The Alliance for Progress As an Instrument of Capitalism and Democracy: A Case Study of U.S. Involvement in Pre-revolutionary Nicaragua

U.S. foreign policy in regard to Latin America has been one in which the United States has sought to protect its own political, economic, and strategic interests within the Western Hemisphere. Since the Spanish-American War, the United States has assumed an aggressive and oftentimes intrusive role in Latin American affairs as a guard against a variety of real and potential threats to North American ascendancy. Yet in addition to periodic military interventions on the part of U.S. marines, the United States has attempted to foster capitalism and democracy in the region in hopes of achieving a certain degree of political and economic stability which might provide a deterrent to foreign domination. Over the course of this paper, I carefully illustrate how the Alliance for Progress failed in its efforts to bring both economic prosperity and democratic reform to the majority of Nicaraguans. Moreover, I demonstrate how the Alliance became a mechanism for the state and national elites to expand their own economic enterprises to the detriment of those less privileged. But before such conclusions are reached, this author first reviews past developments in U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America that led to the formulation of the Alliance for Progress. Second, there is an examination of the political, social, and economic structures specific to Nicaragua. Last, I discuss the implementation and outcome of the Alliance for Progress in Nicaragua within the context of the aforementioned dynamics.