UN General Assembly
1981

36. The United States did not take over Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898 and impose the Piatt amendment to save Caribbean territories from the influence of the Soviet Union, since the latter was not yet in existence. 37. The United States did not land Marines in Veracruz, Haiti and Nicaragua, nor did it from 1903 onwards arm the most formidable naval force ever seen in Caribbean waters in order to resolve the EastWest conflict to its own benefit. It was simply defending the interests of its territorial expansionism, the interests of its financiers and its bankers, of those business tycoons who were beginning to beset Latin America.