Revolutions 1808-1826 by John Lynch)

La Feber states that since 1945 the United States in particular exploited the subsistent-based agriculture that traditionally remained a central aspects of Central American survival. Not only that, La Feber claims that the United States caused the dependency to exist and some additional consequences of the monoculture were starvation and malnutrition. Also increased United States interference in Central America’s economy led to an increasing influence and pressure in Central America’s political arena. United States’ interference in Guatemala and Nicaragua especially shaped a strong military force that would continue to plague the civilian population to the present day. Economic interests such as the United Fruit Company played a key role in controlling political events out of United States companies fear of nationalization. Interestingly enough when the Alliance for Progress program instituted by President Kennedy in 1962 ended in Costa Rica revolutions erupted throughout that small democratic country. In Honduras local unrest began as early as 1950 and the population reacted strongly to tax increases which benefited only the oligarchy.

Central American countries were not without representation as local campesino movements hampered military backed coups and staged strikes that disrupted the local economies. This turmoil led the United States to view most uprisings as products of communist infiltration on the part of the government and support would go to rival liberal or conservative parties. United States trade relied on a stable local economy. Political harmony was necessary to assure this outcome. Overall La Feber sites that the United States belief in capitalism led to military brutal dictators, the support of the elite class and suppression of the lower class, and economic downfall for Central American countries by interfering in their internal affairs.