CIA and Coups d'Etat

IRAN 1953: OPERATION AJAX (OPERATION TP-AJAX / OPERATION BOOT)

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état is the first major coup orchestrated by the CIA and remains one of the best-documented. In 1951, the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP), provoking the fury of the United Kingdom. The British MI6 devised a plan for regime change (Operation Boot) and convinced the CIA to participate (Operation TP-Ajax).

The operation, directed by Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (grandson of Theodore Roosevelt) for the CIA, consisted of organizing artificial demonstrations against Mossadegh, bribing Iranian military and politicians, conducting a black propaganda campaign in the Iranian press, and manipulating the Parliament. Following an initial failure on August 15, 1953 (the Shah fled the country), a second coup succeeded on August 19, 1953. Mossadegh was arrested, tried, and sentenced to three years in prison followed by house arrest until his death in 1967.

The Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was restored to power and established an authoritarian regime supported by the secret police SAVAK (trained with the assistance of the CIA and Mossad). This regime lasted until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the consequences of which are still felt today.

The CIA officially acknowledged its role in the coup d'état in 2013 with the declassification of internal documents. In 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had already acknowledged the role of the United States.

GUATEMALA 1954: OPERATION PBSUCCESS

In 1954, the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala. Arbenz had launched an agrarian reform that threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company (whose several high-ranking government officials were shareholders or had close ties; the Dulles brothers, John Foster at the State Department, and Allen at the CIA, were linked to the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell which represented United Fruit).

Operation PBSUCCESS involved arming and training a small force of Guatemalan rebels led by Carlos Castillo Armas in Honduras, conducting an intense psychological warfare campaign (bombardments, clandestine radio), and provoking the defection of the Guatemalan army. Arbenz resigned on June 27, 1954, and went into exile. Castillo Armas seized power and annulled the agrarian reform.

Guatemala subsequently plunged into a 36-year civil war (1960-1996) which resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, primarily among the indigenous Mayan populations. In 2009, President Obama offered apologies for the role of the United States.

CONGO 1960-1961: THE ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA

Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the independent Congo (June 1960), was perceived as a threat by the United States and Belgium due to his nationalist positions and contacts with the Soviet Union. The CIA devised an assassination plan including sending poison (thallium) through the CIA director Allen Dulles. Ultimately, Lumumba was overthrown by a military coup led by Joseph-Desire Mobutu (supported by the CIA and Belgium), arrested, and assassinated on January 17, 1961, in the province of Katanga with the complicity of Belgian agents.

Mobutu definitively seized power in 1965 and established a 32-year kleptocratic dictatorship (until 1997), supported by the United States throughout the Cold War. In 2002, Belgium officially offered apologies for its role in the assassination of Lumumba.

CHILI 1973: THE OVERTHROW OF ALLENDE

On September 11, 1973, the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende was overthrown by a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Allende died during the coup (suicide or assassination, a debate settled in 2011 by a legal medical report concluding suicide). The CIA had been involved in destabilization attempts against Chile since Allende's election in 1970.

The CIA’s role is documented by the declassifications of 2000 ordered by President Clinton. The documents reveal that Nixon had ordered the CIA to 'make the Chilean economy scream' to destabilize Allende, that the CIA had financed strikes and the opposition, that it had been involved in the murder of General Rene Schneider (army chief loyalist, assassinated in October 1970 to prevent Allende from taking power), and that it had encouraged the coup.

Pinochet established a 17-year military dictatorship (1973-1990) responsible for the deaths or disappearances of at least 3,200 people and the torture of more than 28,000, according to the Rettig Commission (1991) and the Valech Commission (2004).

OPERATION CONDOR (1968-1989)

Operation Condor was a network of cooperation between the military dictatorships of South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, with occasional participation from Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia) to track, arrest, torture, and assassinate political opponents across national borders. This network operated with the support and coordination of the CIA.

Declassified documents reveal that the CIA and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were aware of Operation Condor and supported or at least tolerated it. A State Department cable from 1976 describes the operation as a 'system of intelligence exchange' potentially including 'third phase operations' (assassinations).

Operation Condor is responsible for at least 60,000 deaths and 30,000 forced disappearances across the continent. The most famous assassination on American soil was that of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the USA, killed by a bomb in Washington D.C. on September 21, 1976, on the orders of the Chilean DINA.

OTHER DOCUMENTED OR ALLEGED COUPS AND DESTATABILIZATIONS

• Syria 1949: Coup d'état by Husni al-Za’im, the first military coup in Syria, supported by the CIA.
• Brazil 1964: Overthrow of President Joao Goulart with logistical support from the CIA (Operation Brother Sam).
• Indonesia 1965-66: The CIA provided lists of presumed communists to the Suharto regime, facilitating the massacre of 500,000 to 1 million people. Declassified documents in 2017 confirm the role of the American embassy.
• Greece 1967: The ‘Regime of the Colonels’ was supported by the CIA.
• Cambodia 1970: Support for the coup d'état of Lon Nol against Prince Sihanouk.
• Afghanistan 1979-1989: Operation Cyclone, funding of the mujahideen against the Soviet invasion, including groups that would become the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
• Nicaragua 1980s: Funding and arming of the Contras (see THEORY-0200).
• Panama 1989: Invasion and overthrow of Noriega, former CIA asset.
• Haiti 2004: Allegations of CIA support for the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
• Honduras 2009: Allegations of CIA support for the coup against Manuel Zelaya.
• Libya 2011: Military intervention under the cover of NATO to overthrow Kadhafi.
• Ukraine 2014: (Mainly Russian) allegations of CIA involvement in the Maidan revolution.
• Bolivia 2019: Allegations of support for the overthrow of Evo Morales.

CURRENT CONTINUITY

The theory of ‘current continuity’ alleges that the CIA continues to conduct regime change operations around the world, using modernized methods (financing NGOs, color revolutions, economic sanctions, cyber operations) rather than classical military coups. This theory is plausible given the documented history, but recent operations remain classified and therefore more difficult to document.