page_title: Latin America during World War II
section_title: Axis activity
hierarchical_section_title: Latin America during World War II / History / Axis activity
caption_attribution_description: English: A former German Junkers Ju 52/3m at Howard Field, Panama Canal Zone, in late 1942, in service with the USAAF 20th Transportation Squadron, Sixth Air Force. The aircraft was designated as a C-79 and given the serial 42-52883 while in USAAF service. This Ju 52/3m ge (c/n J5283) had originally been D-AENF. On 1 April 1937, it was transferred to Lufthansa Südamerika for Andes service and named "Aconcagua". It was again transferred to the Brazilian airline Sindicato Condor as PP-CBA on 11 September 1939 and then to Lufthansa Sucursal Peru as OA-HHD on 29 November 1940. Syndicato Condor then leased it to Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aereos (SEDTA) on 25 April 1941, where it was registered as HC-SAD. It was confiscated by Peruvian government on 5 September 1941 and acquired by the USAAF as war prize on 13 May 1942. The aircraft was refitted with Pratt &amp; Whitney R-1690 engines with modified cowlings and 3-bladed propellers. The air-brakes were replaced with hydraulic brakes, a tail wheel was installed instead of the original skid. All instruments and the radio were replaced with U.S. equipment. In December 1943, it was turned over to the U.S. Public Roads Administration in Costa Rica in as TI-60. Further records show that the aircraft was condemned on 20 December 1943 or 7 December 1944.
context_page_description: The history of Latin America during World War II is important because of the significant economic, political, and military changes that occurred throughout much of the region as a result of the war. The war caused significant panic in Latin America over economics as a large portions of economy of the region depended on the European investment capital, which was shut down. Latin America tried to stay neutral but the warring countries were endangering their neutrality. Most countries used propaganda to turn the neutral countries to their side, while Berlin wanted Latin America neutral. In order to better protect the Panama Canal, combat Axis influence, and optimize the production of goods for the war effort, the United States through Lend-Lease and similar programs greatly expanded its interests in Latin America, resulting in large-scale modernization and a major economic boost for the countries that participated.
  Strategically, Panama was the most important Latin American nation for the Allies because of the Panama Canal, which provided a link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that was vital to both commerce and defense.
context_section_description: At the beginning of World War II, fascism was seen as a positive alternative by some Latin American leaders and groups that were impressed by Germany's Adolf Hitler, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Japan's Emperor Hirohito, Spain's Francisco Franco (even though Spain remained neutral throughout the war) and the fascist dictators of the minor Axis Powers. President Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, for example, admired Hitler for his style and his militaristic rallies. Similar views were held by Jorge Ubico and Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, the dictators of Guatemala and El Salvador, respectively. According to Leonard, in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, the strong sense of unity and purpose created by fascism was quite attractive. All three nations had an influential fascist political party. Brazil's Integralists dressed in jackboots and green military-style shirts, and were open admirers of Mussolini.
  In the pre-war years the Germans also enjoyed growing economic penetration using strict binational trade agreements to ensure that the economic relationship with various Latin American nations would be equal. Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic all had trade agreements with Nazi Germany. Brazil's trade with Germany, for example, doubled between 1933, when Hitler came to power, and 1938, the year before the war began. With the start of the war in September 1939, Axis ships could no longer cross the Atlantic for commerce, and so trade between Latin America and Germany and Italy ceased. Losing trading partners hurt some of the Latin American states, and in most cases the United States was the only country that was able to replace the Germans and Italians.
  Almost all of the Latin American states had to respond to Axis espionage activity. Mexico, and to a lesser extent Brazil, cooperated with the United States in shutting down Axis cells. Chile and Argentina, on the other hand, allowed enemy agents to operate in their countries for most of the war, which was a source of considerable discord between the two nations and the United States. Many of the Latin American states also had to deal with large numbers of immigrants from Axis countries. Colombia, for example, had a population of about 4,000 German immigrants in 1941, as well as a small village of Japanese farmers in Cauca. Many of the Germans in Colombia were involved in the air transportation industry as employees of SCADTA, so the United States was concerned that they might be engaged in espionage or even plot to convert civilian aircraft into bombers for an attack against the Panama Canal. As a result, the United States government pressured Colombia into monitoring and interning the immigrants or, in some cases, deporting them to the United States. The same occurred in other Latin American countries as well.
  The threat of German and Spanish espionage was much more real. Throughout much of the war, the Germans operated spy networks in all of the most prominent countries of the region, including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and others. Operation Bolivar, as it was called, was centered on clandestine radio communications from their base in Argentina to Berlin in Germany, but it also utilized Spanish merchant vessels for the shipment of paper-form intelligence back to Europe. The latter was possible because of Spanish cooperation with German intelligence agencies during the war. Although Argentina and Chile eventually "cracked down" on the Axis agents operating in their countries in early 1944, some Bolivar activity continued up until the end of the European war in May 1945.
  In addition to German espionage and sabotage in Latin America, the United States was also concerned about Nazi propaganda. For example, Germany's embassy in Guatemala City served as the distribution center for Nazi propaganda in Central America. Prior to the beginning of the war in 1939, the propaganda focused on the superiority of German manufactured goods, and claimed that Germany was the center for scientific research, because it had the "world's mos
caption: A German Junkers Ju 52/3m, which was confiscated by Peru and transferred to the United States Army Air Forces as a war prize, at Howard Field, Panama, in late 1942.
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