Last month, the U.S. recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the “interim president” of Venezuela. Since then, Canada, the European Union, and a slew of other countries have followed America’s lead. The move is another sign of the return to Cold War-era U.S. policy in Latin America under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Today, using records from the Central Intelligence Agency archives, we’ll take a brief look back at the last half-century of U.S. involvement in the region.

Shortly after Hugo Chavez’s death a year and a half ago, MuckRock’s Shawn Musgrave requested the state department’s files on the Venezuelan president. Those docs have just started to come in, and unsurprisingly, they make for interesting reading.