National Security adviser John Bolton invokes the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 to justify the United States meddling in Venezuelan affairs. Today we are in conversation about the history of the Monroe Doctrine, what it is, and how it has changed throughout the years.
Guest: Grace Livingstone is a journalist and academic, specializing in Latin American affairs and history. She has covered Venezuela closely for several outlets including the Guardian, and The Observer among others. Dr. Livingston is a lecturer at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge and a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of such books as America’s Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror; Britain and the Dictatorships of Argentina and Chile; Inside Colombia: Drugs, Democracy, and War
America’s Backyard
reveals the US role in the darkest periods of Latin American history, including Pinochet’s coup in Chile, the Contra War in Nicaragua and the death squads in El Salvador. It shows how George W. Bush’s administration used the War on Terror as a new pretext for intervention; how it tried to destabilize left wing governments and push back the ‘pink tide’ washing across the Americas