Central America
2 conflicts · $433M total cost · 500 troops stationed
$433M
Total Cost
23
US Deaths
200,500
Civilian Deaths
2
Conflicts
0
Authorized
2
Unauthorized
500
Current Troops
1
Military Bases
📖 Pattern of US Intervention in Central America
The U.S. has intervened repeatedly in Central America since the early 20th century, supporting military coups, funding death squads, and arming rebel groups. The Guatemala coup (1954), support for Honduran contras, and involvement in the Salvadoran civil war killed hundreds of thousands of Central Americans. The resulting instability, violence, and poverty are primary drivers of migration to the United States — the very "border crisis" that intervention was supposed to prevent.
Cost by Conflict (Billions, 2023 $)
Deaths by Conflict
⚔️ Conflicts in Central America
Invasion of Panama
VictoryCold War1989–1990 · $400M · 23 US deaths
Invasion to depose Manuel Noriega — a former CIA asset turned liability. 27,000 troops deployed against a country of 2.5 million.
Guatemalan Coup
Regime changeCold War1954–1954 · $33M · Covert
CIA-orchestrated coup against democratically elected President Árbenz to protect United Fruit Company interests. Led to 36-year civil war and genocide.
🏗️ Current US Military Presence
🗣️ Voices from Central America
“The United States could not permit a 'deck stacked' so as to leave the U.S. 'no alternative but to accept a Communist-dominated Guatemala.'”
— CIA internal assessment justifying the coup, despite no evidence Árbenz was communist (Guatemala Coup)
“The goals of the United States have been to safeguard the lives of Americans, to defend democracy in Panama, to combat drug trafficking, and to protec...”
— President George H.W. Bush, announcing the invasion (December 20, 1989) — while invading a country whose dictator the CIA had been paying for decades (Panama)