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“There is no country in the region that is not questioning how the U.S. is playing Latin America right now.”

In this super-charged update of U.S. gunboat diplomacy, critics say laws are being ignored, norms sidestepped and protocol set aside.

U.S. intervention in Latin America dates back more than 200 years, when President James Monroe declared that the United States would reign as the hemispheric hegemon.

In ensuing centuries, the U.S. invaded Mexico and annexed half its territory, dispatched Marines to Nicaragua and Haiti and abetted coups from Chile to Brazil to Guatemala.

Motivations for these interventions varied from fighting communism to protecting U.S. business interests to waging a war on drugs.