Irving Simpson13 May 2011History 141Assignment 7: Modern Latin AmericaPower Point Presentation   

MODERN LATIN

AMERICA

Liberalism and Conservatism in Latin America

William WalkerFilibuster

• A filibuster is an irregular military adventurer, especially one who engages in unauthorized military expeditions into a foreign countries to incite or support revolutions

• The term usually describes United States citizens who attempted to instigate rebellion in Latin America in the mid-19th century

• The United States outlawed filibustering with the Neutrality Act of 1794, making it illegal for an Americans to wage war against any country at peace with the United States

• William Walker (1824-1860) was born in Nashville, Tennessee• His father was a Scottish immigrant and his mother was the daughter of a

Revolutionary War officer and niece of a senator from Michigan who was also founder of the Philadelphia Inquirer

• Well educated with a university degree at age 14, a medical degree at age 19, studied and practiced law

• Traveled in Europe during the Revolutions of 1848 and was influenced by events and political thought

• Was owner and editor of a New Orleans newspaper• Moved to San Francisco in 1849 where he was a journalist and where he fought in

three duels, being wounded in two• In summer 1853 Walker campaigned in Baja California and Sonora• He recruited from the pro-slavery states of Kentucky and Tennessee• He instituted his colony and was briefly president but was deposed by Mexican

government opposition• In 1854 Walker fought for the Liberals in the Nicaraguan Civil War• Walker defeated the Conservatives and gained control of Nicaragua and was briefly

president• Walker made diplomatic and political blunders and alienated Cornelius Vanderbilt

(controller of the overland transit company) and President of Costa Rica, Juan Rafael Mora

• He was again deposed and repatriated to the United States and wrote his account of the adventure, War in Nicaragua, in 1860

• On a final adventure to Central America, Walker was captured by the British, turned over to the Hondurans, and executed by firing squad in 1860

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

Mothers protesting on Plaza de Mayo Poster of disappeared persons

Falklands War • The junta counted on international support (think U.S. CIA backing of right wing causes at the time) for the invasion and trusted that the British would not go to war over control of the islands

• Neither of the these assumptions was true• Argentine forces mounted an amphibious landing in the Falklands on

April 2 and overwhelmed the small garrison of Royal Marines and captured the capital at Port Stanley by April 4

• The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult due to Argentina’s air superiority

• The U.S. Navy considered a successful counter-invasion by the British to be 'a military impossibility’

• Britain unsuccessfully attempted a diplomatic solution• On April 25, British forces recaptured South Georgia Island after

sinking the submarine ARA Santa Fe• British Harrier jets engaged targets and shot down three of Argentina’s

jets; Argentina’s jets sunk six British ships• Argentina’s air force was at a disadvantage because the island

runways were too short and aircraft needed mainland refueling• On May 21, 1982 British soldiers landed on the Falklands• Heavy fighting continued until June 14, 1982 when Argentina

surrendered at Port Stanley• Casualties and damage included: Britain with 258 killed, 777 wounded,

6 ships sunk and Argentina with 649 killed, 1,068 wounded, 11,313 captured, submarine and light cruiser sunk, and 75 fixed-wing aircraft destroyed

• Argentina’s military was not well managed and was not, in the end, a match for the well-trained, professional British forces

• The Argentinean defeat meant the removal of the dictator three days after the loss and the end of the military junta, and eventually, led to the restoration of democracy

• For Britain, the victory provided a boost to its national confidence, reaffirmed its international position, and assured Thatcher’s re-election in 1983

• On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands and other British territories in the South Atlantic

• The military junta which had ruled Argentina since 1976 sought to divert attention away from human rights and economic issues at home by bolstering national pride and activating the nation's long-held claim on the British held Falkland Islands

Indigenous People of Bolivia• Bolivia has the largest percentage of indigenous inhabitants in all

of North and South America• 55% of the population is estimated to be pure-blooded

Amerindian• 62% (of those over 15 years) self-identify as being an indigenous

person• The major indigenous ethnic groups are: Quechua with 2.5 million

people Aymara with 2.0 million, Chiquitano with 181 thousand, Guaraní with 126 thousand, Mojeño with 69 thousand, and 124 thousand spread throughout smaller indigenous groups

• The Bolivian constitution of 2009 sets up a plurinational state that recognizes 36 separate cultures with individual languages

• Many Bolivian highland peasants resisted acculturation throughout the Spanish conquest and post-independence period and revolted against dissolution of communal landholdings

• They held onto their indigenous languages, cultures, customs, and communal organizations

• Bolivian National Revolution (1952) introduced universal adult suffrage, sweeping land reform, rural education, and attempted to incorporate the Aymara and Quechua peasants into national life

• Indigenous students of the early 1970s articulated the Katarista movement and clarified two key understandings, that the colonial legacy persisted and that the indigenous population constituted a demographic, and thus, political majority in Bolivia

• In 2005, Evo Morales was the elected as the first Bolivian president of indigenous heritage

• In 2006, Evo Morales met the continuing demands of indigenous Bolivians by nationalizing most of Bolivia's natural gas fields

• In 2009, a new constitution was enacted, giving Bolivians of indigenous descent more economic and political rights

Hugo Chavez• Hugo Chavez was born July 28, 1954 and was elected as the current

President of Venezuela in 1998• Chavez is of mixed Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent and

was raised in a poor family, the son of school teachers• Chavez attended high school and the Venezuelan Academy of Military

Sciences in Caracas, where he received a wide-ranging education and felt very much at home; he graduated at the top of his class

• He was inspired by the leftist military presidents of Peru (Juan Velasco Alvarado) and Panama (Omar Torrijos) and was critical of Chile’s Pinochet

• He saw a future where military generals might seize control if the civilian government was seen as only serving the interests of the wealthy

• Early military postings included battling left-wing insurgents, where he became increasingly critical of military corruption and torture

• He read the left-wing literature he found in the shot-out car left by insurgents and became convinced of the need for a leftist government

• Founded a series of clandestine, left-leaning revolutionary movements within the military, the latest being Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200)

• Operation Zamora was a Chavez led military coup d'état in 1977 that opposed the corrupt and repressive government and the brutal massacre of political protesters

• The coup failed and Chavez was imprisoned, but not before he addressed the country and gained political notoriety amongst the disillusioned masses

• Chavez marshaled strong public support and, upon release from prison, met with individuals from around the country from a full spectrum of political views who wanted change for the country

• At first Chavez was unconvinced that he could be elected and thought that military takeover was the only route to change

• However, Chavez gained in popularity by making promises of widespread social and economic reform and gaining the trust of a primarily poor and working class following

• Chavez won a landslide victory in the presidential election while gaining particular support from a disenchanted middle class

Coca and Cocaine• Cocaine is an addictive drug, a central nervous system stimulant,

appetite suppressant, and topical anesthetic• Cocaine is an alkaloid crystalline powder derived from the leaves

of the coca plant, native to western South America• The production, distribution, and sale of cocaine products is

illegal and regulated in most all countries by international treaty• The use of cocaine is widespread and the illegal production and

sale is very lucrative • The use of coca leaves can be documented back 8000 years and

has become legal for some indigenous Andean peoples• In the early 1990’s, counterdrug policies in Bolivia and Peru

drove production of Columbian cocaine to record levels• Plan Columbia, conceived in 1998 or 1999, was an anti-drug

action in Columbia, supported by the U.S. under the umbrella of the War on Drugs

• Critics of the initiative claimed that American aid supported right-wing paramilitary forces suppressing left-wing guerrilla organizations and their adherents in Columbia

• Columbia is the only South American country with neoliberal economic policies and is a natural candidate for alliance with the U.S.

• Plan Columbia is long on military subsidy and radical crop eradication methods and short on effective solutions that might provide alternate livelihoods and economic opportunities for coca growers and processors

• Because coca is such a profitable industry, at all levels, eradication is essentially impossible and operations will move into other areas where enforcement is more lax

• Many countries are re-evaluating their recent drug policies and finding that harsh enforcement is not effective or in the best interest of their society

Amazon Rainforest

Tlatelolco Massacre• In 1968, student protests were happening around the world• The Olympic games were to start in ten days in Mexico City• Tensions ran high and everyone was on edge• On October 2, 1968, around 10,000 university and high school

students congregated in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City for a peaceful protest against the government’s repressive policies and tactics

• Under the direction of two helicopters, 5000 troops and 200 armored cars and trucks surrounded the plaza and began shooting into the crowd

• The death toll is unverified but is thought to be between 200 and 300 dead, although estimates vary widely from 30 to thousands

• There is evidence that the government placed snipers in positions around the plaza to fire shots to dupe the troops into firing on the crowd or that troops infiltrated the crowd in civilian clothing

• The government has claimed that communist infiltrators fired on the troops first, although first hand accounts discount this

• The student protest movement began with opposition to aggressive and violent police tactics which the police used to combat a brawl between rival high school students following a football game; several students were killed by police

• The authoritarian Mexican regime has provided no formal investigation into the Tlatelolco Massacre

• The official cover-up has begun to crack with the fall of the PRI party, allowing new information to begin surfacing

• The Mexican people have not forgotten this bloodbath and have erected monuments in memory of the event and its victims

Student Demonstration in Mexico City, 1968

Free Trade and Maquiladoras• Free trade is a system that eliminates governmental

intervention in the allocation of resources across national or geographic boundaries and allows pricing to evolve from an unimpeded supply and demand relationship

• The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) defines a trading bloc of three countries, United States, Mexico, and Canada; it was signed in 1994

• Manufacturing is attracted to Mexico by low labor and production costs as compared to the U.S.

• Manufacturing has grown dramatically in Mexico since the implementation of NAFTA

• Maquiladoras are factories that import materials and parts needed for manufacture or assembly and exports finished products

• Many maquilas are in the U.S.-Mexico border regions to reduce transportation costs between these trading partners

• Critics claim that part of the cost savings come from unethically transferring hidden environmental, labor, and social costs from the U.S. to Mexico

• Although regulations have been imposed to control pollution, the laws are being regularly ignored in Mexico and the environmental costs are only being deferred, not eliminated

• Some Americans are critical because they feel that free trade allows jobs to be outsourced, weakening employment in the U.S. and diminishing manufacturing strength

• Social advocates and anti-globalization proponents frequently oppose free trade on the grounds that it allows maximum exploitation of workers by capital, fostering wage slavery, child labor, sweatshops, cultural degradation, and income disparity

• Though free trade does create winners and losers, economists almost all agree that free trade provides a distinct and unambiguous net gain for society

A maquila in Mexico