The U.S., Nazi Germany, and the CIAA in Latin America during WW II

I visited the Rockefeller Archive Center in December 2008 for almost two weeks in order to conduct research for my book about the relations between Nazi Germany and Colombia. One of the research goals was to find out what role the U.S. played in those relations. The Roosevelt administration was suspicious of all kinds of German activities in Colombia and not only gathered information about Germans and Germany, but also took measures and created policies to undermine them. I wanted to find information not only about the German activities in Colombia, but also about the actions and measures taken against the Germans and about the persons and institutions responsible for those measures. Although I found very little about Colombia, what I did find was that the office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), led by Nelson A. Rockefeller, conducted a series of anti-German activities in Latin America in general, and some specifically in Colombia. The following is a description of the fields of action that show the broad scope of actions undertaken by the CIAA. The cases cited will focus mainly on Colombia.