Commission on the United States Occupations in the Americas Act

First occupation of Nicaragua— On November 18, 1909, President William Howard Taft sent warships off the coast of Nicaragua to signal United States support for an uprising against Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya, whose Presidency was viewed as unfavorable to the interests of United States businesses operating in Nicaragua. While United States forces were not ordered to intervene directly, a small group of United States Marines nevertheless made landfall on the Nicaraguan coast and assisted in the successful rebellion against President Zelaya, who resigned on December 14, 1909, and later fled the country. A new pro-United States President of Nicaragua, Juan Estrada, was later installed in August 1910, due in large part to the pressure imposed by the continual presence of United States warships off the Nicaraguan coast. President Estrada’s pro-United States stances proved unpopular, and he was forced to resign in May of 1911 by the Nicaraguan Minister of War, Luis Mena. President Estrada was replaced by his Vice President, Adolfo Díaz. Nevertheless, Díaz’s close connections to the United States also made him unpopular, and in mid-1912, Nicaragua’s Constituent Assembly appointed Mena as the successor to the Presidency over Díaz. When the United States refused to recognize Mena’s Presidency as legitimate, Mena’s and Díaz’s forces clashed in July of 1912 in a full-scale civil war. Díaz requested the United States support in the war. Beginning on August 4, 1912, multiple contingents of United States Bluejackets and Marines arrived in Nicaragua and assisted Díaz’s forces, resulting in Díaz’s victory on October 6, 1912, when his forces captured the city of Leon, Nicaragua. Although only 7 members of the United States military died in the conflict, the war nevertheless resulted in approximately 2,000 total casualties. The United States withdrew most of its forces toward the end of October 1912. However, a smaller contingent of approximately 100 Marines would remain in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua for over a decade before eventually withdrawing in August 1925.

First occupation of Mexico— On April 21, 1914, at the order of President Woodrow Wilson, 500 Marines and 300 Navy personnel invaded the port city of Veracruz, Mexico, to seize control of the city. President Wilson’s pretext for this operation was to enforce a United States arms embargo against Mexico and prevent the arrival of an arms shipment in Veracruz that had been ordered by Mexican President Victoriano Huerta, who was viewed as an enemy of the United States at that time. The ensuing fighting saw United States forces destroy most of the Mexican Naval Academy in Veracruz. The United States military was eventually able to take full control of Veracruz by April 24, 1914, beginning a 6-month occupation by the United States of the city. The United States military suffered just shy of 100 casualties while approximately 550 Mexican soldiers and civilians died while defending the city. United States forces eventually withdrew from Veracruz on November 23, 1914. The United States occupation of Veracruz had broad negative consequences for the favorability of the United States amongst Mexican citizens and increased anti-American sentiment throughout Mexico and Latin America for decades to come.

Second occupation of Mexico— From March 16, 1916, through February 14, 1917, an expeditionary force of more than 14,000 United States Army troops was sent into northern Mexico. These forces were instructed to engage in the singular pursuit of capturing Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa. President Woodrow Wilson ordered this expedition in response to Villa’s army’s raid of Colombus, New Mexico, on March 9, 1916, which killed 17 United States citizens. Over the course of the next 11 months, multiple battles occurred in Mexico between Pancho Villa’s forces and United States forces, leaving a total 15 United States citizens and 251 Mexicans dead. Mexican President Venustiano Carranza viewed the United States expedition in pursuit of Villa as a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty. The expedition ended before Villa was ever captured, and United States forces eventually withdrew from Mexico on February 14, 1917, in order to consolidate forces to fight in World War I in Europe.

First occupation of the Dominican Republic— On May 13, 1916, a contingent of the United States Marine Corps landed on the shores of the Dominican Republic with the goal of militarily occupying the island nation due to concerns about the possible German use of the Dominican Republic as a base for attacks on the United States during World War I. After 2 months of fighting, the United States military took control of the nation, established a government, and continued to occupy the island for 8 years before withdrawing on September 18, 1924. By the time United States forces withdrew, 144 marines had died and 50 were injured. The 8-year occupation also resulted in 950 Dominican casualties between those who died and those who were injured in the conflict.

Second occupation of Nicaragua— On January 24, 1927, when Nicaragua was embroiled in another civil war that threatened United States business and diplomatic interests in the region, 3,000 United States Marines were deployed to Nicaragua by President Calvin Coolidge with the goal of disarming rebel groups, supervising the highly contentious 1928 Presidential election, and developing and training the Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (Nicaraguan National Guard). While the Marines were successful in disarming various rebel groups throughout the country, Nicaraguan rebel leader César Augusto Sandino and his forces resisted due to Sandino’s ideological opposition to United States interventionism in his country. Sandino’s army and the United States Marines engaged in a 6-year-long military conflict through 1933. A total 136 Marines died and estimates of Nicaraguan casualties, although imprecise, were even larger. Sandino’s willingness to stand up to United States forces attracted sympathy and galvanized anti-American sentiment both in Nicaragua and throughout the Western Hemisphere. Despite Sandino’s resistance, the United States successfully supervised Nicaragua’s November 1928 elections, which saw President José María Moncada ascend to power. After the election, President Herbert Hoover, slowly withdrew troops from Nicaragua until the last Marines left Nicaragua on January 2, 1933. Sandino’s rebel forces continued to engage in periodic guerilla warfare against United States troops until these last Marines were evacuated. Today, Sandino is a popular folk hero amongst the Nicaraguan political left and his name provides the inspiration for the modern-day “Sandinista” political party that rules Nicaragua.

Second occupation of the Dominican Republic— On April 28, 1965, the second intervention and occupation of the Dominican Republic by the United States Armed Forces, called “Operation Power Pack”, commenced and provided United States air and ground troops to assist future Dominican President Donal Reid Cabral’s army in the Dominican 1965 civil war. Operation Power Pack took place between 1965 and 1966, after a period of political instability and military coup following the assassination of former Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in 1961. In 1962, socialist politician Juan Bosch became the elected President of the Dominican Republic before being overthrown in a separate coup in 1963. From 1963 through April 1965, a 3-man military junta of General Antonio Imbert Barrera, General Luis Amiamo Tió, and General Victor Elby Viñas Román held power before growing dissatisfaction led to another rebellion on April 24, 1965. Four days later, President Lyndon Johnson sent a total of 42,000 United States troops from multiple branches of the military to the island, supplemented by an Inter-American Peace Force of 2,000 troops, to assist rebels led by Donald Reid Cabral. In what is now known as the 1965 Dominican Civil War or “La Revolución del 65” Cabral’s forces prevailed due to the United States military backing. Shortly after the war ended, on July 1, 1966, democratically questionable elections were held in the Dominican Republic which resulted in the election of Joaquín Balaguer as President. United States troops withdrew from the island nation thereafter on September 21, 1966. In total, 44 United States combatants were killed in the conflict, alongside over 2,000 Dominicans, roughly half of whom were civilians. Following the withdrawal of United States troops, President Balaguer, a previous member of the Trujillo-led government, ruled the Dominican Republic for a 12-year period characterized by turmoil, the disappearances of Balaguer’s political opponents, and the deaths of hundreds of young political and social activists. In this manner, the United States intervention during Operation Power Pack played a key role in depriving Dominican citizens of a free and sovereign government for at least 12 additional years through 1978.

Guatemala air occupation— On June 18, 1954, through June 27, 1954, as part of “Operation PBSuccess”, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) planned, designed, and led a successful coup in Guatemala, overthrowing the predominantly capitalist government of President Jacobo Árbenz, coinciding in time with President Arbenz’s plans to redistribute land owned by the United Fruit Company, a prosperous United States-based fruit company which controlled 42 percent of all land in Guatemala at that time. In justification for Operation PBSuccess, the United States spuriously alleged that President Árbenz’s government had been infiltrated by anti-American communists. The CIA provided both supplies and a small fleet of combat troops for the rebellion, during which United States pilots bombed fortresses and other areas of Guatemala City. Operation PBSuccess was successful, and on June 27, 1954, President Árbenz fled Guatemala. The 1954 coup is widely viewed by historians as ushering in an unprecedented era of civil war in Guatemala that lasted until 1996 and claimed the lives of over 200,000 Guatemalans, many of which were lost in connection with various additional covert CIA operations that operated in the nation during this time period.

Grenada occupation— From October 25, 1983, through October 29, 1983, the United States conducted “Operation Urgent Fury”, a full-scale military invasion of Grenada in which thousands of troops from the United States Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force were deployed to Grenada and participated in active combat against native Grenadians and Cuban fighters. The United States invasion was authorized by President Ronald Reagan based on the asserted need to prevent a military coup and communist takeover of the small island nation, in addition to the need to protect the approximately 1,000 United States citizens who resided on the island at that time. United States forces achieved a swift victory in just 4 days, but the fighting resulted in the deaths of 45 Grenadian combatants, 25 Cuban combatants, and 19 United States combatants. The last United States troops eventually exited Grenada on June 13, 1985.

Panama occupation— On December 20, 1989, approximately 27,000 United States troops invaded Panama at the order of President George Bush under the ignominiously named “Operation Just Cause”. The purpose of Operation Just Cause was to remove General Manuel Noriega, the country’s dictatorial ruler, from power and secure his extradition to the United States, where Noriega was wanted on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering (he was later found guilty on these charges upon his successful extradition). Relations between the United States and Panama’s Government soured over the course of 1988 and 1989 due to Noriega’s antidemocratic behavior and monopolization of power, Noriega’s 1988 indictment in the United States on drug smuggling charges, notably escalating tensions between Panamanian troops and United States troops stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, and United States concerns about maintaining physical control of the Panama Canal Zone. Tensions boiled over on December 15, 1989, when the Noriega-led Panamanian Assembly declared Panama to be in a “state of war” with the United States. On December 16, an off-duty United States Marine was shot and killed by Panamanian soldiers, prompting President George Bush to order Operation Just Cause in the aftermath of this incident. The United States would win the ensuing ground conflict, gain control of the Panama Canal, and force Noriega’s surrender on January 3, 1990. However, this operation came at a great cost, as according to the Pentagon’s official tally, 23 United States soldiers, 300 Panamanian soldiers, and 214 Panamanian civilians were killed during the United States invasion. Some human rights groups also estimate the death toll amongst Panamanian civilians to be far higher. Furthermore, the United States repeated bombing of the impoverished Panama City neighborhood “El Churillo” during Operation Just Cause destroyed approximately 4,000 homes and displaced thousands more civilians, resulting in Panamanians nicknaming the neighborhood “Little Hiroshima” following the war.

Establishment— There is established a Commission to Study and Develop Reconciliation Proposals for Misguided Interventions in the Americas (in this Act referred to as the “Commission”).

Duties— The Commission shall be responsible for the following duties:

Report to congress— Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall submit to Congress a written report of its findings and recommendations under this section.

Termination— The Commission shall terminate 90 days after the date on which the Commission submits its report to Congress under subsection (c).