Week 11

Week 11: The Terror

It was horrible to read this chapter, I just stopped reading so many times due to the severe explanation of “dirty war.” I really cannot imagine how to survive such a period, but I also should know that there are people who lived such a rough period. When people heard the word “violence,” there should […]

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

the terror

This chapter talks the ages where the president of Peru had over thrown the Peru government, causing a huge chaos in the country. Later on, the chapter talks about Sendero’s War, the left wing peasant leader. During that period of time, because of economic revolutions happening in Peru, heavy inflation took place, causing money to…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

Week 11: The Terror

Focusing on Latin America (L/A) during the 1970’s through to the end of the 1990’s there emerges a pattern of new wars. Two examples that come to light in the 1980’s is the 1) the proxy war occurring in Guatemala between US and USSR with China and 2) P…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

The Terror

Focusing on Latin America (L/A) during the 1970’s through to the end of the 1990’s there emerges a pattern of new wars. Two examples that come to light in the 1980’s is the 1) the proxy war occurring in Guatemala between US and USSR with China and 2) P…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

Week 11: The Terror

Focusing on Latin America (L/A) during the 1970’s through to the end of the 1990’s there emerges a pattern of new wars. Two examples that come to light in the 1980’s is the 1) the proxy war occurring in Guatemala between US and USSR with China and 2) P…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

The Cuban Revolution

When I think of Cuba, I think of old cars and sandy beaches.  An image of an old friend who…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

Week Eleven – The Terror

The reading this week focused on a particularly bloody and divided time in Latin American history, between the 1960s and 1980s, where guerrilla warfare reined. Newly formed socialist groups fought against their states, with civilians, and rural peoples in particular, becoming the main targets of the violence. These groups rose out of a political climate… Continue reading Week Eleven – The Terror

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

The Terror

As is true with all people, I understand the world as a combination of what I have been taught by…

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with

Ideology and Violence in the 80’s

Violence in Latin American countries spread as ideological influence emanated out of the Soviet Union and the United States. Political violence throughout Latin America became the grounds for a proxy war between cold war superpowers with support for right capitalist governments coming from the USA, and funds for left-leaning guerrilla warfare coming from the USSR. The […]

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with , ,

The Terror

    Latin America during the 60’s was a proxy for the Cold War. Although not directly involved in the conflict, the world witnessed the rise in leftist views in the region, which immediately made it a key factor in Latin American politics. Many countries that were somehow linked to the US found their governments overthrown, and placed in the hands of American puppets.
            This reading gives us a timeline of coup d’états, and other tactics used in overthrowing governments as well as government tactics to avoid being overthrown. This timeline manages to span from as early as 1950’s when leftist propaganda began to take root in Latin America, to as late as 1992 when the Peruvian President Fujimori assumed office. The rise in military dictatorships within the region leads to this rise in terror within the state, in which civilians were caught in a war between terrorists (guerilla groups) and the terror state. In the process of this division, we have the romaticization of leftist figures, into heroic figures oppressed by the right wing dictatorship.

            It is also through these dirty wars, that we begin to see the extent to which government oppression had truly taken root in Latin America. The introduction of government issued disappearances presented a new wave of suppression in the region. There seemed to be no pattern behind the disappearances, as anyone could easily be painted as an enemy of the state, and as a result, be taken by the military for elongated periods of time. Examples of such can be found in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and Peru, just a few of the nations that record some of the highest numbers of mass forms of repression under their dictatorial governments.

            In Chile alone, it is estimated that 30,000 prisoners passed through the National Stadium, 2000 of which were executed shortly after their release, and 1300 still missing. In Argentina, around 400 of those kidnapped spent between 7 to 9 years one of the nations 340 concentration camps. It is from these numbers that we begin to actualize the extent of the terror brought forth by the government. We also are able to see the extent of the terror reign on the parts of the guerilla movements, as the Sendero’s of Peru were deemed responsible for the murders of at least 70,000 individuals during the nations civil war.

            This chapter allows us to get a better understanding of this new fear that terrorized the continent, and how different factions of society played into it. It also allows us to not view the issue of revolution as simply a black and white matter in which good was fighting evil. Whereas a majority of the leftist groups aimed to shift power from the bourgeois and western influenced majority, they ended up committing atrocities against civilians.  

Posted in Blogs, Week 11 | Tagged with