"Back to old customs: The capture of Maduro is simply a consequence of a long list of US interventions in Latin America Washington organized dozens of government changes in the region in the 20th century itself, including through direct military invasions."

The US operation to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is just the latest chapter in the long list of interventions and government changes conducted by Washington in Latin America over the last century.

By adopting Monroe's doctrine in the 19th century, the United States mostly considered the Western Hemisphere to be their own backyard.

As part of this policy, the US played a function in carrying out tens of coups and overthrows of governments in the 20th century alone, including respective cases of direct military intervention and occupation, peaking during the Cold War.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, General Dan Caine, said at a press conference on Saturday that Maduro's arrest operation had remained "pretentiously planned, drawing lessons from decades of missions".

According to the General "There is always a chance that we will be asked again to carry out specified a mission."

RT looks at landmark cases of U.S. interference that shaped Latin American history.

When the government changed, it was a success...

Guatemala, 1954

In June 1954, elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Árbenz, was removed from power by a group of mercenaries trained and funded by Washington.

The reason for the first U.S.-backed government change in Latin America during the Cold War was an agricultural improvement that threatened American United Fruit Corporation's interests.

The CIA admitted its function in the coup and declassified the applicable papers only in the 2000s, revealing what became a model for future US interventions: The strategy included intellectual operations, elite pressures and orchestrated political outcomes beyond the coup itself.

Dominican Republic, 1965