II.

The Cold War Years

During the Cold War period, which began after World War II ended in 1945, the United States largely viewed the OAS as an instrument for controlling and protecting Latin America from the threat of Communism. The United States sponsored military operations against leftist movements in Guatemala in 1954 and Cuba in the early 1960s, and against the Dominican Republic reformist government in 1965. Opposition among Latin Americans to the long history of U.S. military and political intervention in the region limited OAS support for these operations.

While the United States used the OAS primarily to combat Soviet Union influence in the hemisphere, Latin American countries emphasized the organization’s role in supporting economic development efforts. Establishment of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in 1959 and the Alliance for Progress in 1961 launched a decade of efforts by member nations to link regional security and economic development.

In the 1970s the OAS lost influence in Latin America. Détente between the United States and the Soviet Union eased Cold War tensions. As a result, U.S. interest in promoting regional economic development to enhance regional security declined. At the same time, Latin American nations, seeking greater independence from the United States, minimized the role of the OAS, which they generally viewed as an instrument of U.S. domination. In 1975 Latin American nations established the Latin American Economic System, an organization for regional cooperation that excluded the United States but included Cuba. In 1979 the United States failed in its efforts to use the OAS to mediate the civil war between Nicaragua’s Somoza regime and the advancing Sandinista revolutionaries. In the 1980s, significant multilateral initiatives in Latin America—such as the effort by the Contadora group (Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela) to establish regional peace in Central America—occurred outside the framework of the OAS.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the OAS committed itself to addressing widespread violations of human rights in Latin America. To some extent, the limited success of the OAS in this area laid a foundation for the revival of the organization. In 1978 the OAS-sponsored American Convention on Human Rights took place, leading to the establishment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and a strengthened Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.