ant Cuban independence. The Platt Amendment of 1901 to an appropriations bill institutionalized Cuban independence but reserved to the United States the right to intervene for Cuban independence or otherwise intervene in Cuban affairs. It guaranteed the U.S. naval station leases and also "prohibited Cuba from entering any treaties that might impair her independence" (or the integrity of American leaseholds) an element of the amendment that had the effect of making Cuba a complete American dependency. Cuba, impoverished and barely independent, had to agree. As a practical matter, this opened the door for American private companies, notably the American United Fruit Company, to establish plantations in the colonial mode, using cheap labor, exporting tropical fruits for high profits.
It was in this atmosphere that American policy concerning financial assistance to Latin America was basically one that facilitated U.S. business interests rather than those of the persons in the countries involved. Policy of this period also reflected a more genera
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