Foreign Policy of The Ronald Reagan Administration - Latin America

Latin America

Reagan supported democratic transitions in Bolivia (1982), Honduras (1981), Argentina (1983), Brazil (1985), Uruguay (1984), Guatemala (1983), and Suriname (1987). His support for contra rebels in Nicaragua was controversial, due to some commentators labeling them as terrorists. Support for the governments of Guatemala and El Salvador was also controversial due to the nature of those governments.

In the case of 1982's Falklands War, the Reagan administration faced competing obligations to both parties in that conflict, bound to the United Kingdom as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and to Argentina by the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the "Rio Pact"). However, the North Atlantic Treaty only obliges the signatories to support if the attack occurs in Europe or North America north of the Tropic of Cancer, and the Rio Pact only obliges the U.S. to intervene if one of the adherents to the treaty was attacked—the UK never attacked Argentina, only Argentine forces on British territory. In any case, Reagan administration decisively tilted its support to the British government of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher during this conflict.