Chapter 33: Latin America: Revolution and Reaction into the 21st Century

  • 1998: General Augusto Pinochet: former commander in chief of Chilean army and dictator from 1974 to 1990, was arrested in London.
  • Accused of crimes against humanity
  • 1973: overthrew the regime of President Salvador Allende
  • thousands of people were killed and tortured
  • claimed he did not have a personal role in the abuses and restored economic prosperity
  • Didn’t stand trial for “reasons of health”
  • 20th century Latin America: struggle between the forces of revolution and reaction
  • Third World: loaded term (what does it signify? What comparisons are made as to what makes a First, Second, and Third World country?) 3rd: developing nations, 2nd: formerly communist industrial countries, 1st: capitalist industrial nations.
  • Post-WWII and especially 1970’s onward, Latin American elites led their nations into closer ties with the growing international capitalist economy.
  • Investments and initiative mostly from US and Europe, Latin American countries continued to focus on exports.
  • Struggle of decolonization has been primarily one of economic disengagement
  • Industrialization in some areas, as well as emigration and some explosive urban growth, also a growing urban middle class.
  • Economic expansion, conservative regimes looking to maintain status quo

Latin America After WWII

  • Economies grew during WWII
  • Brazil worked with US for help with Steel Industry
  • Cold War: Marxism and political agitation in Latin America
  • Getulio Vargas: returned to power in Brazil in 1950: populist nationalism, state took over petroleum industry
  • Juan Peron: ruled in Argentina, populist platform, and political repression
  • Military group had driven Peron from power in 1955
  • Still popular among workers, Peronism
  • Argentina: “Dirty War”: military dictators tortured and executed presumed opponents.
  • Argentina fought against Britain in 1982 over the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) which Britain controlled and Argentina claimed, but Argentina lost

Mexico and the PRI

  • 1940 onward dominated by the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI)
  • mounting charges of corruption and lack of social improvement
  • Zapatistas: armed guerilla movement emerged in 1994 in the heavily indigenous southern state of Chiapas. Named after Emiliano Zapata. Government responded with repression and negotiation
  • 2000 Election, ended the PRI political monopoly with the election of Vincente Fox, leader of the conservative PAN party: platform of cleaning up corruption, improving conditions for Mexican workers in the US

Radical Options in the 1950’s

  • Socialist ideas became very popular in some areas
  • Bolivia, Guatemala, Cuba socialism became prominent
  • Marxian socialism was popular amongst many in Latin America, but dangerous because of the context of the Cold War, and the ideological struggle between US and USSR
  • Bolivia: 90% of land owned by 6% of population: revolution began in 1952, led by miners, peasants, and urban middle-class groups, but army back into power in 1964

Guatemala: Reform and United States Intervention

  • Population was mostly illiterate, poor health conditions, high mortality rates
  • Land and wealth distributed very unequally
  • Variable/volatile economy based on exports of bananas and coffee
  • 1944: reformer Juan Jose Arevalo was elected as president. Began series of programs he called “spiritual socialism,” with land reform and an improvement in rights of rural and industrial workers.
  • Income tax
  • Intense nationalism
  • Arevalo in conflict with United Fruit Company (US-based) larges and most important foreign concern in Latin America, controlled extensive properties, transportation, and shipping facilities
  • 1951: free election of President JacoboArbenz: nationalist program and made public statements against foreign economic interests
  • announced programs to nationalize the transportation network, the hydroelectric system, etc.
  • Expropriate unused land in 1953 provoked opposition from landed oligarchy and United Fruit, (could lose half a million acres of land).
  • United States, claimed it was concerned about “communist” penetration of Arbenzgovt, and with pressure from United Fruit, denounced the changed and imposed economic and diplomatic restrictions on Guatemala.
  • 1954, with help from the US CIA, dissident military force was organized and invaded Guatemala.
  • Arbenz govt. fell
  • Pro-American regime took power and turned back the land reform and renegotiated with United Fruit
  • Political instability throughout series of military govts.

The Cuban Revolution: Socialism in the Caribbean

  • Population of about 6 million with a large middle class
  • 1950s ¾ of imports came from US
  • Heavy US investments in Cuba in 1940s and 50s
  • Economy fluctuated with price of main export, Sugar
  • Fulgencio Batista: led Cuba from 1934 to 1944: promised major changes- nationalization of natural resources, full employment, and land reform.
  • Corrupt regime
  • 1952 returned to presidency, more of a dictator
  • Key opponent to Batista was Fidel Castro.
  • July 26, 1953: Castro launched an unsuccessful attack on some military barracks
  • Captured and imprisoned
  • Fled to exile in Mexico
  • Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Argentine revolutionary, espoused Marxism. Helped Castro re-enter Cuba. Then moved to Bolivia where he was killed in 1967. Celebrated as an icon by some, and a villain by others.
  • “26th of July Movement” landed in Cuba in 1956, lost many men, remaining 12 went to mountains, and gradually built up support from students, labor organizations, and rural workers.
  • Bearded rebels “barbudos”
  • Dictator driven from power, rebels took Havana
  • Castro then launched a program of sweeping change.
  • Foreign properties expropriated
  • US sponsored a failed invasion in 1961: Bay of Pigs
  • Cuban Missile Crisis 1961: Soviet sponsored missiles
  • Extensive social programs
  • USSR helped maintain the Cuban economy

The Search for Reform and the Military Option

  • Military governments in the 1960’s and 70’s: based on nationalism, new “bureaucratic authoritarian” regimes that served the Cold War interests of the US
  • PRI in Mexico lost control in the 1980’s
  • Roman Catholic Church: still a powerful force. Chile and Venezuela in the 1950’s had Christian Democratic parties emerge
  • Many members of the Roman Catholic clergy worked for social justice and human rights
  • Father Camilo Torres: Colombia joined armed revolutionary groups in the 1960’s
  • Archbishop Oscar Romero: El Salvador: spoke out for social reform and was assassinated in 1980.
  • Liberation Theology: 1970’s combined Catholic theology and socialist principles.

Out of the Barracks: Soldiers Take Power

  • Military became more professionalized
  • 1964: Brazilian military, (with support of US and Brazilian middle class) overthrew the elected president after he threatened to make sweeping social reforms
  • Argentina: military intervention in 1966 between Peronists and the middle class
  • 1973: Chilean military overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende.
  • Allende nationalized industries and banks and sponsored peasant and worker expropriations of lands and factories
  • Allende killed during the coup
  • Military-backed dictatorships
  • Political repression and torture
  • Argentina: violent opposition to military rule led to a counteroffensive and the “dirty war” in which thousands of people “disappeared.”
  • Argentina: went to war against Britain over the Falkland Islands but lost

New Democratic Trends

  • 1980’s military govts shifting to civilian leaders again
  • Peru: SenderoLuminoso (Shining Path,) long-sustained leftists guerilla movement, controlled areas of the countryside and tried to disrupt national elections in 1990.
  • 1990: Nicaragua, elections held under threat of US embargo, removed Sandinista party from control
  • US invaded Panama and arrested leader Manuel Noriega
  • Brazil: leftist working-class presidential candidate was elected 2002, Lula

The United States and Latin America: Continuing Presence

  • 19th century: US replaced European investments increasingly in Latin America
  • Private investments by American companies and entrepreneurs, as well as loans from the US govt. were the chief means of US influence
  • Cuba Puerto Rico: direct US involvement, protectorate status following Spanish-American War
  • Over 30 military interventions to protect US owned properties and investments before 1933
  • Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Cuba: all had direct interventions by US troops
  • Central America: investments from United Fruit was very high
  • Augusto Sandino: Nicaragua, led a resistance movement against occupying troops until his assassination by the US trained Nicaraguan National Guard in 1934
  • Seen by many as a hero and a figurehead for the Sandinista party: worked for a socialist revolution in Nicaragua in the 1980’s
  • Banana Republics: conservative governments that were friendly to the United States, often dictatorships…depended on export of tropical products
  • 1933: FDR introduced the Good Neighbor Policy: promised to deal more fairly with Latin America and stop direct interventions.
  • Intervention continued, more covertly, with the Cold war
  • Alliance for Progress, a US program begun in 1961, aimed to develop Latin America as an alternative to socialist solutions
  • Many felt it only benefited elites
  • Jimmy Carter, 1976-1980, attempted to influence Latin American governments to observe civil liberties
  • Treaty was signed with Panama that ceded that nation eventual control of the Panama Canal
  • More conservative presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, led the US increased direct involvement or support of counterrevolutionary forces.
  • 1989/1990: US took down a govt in Panama and replaced it with a cooperative regime

Societies in Search of Change

  • Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia sought to enfranchise their Indian populations during the 20th century
  • Indian considered an insult by many

Slow Change in Women’s Roles

  • Ecuador: 1st to enfranchise women in 1929, Brazil and Cuba 1932
  • Disparity in wages

The Movement of the People

  • Growing population in Latin America from 1950: 165 million to 1985: 400 million
  • 1920’s large numbers of migrant workers to United States: Visiting Workers
  • Horrible conditions
  • 1942-1964: Bracero program
  • Protests led by Cesar Chavez: grapes, gained some more rights
  • Also illegal immigration
  • Political reasons: Cuban Revolution: many left and came to US
  • More Latin Americans moving to urban centers
  • Favela: shantytowns in Brazil

Cultural Reflections of Despair and Hope

  • Vibrant culture, celebration of influences in dance, music, language, etc.
  • Famous writer: Garcia Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) Colombian author.