When a fruit company convinced US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to overthrow the democratically elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, in 1954, the consequences were felt for decades throughout Latin America.
Roots "Donro's Doctrines", which US President Donald Trump is referring to to justify the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, experts find its roots in the coup in Guatemala launched by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
In practice, a large stake in everything was held by the powerful American multinational United Fruit Company (UFC), which earned most of its money from selling bananas.
"The company was so powerful in Guatemala and neighboring countries that it was nicknamed 'the octopus' because it had tentacles everywhere," says Dr. Grace Livingston of the University of Cambridge.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company had no official ties to the Eisenhower administration.
But when Arbenz proposed the expropriation and redistribution of still uncultivated land on large plantations, in order to solve the problem of chronic poverty, the UFC lobbied in Washington, playing on Cold War fears.
They presented Guatemala as susceptible to Soviet influence.
“Arbenz planned to pay a fairly generous compensation - double the price the UFC paid - but the company was not happy with the offer,” Livingston says.
Eisenhower also agreed to intervene, despite the fact that Arbenz, upon coming to power, said that he wanted to transform Guatemala from a feudal economy into a modern capitalist economy.
Eisenhower's justification relied on the Monroe Doctrine.
The declaration by early 19th-century American President James Monroe that the Western Hemisphere must be free from the influence of European powers was a defensive warning shot at the time.
It told other countries to stay out of what the US considered its regional affairs.
President Theodore Roosevelt revisited this policy in 1904 and modernized it to “explicitly justify American military interventions in the region,” Livingston says.
Trump Donroova Doctrine he also explicitly relies on it to justify rattling weapons at Venezuela, Greenland, and Iran.
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"The logic of spheres" is "essentially Trump's approach to world order and partly a hallmark of his long-standing aversion to globalism, multilateralism, cross-allied alliances, and perpetual wars in distant lands," says Stuart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The goal of the new US National Security Strategy, announced by Trump last year, is to "protect the commerce, territory, and natural resources that are essential to our national security."
Meanwhile, he stressed that "American dominance" is key and that maximum ideological, psychological and military pressure will be applied to protect American interests.
In Venezuela and Iran, those interests revolve around oil, Anderson says, and the threat that China will get its hands on it first.
Greenland also has valuable natural resources that Trump wants to secure before they are seized by Washington's enemies.
In Guatemala, it was ideology, Cold War rivalry with Russia, and bananas, but the tactics remain essentially the same.
“Similar to what we saw recently in Venezuela, there was a buildup of military around Guatemala,” Livingston says.
"Eisenhower announced that he would send two submarines south, and they also sent bombers to nearby Nicaragua, and began intercepting Guatemalan ships in the seas around Guatemala - and that's why there are many similarities with Venezuela."
The CIA dropped leaflets in Guatemala warning of a massive invasion, using drawings to reach the largely illiterate population.
It established a radio network, which claimed to be broadcasting from within the country, although experts claim that many of the signals came from across the border.
"They claimed on the radio station that thousands of people were joining the mercenary forces, but when they crossed the border, there was no spontaneous uprising," Livingston says.
“The CIA's support for this alleged invasion began with the bombing of strategic positions throughout Guatemala, as well as in the capital itself.
"She even threw a huge smoke bomb at a military barracks and played the sounds of bombing over the radio, with the aim of demoralizing the people and the army."
In turn, the military leadership, believing it could not defeat the invasion, called on and eventually convinced Arbenz to resign.
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Greenland, and therefore Denmark, has now received direct threats from Trump on social media, including plans to annex the territory and impose economic penalties for any resistance.
Meanwhile, psychological pressure has intensified in Iran, with threats of brutal military action to force compliance, instill fear, and protect American interests.
"A massive armada is headed towards Iran," Trump announced on social media.
"As with Venezuela, it is ready, willing and able to rapidly accomplish the mission - quickly and violently, if necessary."
A few weeks after Arbenz withdrew, he was forced into exile.
“The new regime forcibly searched him at the airport, stripping him to his underwear in front of an angry crowd, and then threw him onto a plane,” Livingston says.
More than 70 years later, Maduro was forcibly taken to New York after being captured by American forces.
“First we saw the images of the bombing of Caracas,” Anderson says.
"And the next thing we saw was Maduro in chains surrounded by soldiers and subdued. It's part of the same pattern."
Analysts like CBC News' Mike Crowley point out that Trump's approach to Greenland also relies on visual politics, such as social media posts, a canceled state visit, and provocative imagery.
They establish dominance and diminish the free will of smaller countries.
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Long-term threat
Those who support American intervention often argue that only dictators and those who show contempt for democracy or American security should be feared.
However, a large number of experts disagree with this.
"Guatemala shows that the US was willing to overthrow a democratically elected government - and that since the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine, America has intervened in Latin America more than 80 times," Livingston says.
"Trump is bringing back that doctrine in its most brazen form."
What followed the intervention in Guatemala could give the president cause for concern.
Decades of violence and instability followed, during which authoritarian governments - and then drug cartels - took advantage of the power vacuum, entrenching themselves deeply and sending desperate refugees and narcotics across the American border.
And that, observers say, posed a greater long-term threat to American interests than the land reforms or fears of communist influence used to justify the intervention in the first place.
Additional coverage: BBC Global Journalism
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