BUSINESSWEEK: “Castro's Demise Won't Erase Troubled U.S. Legacy”, por Enrique Krauze

Latin America’s romantic attachment to the idea of revolution began in Cuba and achieved its greatest strength there. And it may well come to an end there.
The Spanish-American War of 1898 (Theodore Roosevelt’s “splendid little war”) was a major chapter in the American assertion of “manifest destiny,” which claimed the U.S.’s right to determine governments and policies for its Latin- American neighbors. Throughout the Spanish-speaking world, in Latin America and Spain itself, the conflict was experienced as an historical tragedy.
For much of the 19th century, Latin America’s liberal elites had viewed the U.S. as their model and political inspiration. After the defeat of Spain, and the stripping of almost all the vestiges of its empire, the liberals and their local enemies, the Catholic and conservative elites, found one common theme of agreement: They now favored a new continental nationalism that was explicitly anti-American.