Marines in Veracruz

Answer 1

The above answer is an extremely polished version of the truth. The dirty truth is that US forces (Not just USMC) were sent to what became known as the Banana Wars because of political machinations of US corporate giants such as United Fruit Company and Standard Oil. The central american nations were essentially owned by these companies, and when these sovereign nations dared to assert their own agendas, the US companies manipulated the US government into believing US military intervention was necessary to "preserve order and bring democracy". What really happened was the US military was exploited as hired thugs for the US companies to the detriment of the native populations.