Thread by @Americas_Crimes

On this day in 1909, the US sent warships and Marines to support a coup against the nationalist government of Nicaragua, led by President José Santos Zelaya, who was attempting to develop his country & defend it from US and European domination.

This coup, which is arguably America’s 1st, used a series of tactics, which the US continues to use to this day when it seeks to destroy a foreign government.

They are:
1. Using propaganda to demonize the foreign leader, portraying them as a murderous despot.
2. Funding an uprising & claiming it’s an authentic revolution.
3. Backing a corrupt, rival figure/organization as the “rightful” ruler of the country
4. Invasion.

President Zelaya of Nicaragua dreamed of uniting the Central American countries & worked to develop Nicaragua by building roads, ports, railways, government buildings, and more than 140 schools; he also paved streets, installed street lamps & legalized civil marriage and divorce.

Zelaya united Nicaragua and kicked out British business interests, but the remaining US mining and logging companies resented the nationalist character of his government and wanted him gone.

In 1909, William Howard Taft choose the corporate Lawyer Philander Knox, to be his Secretary of State. Knox had represented La Luz corporation and Los Angeles Mining Company, both of which had mining interests in Nicaragua. Knox looked for a way to force Zelaya from power.

For several years, Knox and others in Washington had been spreading false rumors that Zelaya was secretly negotiating with European or Japanese interests to build a canal across his country that would compete with the one the United States was building in Panama.

In the summer of 1909, Knox began orchestrating a campaign designed to turn American public opinion against Zelaya. He seized on the jailing of American tobacco merchant to paint the Nicaraguan regime as brutal and oppressive.

American newspapers began howling that Zelaya had imposed a “reign of terror” in Nicaragua and had become “the menace of Central America.” President Taft then announced that the United States would no longer “tolerate and deal with such a medieval despot.”

American businessmen on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, with help from the US, formed a conspiracy with the provincial governor, General Juan José Estrada, who wanted to use the US to seize power.

This revolution was extraordinarily well-financed by US corporations with estimates of up to $2 million spent. The chief accountant for the La Luz mining company, served as its treasurer. The money was used to raise and equip a militia.

When Zalaya executed two Americans who were fighting with the revolution against his government it gave the US the pretext it needed to invade.

With US warships on its coasts, hundreds of marines on Nicaragua’s coast, and a US-financed rebellion underway, Zelaya resigned and fled into exile. His replacement resigned shortly after the US intimidated him into not sending the Nicaraguan army to crush the rebellion.

With the seat of power vacant, General Estrada was able to march unopposed to the capital. He entered the capital and was sworn in as president on August 21, 1910.

The New York Times reported at the time that, "On that day began the American rule of Nicaragua, political and economic.” During the 15 years of Estrada’s rule, US Marines remained in Nicaragua & Estrada enacted a policy giving the US major control over the country’s finances.