Abstract
Considering the eleven major events of the last five centuries of Church history in Latin America, it can be concluded that the policy of the Vatican during the three centuries of Portuguese-Spanish domination granted the Iberian states all the effective power of the Church and accepted that all the actions of these states were thereby justified. Having taken up directly with the newly emancipated states in the 19th century, politicians in the Vatican considered the United States to be the guarantor of its policy on the Latin American continent (see the cases of Cuban, Puerto Rican and “Cristeros” political emancipation and the present-day situation in Central America). For the Vatican and its policy, the interests of the Latin American peoples are not as important as the nomination of the hierarchy that echoes in Rome the interests of the Curia. In other words, to take the example of a Cardinal's nomination, the idea behind it is more that of a forthcoming Consistory for the election of a conservative pope than of the lack of pastoral creativity or of the scandalous situation facing the poor as a result of this Cardinal's nomination.