The US government has a long history of intervening in the affairs of other countries for their own economic and political benefit resulting in horrific violence and chaos in the countries themselves. The general pattern which I will provide examples for is the destabilization/overthrow of governments who threaten US capitalist interests through the installment and support of right wing military dictatorships who will be friendly to the interests of the US and multinational American corporations (often sugar/fruit companies) but who also bring about conditions of economic suffering and massive violence and repression on their people. The governments that are targeted by this are also often left leaning and liberal governments (though in fact many weren't but were just suspected as being so or merely sympathetic) due to their tendency to directly threaten capitalist interests through nationalization of their resources and industry. The US Govt also feared that successful communist or marxist governments in Latin America could spread and create a "red wave" through the region. The immediate waves of violence in these instances can be directly connected to waves of immigration into the United States from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Chile (just to name a few). Additionally these collapses and atrocities often result in large national debts and continued lack of political stability or civil war that create economic suffering and social violence which continue to contribute to immigration for decades after the initial crises.

The methods by which they do this are often carried out by the CIA and DOD through funding, arming and training of these right wing groups, or through economic means like sanctions and trade policy. In the case of Latin America a primary mechanism of this is the Army School of the Americas, now called, The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which is a United States Department of Defense Institute that provides military training to government personnel in US-allied Latin American nations. During the cold war the school's goal was self-stated as teaching anti-communist counterinsurgency training to military personnel of Latin American countries. The US backed dictators and death squads of Latin America are frequently graduates of this school.

In the case of Nicaragua the Sandinista government came into power in 1979 and shortly after began putting into affect left wing policies resulting in great improvements in the realms of literacy and public health, and developing a positive relationship with the Cuban and Soviet governments. As US foreign policy turned against the Sandinistas, The CIA began to train and fund an existing right wing rebel group known as The Contras whom Ronald Reagan referred to as "freedom fighters". At the time the US could not legally send money to the Contras. To get around this they devised a scheme to send missiles to Iran (which was currently under a weapons embargo) and then funnel the profits indirectly to the Contras to aid in their overthrowing the Sandinistas (this is now known as the Iran-Contra Scandal). The CIA also mined Nicaraguan harbours to destroy fishing and trade ships and cause economic harm. Once in power the Contras oversaw a reign of terror, murdering, torturing, and disappearing thousands. The Contras are notorious for the way they targeted their violence towards civilians, a former Contra leader, Edgar Chamarro, later explained that the CIA encouraged this, stating "We were told that the only way to defeat the Sandinistas was to...kill, kidnap, rob and torture...". According to the CIA, of the eight military leaders of the first Contra organization, seven graduated from the School of the Americas.

The Sandanista Contra conflict resulted in 50,000 deaths and 12 billion dollars in national debt. In 1986 The International Court of Justice found the US guilty of violating international laws by funding the Contras and mining Nicaraguan harbors. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans were forced to flee the Contra conflict to the United States and continue to flee the resulting violence to this day. There are now over half a million Nicaraguan immigrants in the US.

In Chile, the Nixon administration and CIA planned and supported the overthrow of the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende (Project FUBELT) resulting in the 1973 coup which put into power the Pinochet right wing military dictatorship, which is now notorious for the dissapearing of thousands and torture of tens of thousands from which many fled. The Nixon administration authorized 10 million dollars to try to prevent the election and enact the removal of Allende. Once Allende was in power, the CIA used operatives to approach Chilean military officials to directly encourage and seek out those who would plot a coup, sending cash and weapons to help them, and encourage them kidnap and remove officials who were sympathetic to Allende. The torture during the Pinochet dictatorship was marked by an especially horrific and grotesque sadism that honestly is too disturbing for me to have the stomach to go into right now but I've linked sources for more info at the end.