140. Trump’s Latin America Playbook: Before Venezuela, There Was Guatemala (Ep 1)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is Cuba next on Trump's hit list? Why are the US so concerned by what's happening in their "backyard"? And what can we learn from the history of regime change in Latin America to help us understand the "Donroe Doctrine"? Listen as David and Gordon delve inside the Guatemalan coup of 1954 and examine what Donald Trump has learnt from how the CIA plotted regime change in the agency's early years. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026 at The Rest Is Fest: Buy your tickets ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠ to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 4 September. ------------------- Sign-up for our free newsletter where producer Becki takes you behind the scenes of the show: https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up ------------------- Join the Declassified Club to go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, regular livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. Just go to ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠ or join on Apple Podcasts. ------------------- Get a 10% discount on business PCs, printers and accessories using the code TRIC10. Visit https://HP.com/CLASSIFIED for more information. T&C's apply. ------------------- EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ ⁠⁠https://nordvpn.com/restisclassified⁠⁠ Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee ------------------- Email: ⁠⁠therestisclassified@goalhanger.com⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@restisclassified⁠ Video Editor: Joe Pettit Social Producer: Emma Jackson Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books.
0:13.1	Join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com.
0:17.3	Music The U.S.
0:26.6	The U.S. wants hemispheric domination to make sure it has control over its backyard.
0:32.5	And Washington is going to use the CIA to bring about regime change.
0:37.3	Well, welcome to the rest is classified.
0:38.6	I'm David McCloskey. And I'm Gordon Carrera. Gordon, we are now a few months out from the U.S.
0:45.1	operation that ejected Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro from office slash kidnapped him.
0:51.9	It is jammies. Yeah, ejected is one way of putting it, I think. And we are now
0:56.5	heading back down old South America way, isn't that right, Gordon, to understand, I think,
1:03.1	a little bit more in this two-part series about the historical roots of America's desire to control Central and South America, really the
1:14.5	Western Hemisphere, I think you could say, and it's kind of framed, I think, under this
1:18.0	concept of hemispheric domination. And so we're going to be looking closely at maybe
1:24.5	a slightly less well-known effort promulgated by the Central Intelligence Agency
1:29.7	during the very early days of the Cold War that I think sheds some light on what we might
1:35.2	be seeing today.
1:36.5	Regime change, David.
1:37.9	Let's not beat about the Bush.
1:39.2	That's what we're talking about.
1:40.4	We're talking about the U.S. imposing regime change on other countries.
1:43.8	And I think that's why this is going to be, I think, a very interesting journey into a wild story, which is wild in its own right.
	...

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