Cables from U.S. diplomats in Latin America shed a lot of light on U.S. policy in that region as well. They show a consistent pattern of not only hostility but action against left-wing governments, including those of Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Venezuela and others. The cables see Venezuela as so influential that it is almost as if they are talking about a new Soviet Union that must be contained. A five-point plan to counter the political success of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez (who died of cancer in 2013), outlined in a 2006 cable by William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador to the country at the time, includes “penetrating Chavismo’s political base,” “dividing Chavismo” and “isolating Chavez internationally.” Other memos provide more details of how this was attempted. For example, U.S. pressure was brought to bear on countries as small and needy as Haiti, Honduras and Jamaica to reject energy assistance from Venezuela that would save them hundreds of millions of dollars.

The cables also show how Honduras, under the government of President Manuel Zelaya, became an enemy state for becoming too friendly with other left governments. He was overthrown by the military in 2009, and it was clear from the day of the coup, when the Obama administration released a statement that did not oppose it, which side Washington was on. Here WikiLeaks cables back up what could be deduced at the time from public information.

And now recently released emails from then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provide more detail on how the U.S. government helped make sure that the democratically elected president of Honduras did not return until after “elections” — which almost all of Latin America refused to recognize — were held under the de facto government.

All these formerly classified documents help explain the intentions and strategy of the current administration and how internally consistent it has remained — with the exception of the historic deal with Iran — in so many places. In Latin America, these documents help us understand why the U.S. still refuses to accept an ambassador from Venezuela, even after it has accepted an ambassador from Cuba. These policies are consistent with one another and with the past half century of U.S.–Latin American relations. Whoever is making policy in the Obama administration (it is not that transparent) is still calculating that in Venezuela the opposition can best be helped by attempting to delegitimize the government, whereas in Cuba, opening relations and commerce with the U.S. is seen as the better bet. Not to deny the symbolic and historic significance of the United States’ re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, but in both cases the goal remains the same: regime change. 

Mark Weisbrot is a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the president of Just Foreign Policy. He is also the author of the forthcoming book “Failed: What the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong About the Global Economy.”