This is standard 20th century history. It's also the standard Communist line (Galeano, Zinn, etc). Its only correspondence with reality is the statement that everything wrong with Latin America is the US's fault. While this is true, everything else is a lie.

The truth about Latin America is that it's suffering from 200 years of revolutionary ideology exported from El Norte. All its functional institutions date to Spanish rule (which is why "colonial" is applied indiscriminately to anything that isn't ugly in Mexico). Things started to suck in the 19th century when revolutionary Enlightenment ideology, all of Anglo-American origin, destroyed first colonial, then clerical and aristocratic rule, in the process producing approximately a zillion very very nasty civil wars.

And of course comparing 19th-century revolutionary ideology to its 20th-century successor is like comparing strychnine to cyanide. Where did all these ideologies come from? Dude, do you really have to ask? Ergo "pobre Mexico, tan lejos de Dios, tan cerca a los Estados Unidos."

For instance, it's grimly hilarious that today, with Mexico the world capital of decapitation, anyone could conceivably praise the Mexican Revolution. If Woodrow Wilson and Americans like him hadn't been so intent on "teaching Mexico to elect good men," the Porfiriato could easily have lasted another century:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz

Instead, thanks to John Reed and his ilk:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reed_(journalist)

You wind up with this dude:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodoro_Garc%C3%ADa_Simental

whom I'm pretty sure neither the Porfiriato nor New Spain would have wasted much time in hanging. Etc, etc, etc.

took a course on Mesoamerican colonial history from the former Honduran Minister of Culture, who fled to the US after the 2009 coup.

And no doubt wishes the State Department would repeat its usual trick of deposing all Latin American governments which aren't headed by Harvard professors, or completely Americanized natives acceptable to such. Strangely, this position is commonly referred to as "anti-Americanism" - possibly for the same reason tall men are called "Tiny."

Needless to say, the golpistas in Honduras are a hell of a lot more Honduran than anyone who has ever taught a course at Harvard (or wherever). If you prefer them to the Harvard professors, you're an imperialist. Hell of a world we live in, ain't it?

Disclaimer: my father was a US vice-consul in the Dominican Republic. Don't hate the player, hate the game.