During World War II, 4,058 ethnic Germans along with several hundred other Axis-nationals living in Latin America were deported to the United States and their home countries, often at the behest of the US government. Although the arrest, internment and/or deportation of belligerent country nationals was common practice in both Axis and Allied countries (and their colonies) during both World War I and World War II, subsequent US Congressional investigations and reparations during the 1980s and 1990s, especially for Japanese Americans interned, have raised awareness of the injustice of such practices. Unlike Allied civilians held in Nazi concentration camps or those interned by the Japanese, Axis nationals interned in Allied countries did not suffer from systematic starvation and widespread mistreatment by their captors.
Although conducted ostensibly to curb Axis subterfuge, like the Internment of Japanese Canadians, the Internment of Japanese Americans, and the Internment of German Americans, many of the deportees were not supporters of the Nazi regime. Persons deported even included Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany prior to the German declaration of war against the United States. Of the 4,656 deportees sent to the US in 1942, 2,242 were exchanged with Axis powers for citizens of Allied countries arrested and interned by the Axis powers and 2,414 remained in the US until the end of the war.
The deportation of Germans was preceded by the immigration of tens of thousands of German immigrants to Latin America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. While the vast majority of these immigrants integrated into Latin American societies, some still held German citizenship at the time of Germany's declaration of war in 1941. Prior to World War II both the German and U.S. governments were actively competing for political and economic influence across Latin America and with the outbreak of war the U.S. government was fearful that nationals of the belligerent countries could pose a threat. Subsequently several thousand German, Japanese and Italian nationals were arrested by Latin American governments and many were deported to internment camps in the U.S. for the duration of the conflict. A minority were even deported to Nazi Germany. Following the war most were repatriated to their home countries.
Background German Influence in Latin America Germany's involvement in the region had existed since the 19th century. Waves of German immigrants had been generally welcomed into the region, partially as a result of the popularity of racist ideologies among Latin America's political and economic elites who often believed in the myth of the Protestant work ethic and the superiority of Northern European Protestants immigrants over Southern European Catholics. The Nazi German Government primarily viewed Latin America as a source of raw materials and attempted to deepen commercial relations with the region during the inter-war period.Vampire diplomacy: Nazi economic Nationalism in Latin America, 1934–40, Salvatore Prisco, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vol. 2, 1991 Germany offered military training and sold weapons to several Latin American governments in an attempt to undermine U.S. influence in the region. During the 1930s sympathetic far-right and fascist political movements, most notably Brazil's Integralism movement and Argentina's Nacionalismo movement attempted to gain control in their respective states. Following World War II thousands of Nazis would escape to Latin America and avoid capture by the Allies thanks to Nazi sympathizers in Latin America, some of whom held military and political positions in Latin America's governments.
American influence in Latin America Since the establishment of the Monroe Doctrine the United States Government sought and gained an influential position in the Western Hemisphere. During the 1930s, the American intervention in the region, which began in 1898 (see the Spanish American War and the Banana Wars) on behalf of local elites and U.S. corporations, was replaced by the Good Neighbor policy which was made official at the Montevideo Convention in 1933. American influence in the region remained significant during the pre-war period and included the U.S. control over the recently built Panama Canal.
U.S. - Germany Relations in Latin America immediately prior to 1941 By 1941, the US was supplying war materials to democracies fighting against the Axis powers under the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. The US Navy also assisted the Royal Navy against German submarines in the Atlantic and hostility against Germany spilled over to ethnic Germans in the United States and in Latin America. Ethnic Germans in Latin America were placed under surveillance at the behest of the US. Ethnic Germans in Latin America deemed “dangerous” were placed on the Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals. Created in June 1941 by the US, those of the list were subjected to economic sanction and were blocked from doing businesses with American companies.
Rationale for deportation
Inadequate American intelligence American intelligence on Latin America was very poor and inaccurate, thus overstating the threat of ethnic Germans in Latin America, motivating the deportation and internment. Pre-war American intelligence gathering in Latin America was dependent on embassy cables, reports by G-2 (Army intelligence), ONI (Naval Intelligence), and civilian volunteers. Latin America was shunned by talented officers as backwater and “prejudicial to their promotions”, therefore, intelligence staff posted in Latin America were often from the bottom of the barrel. For example, Colonel Carl Strong, the military attaché in Bogota, warned of a German attack on Colombia “via Dakar and Nepal,” demonstrating his ignorance of Latin American geography.
Intelligence work in Latin America became a priority as Nazi Germany advanced across Western Europe. In June 1940, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was charged with monitoring Latin America by President Franklin Roosevelt. The ~700 FBI agents poured into Latin America were not much more competent. Agent Donald Charles Bird of the FBI was given two weeks of Spanish lessons before being sent to Brazil, a Portuguese speaking country. These intelligence officers often overstated the level of German influence in Latin America and grossly exaggerated the threat of ethnic Germans as a potential fifth column. One such example was the FBI’s portrayal of the 12,000 ethnic Germans in Bolivia as an imminent threat, ignoring the fact that 8,500 of them were Jews escaping from German-occupied Europe.
British disinformation To further skew American assessment of the situation in Latin America, British Security Co-ordination (BSC), an arm of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), fabricated many “evidences” of Nazi aggressions and infiltrations in Latin America to induce the US to join the war. These hoaxes and fabrications were in many cases readily accepted by American intelligence as truth. For example, in June 1940, the BSC forged a letter to implicate Major Elias Belmonte, former Bolivian military attaché to Berlin, in a German-sponsored coup plot in Bolivia. The letter and the alleged coup attempt became proof for German subversion in Latin America and was circulated by the FBI. On 27 October 1941, President Roosevelt dramatically announced,
"I have in my possession a secret map, made in Germany by Hitler's government - by planners of the new world order. [...] It is a map of South America and a part of Central America as Hitler proposes to reorganize it."
This map, printed in German, indicates plans to conquer South America and partition it into five satellite states. This map was also a fabrication by the BSC.
Overstated threat The combination of inadequate American intelligence and abundant British disinformation convinced American policy-makers that the ethnic German population in Latin American constituted a threat to Latin America, and consequently, the United States. Lieutenant Jules Dubois, chief of the Intelligence Branch of the US Army in Panama declared,
“With their sights trained on Latin America, the Axis Powers began to groom puppets and sympathetic groups in every republic to seize the reigns [sic] of their governments’ machinery […] There were approximately three million Axis nationals residing in Latin American then, each of whom could have been made available to form part of a militant striking force capable of implementing the plans of the Axis at the appropriate time”
After the US entered the war, neutralizing the perceived threat against Latin America and securing the strategically important Panama Canal was seen by the US government as vital.
Deportation
U.S. Government requests the arrest and deportation of “all dangerous aliens” The United States elected to use internment and deportation to neutralise the perceived threat posed by ethnic Germans following American entry into war. Because of the perceived incompetence and possible German infiltration of Latin American governments, local internment was deemed insufficient as a solution.
Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor the Government of Panama carried out arrests of Japanese, German, and Italian nationals. Following the arrests the US Ambassador in Panama requested that the Panamanian government send the internees to the U.S., citing the logistical difficulties of housing and feeding the internees in Panama. On 20 January 1942, the US State Department instructed its embassies in Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti to obtain an agreement to send “all dangerous aliens” to the US for internment. In neutral Colombia, US Ambassador Braden urged for the expulsion of Germans even before US entry to the war.
Latin American response to U.S. demand The Latin American countries were generally receptive to American demands. Their motivation varied between American influence, promise of military and economic aid, domestic anti-German sentiments, and the opportunity to seize the land and property of the Germans. Panama, which was tightly controlled by the US, agreed to send the “more dangerous” internees to the US on 13 January 1942. Little opposition arose in the Latin American countries that have declared war on Germany. Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti all agreed to deport “dangerous enemy aliens” by mid-February 1942, while Cuba compromised with interning selected Germans in the isolated Isle of Pines (now Isla de la Juventud). Colombia initially refused American demands, citing national sovereignty and constitutional rights. She relented in November 1943 after she was promised military aid under Lend-Lease from the US. Together with Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, they agreed to send selected Germans to the US under the promise that the deportees will be repatriated to Germany rather than interned in the US.
Selection of deportees The selection of deportees was arbitrary and inaccurate in picking out potentially dangerous Germans. The selection was conducted by both by local governments and by American instructions. In total, 4,058 Germans were deported to the US. The Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals was used as the basis for deportation in many Latin American countries. Many more ethnic Germans in Latin American were also selected for deportation. Outspoken Nazi Party members, such as Otto Krogmann, leader of the Nazi Party in Costa Rica and brother of Carl Vincent Krogmann, Nazi politician and mayor of Hamburg, were quickly arrested and deported.