Today in History - Nov 18 - Invasion of Nicaragua

November 18 is the anniversary of the Invasion of Nicaragua in 1909. Warships were sent off the coast in preparations for an invasion to remove the elected leader of Nicaragua, José Zelaya.

Zelaya was a liberal president with big dreams. He sought to achieve economic independence from the US, and possibly even reunite the nation of Central America, which had broken up over 50 years earlier. These policies were of course not well received by the US. To make matters worse, rumours were spreading that Zelaya had intended to build a Nicaraguan Canal, which would compete with the American Panama Canal.

Clashes between Zelaya and American oligarchs had been occuring with regularity for years. The American capitalists would make grand deals with the government, but refuse to hold up their end of the bargain. Zelaya was beginning to crack down on them. The capitalists would invariably complain to the US state department, who would then react angrily towards Nicaragua.

Eventually, the US regime decided that something had to be done. They launched a propaganda campaign to drum up support for a war. Every time a misbehaving American oligarch was punished, the media would write over the top stories about Zelaya's "reign of terror". The US president said that the US "would no longer tolerate and deal with such a medieval despot".

So they began planning a coup. They provided funding to the conservative opposition leader and conspired to organise a coup against Zelaya. An army was quickly assembled, and set out to depose Zelaya. It was mired in mud and incompetence, and quickly collapsed. During the fighting, two American mercenaries were captured. They were executed for attempting to overthrow the government.

This provided the US with the flimsy excuse to invade that they so desperately wanted. Claiming that they needed to protect American lives, they invaded and installed a new leader of their choice. Two years later, the US fully occupied the country. They wouldn't leave until 1933, but of course they'll never stop meddling. Today Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, and the political situation is a mess. Which of course was the goal.