Episode 1: Coups examines how 1960s Latin America experienced military coups in the shadow of the Cold War strategy of the United States.

It describes the Brazilian military’s 1964 overthrow of President Joao Goulart, driven by American fears of agrarian reform and “another Cuba”, which forced activists like Jean Marc von der Weid into exile.

In Chile, President Salvador Allende’s peaceful socialist experiment faced secret economic blockades before General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup in 1973 established his brutal regime.

This triggered Operation Condor in 1975, a coordinated campaign of political repression by regional right-wing dictatorships that assassinated Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC, in 1976.

Meanwhile, Panama’s populist leader Omar Torrijos waged a diplomatic battle to reclaim the Panama Canal from US control after decades of tension.

The episode concludes with Nicaragua’s Sandinistas overthrowing the Somoza family dictatorship through armed resistance, fuelled by regional alliances and clandestine aid networks.

Series information:
From coups and dictatorships to revolutions and civil war, Latin America has long been a testing ground for a world marked by inequality and polarisation. This three-part series charts the region’s modern history and its fraught relationship with the United States from the Cold War to January’s attack by the US on Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. Across Brazil, Chile, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Colombia, it reveals how Washington’s overt and covert interventions have fuelled changes in government, repression and internal conflict.