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.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Policy Of The Ronald Reagan Administration
Famous quotes related to latin america:
“Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)