Politicians resolved that “US foreign policy could be made on the assumption that the unbalanced system could never be effectively addressed by Central Americans. The United States then continued to integrate with Latin America into its political, economic and military orbit. While the findings suggested the challenges and limits relying on an authoritarian government, American dollars steadily increased their presence in El Salvador, increasing 18 million in investment in 1950 to 31 million in 1959, without much attention to the regime’s governmental style. (___) In El Salvador, the American task was easy, the United States, to encourage stability, defined as limiting insurrections, simply had to support those in power, the military, the landed oligarchy and hence dictators. Nixon, while serving as vice president during the 1955, himself claiming that the question in the Latin American region was, “how far is dictatorship necessary” declared, “we must deal with [Latin American] governments as they are and work over a period of time towards more democracy.” (Ambrose) But the idea that the United States was involved in Latin America to encourage the creation of democratic institutions that could effectively enact reform and enable public discourse seemed far-fetched given how President Eisenhower and Nixon dealt the coup that followed in 1960. Before President Lemus caused a full-scale revolution with the massacre of the student protesters that was waiting to happen, moderate military officers organized a coup and overthrew the president. While the officers promised to implement the reforms promised by liberal generals in the late 1940s and to hold elections in 1962, Eisenhower “found the promises insufficient,” and “withheld ... ... middle of paper ... ... (__) As unemployment and inflation strengthened poverty throughout the country, especially in the rural outskirts, in the city a new political movement, threatening the long established oligarch-military complex began to develop. When the radio began to announce that opposition’s, PDC candidate, Duarte was sweeping up votes, the radio was cut and when the transmission, the army government’s choice, Molina, was ahead. The blatant fraud encouraged liberal junior and jealous senior officers to stage a coup, attempting to place Duarte in power. After receiving help from forces in the Central American Defense Council (CONDECA), the which was formed in 1963 under the influence the United States to protect Cental America against “possible communist aggression,” and US military advisors, the senior military command put down the coup attempt. (___) The United States
Models for post-revolutionary Latin American government are born of the complex economic and social realities of 17th and 18th century Europe. From the momentum of the Enlightenment came major political rebellions of the elite class against entrenched national monarchies and systems of power. Within this time period of elitist revolt and intensive political restructuring, the fundamental basis for both liberal and conservative ideology was driven deep into Latin American soil. However, as neither ideology sought to fulfill or even recognize the needs or rights of mestizo people under government rule, the initial liberal doctrine pervading Latin American nations perpetuated racism and economic exploitation, and paved the way for all-consuming, cultural wars in the centuries to come.
In the 1960s America, the pope of democratic faith, preached to the world about the evils of communism. When Marxist Salvador Allende lost by three percent in the Chilean election of 1958, the United States decided that the next election of 1964, could not be left in the hands of democracy. The United States began to work to stop Allende from becoming president. They went so far as to create projects to help train and organize so-called anti-communists among the peasants, laborers, students, and the media. Despite their efforts, in 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president through plurality. He became the first Marxist in the world to gain power in a free democratic election. Now you might ask, why would the United States be so interested in the politics of a third world country, furthermore the beliefs of one man. After all a person can only do so much, right?
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
This essay will study the Central Intelligence Agency’s intervention in Guatemala, and how they assisted Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas in the coup d’état against Jacobo Arbenz. It will describe the reasons of the intervention, the United States’ interest in Guatemala, and how it affected Guatemalans. Such events help explain much about the role that the United States has in their own migration. The paper argues that the United States’ political interest in Guatemala played a fundamental role in the migration of Guatemalans to its borders. As a result of this intervention, Guatemala suffered one of its worse political periods in their history. Guatemala experienced a period of political instability that led the country into social chaos, where many Guatemalans opted to migrate to the United States.
The “Panama Deception,” directed by Barbara Trent of the Empowerment Project and narrated by actress Elizabeth Montgomery, observes a distinct failure to implement 20th-century democracy in Latin America in the late '80s and early '90s. More specifically, the film documents the U.S. invasion of Panama under "Operation Just Cause” during this period, showing how the cause was anything but just. Rather, the film shows how the Operation intended to impose a biased renegotiation of the aforementioned treaties.
In 1930 a man named Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was elected, he was known for his dictatorship. During his Campaign he had it arranged with a secret police force called SIM “Servicio de Inteligencia Militar” (Military Intelligence Service) so that his opponent would get killed. In 1950, Trujillo tried to find reasons to put the three sisters “in their place”. Trujillo felt threatened by the sisters, not only did they oppose him secretly but publicly as well.
In order to explain why the Chilean military accepted the US’s help and overthrew Allende’s government, it is necessary to understand the effects of Cold War tensions in Latin America. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were looking for control in Latin America, and Allende’s rise in politics was seen as influential by both powers due to his socialist views. Both powers attempted to persuade Chilean politics to their benefit and this rivalry came to a breaking po...
All throughout the 20th century we can observe the marked presence of totalitarian regimes and governments in Latin America. Countries like Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic all suffered under the merciless rule of dictators and military leaders. Yet the latter country, the Dominican Republic, experienced a unique variation of these popular dictatorships, one that in the eyes of the world of those times was great, but in the eyes of the Dominicans, was nothing short of deadly.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone embarked on a journey across the Latin American continent pursuant to the filling of gaps left by mainstream media about the social and political movements in the southern continent. Through a series of interviews he conducted with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Cristina Kirchner and former president Nėstor Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raúl Castro of Cuba, Stone was able to compare firsthand information from the leaders themselves with that reported and published by the media (“Synopsis,” n.d.). It gives light to the measures these leaders had to take in order to initiate change in their respective countries, even if their public identities were at stake. Several instances in the film showed the mismatch between these two sources, pointing at the US government’s interests for greatly influencing the media for presenting biased, groundless views.
The rise of a new political reform took place before WWII. Corrupt leaders from society turned authoritarian stole all benefits of country. Many countries received independence and then govern their own country. Europe attempted to impose its democratic beliefs on Latin America but the corrupt oligarchies believed in the strict hierarchy. In the hierarchy, the leaders at the top don’t care about social and economic
Cuba, an island country in the Caribbean, has struggled with maintaining democratic leadership since the Spanish American War. After the war, the United States declared that its presence in the country was temporary and sovereignty would be handed to the Cubans through the establishment of a Constituent Assembly. In his work “Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development”, Mancur Olson (1993) explains that democracies usually prevail in combat with fascist or communist countries. The United States, being a democratic stronghold that held control of the government in Cuba, initially encouraged the transition from an autocratic to democratic government in the country. In contrast to other newly established democracies at the time, such as the democratization of Germany at the end of World War II, the new democratic structure in Cuba quickly collapsed. The Cuban Constituent Assembly that was established was a catalyst for the dissolution of any competing parties. The strict voting regulations for the election of the 31 delegates for the Constituent Assembly produced an overwhelming majority for the republican form of government, creating a gover...
The Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo (PGT) was a leftist workers party with communist members. However, it was not a strong party and "Arbenz did not appoint any Communists to the Cabinet" (SH, 21). Jose Manuel Fortuny, the leader of the PGT, did have a friendship with Arbenz and worked with Arbenz in the creation of Decree 900, which became suspicious to the United States. Communism in Latin America, however, was vastly different than Communism in the Soviet Union. Land reform was necessary to create a democracy in Guatemala, and although ideologically different, the two men recognized this. "The proposal aimed not to create Stalinist collectives..." but aimed to remove tyranny and allow the creation of capitalism to move forward in Guatemala (SH, 22). The lack of differentiating the PGT from the Soviet Union lead to anti-communism obsession without any real justification of communist threat. As PBSUCCESS ended, no evidence was found connecting Guatemala and the Soviet Union (SH, 108). The atmosphere of anti-communist obsession in the US was a motivator for the new Agency’s desire to succeed, but the lack of connection between Latin America revealed the CIA was quick to implement PBSUCCESS without much thought of the political situation in
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