Departments

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Latin American history

  • 8/8/2021

    The US Should be Wary of Interfering in Cuba

    by Joseph J. Gonzalez

    Young Cuban protesters may be forming a revolutionary generation. They may succeed in advancing democracy if the US can resist the historical temptation to interfere.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    7/18/2021

    Migration Is Not the Crisis

    by Aviva Chomsky

    Migration from Central America is rooted in American support for exploitative oligarchies and export-oriented industry under the guises of anticommunism and economic development. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    7/8/2021

    The Root Cause of Central American Migration? The United States

    by Aviva Chomsky

    Joe Biden's pledge to pay attention to the conditions in Central America that are driving migration is a good start, but policy needs to be based in a recognition that those conditions have been created by the economic and military influence of the United States. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    6/14/2021

    Lost Cause: 50 Years of the Drug War in Latin America

    Latin America has been fundamentally transformed by Richard Nixon's launch of the War on Drugs in 1971. The Post presents a series of articles by Latin American journalists describing the consequences. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    6/8/2021

    The U.S. War On Drugs Helped Unleash The Violence In Colombia Today

    by Kyle Longley

    Counternarcotics operations have been a pretext for funding a buildup of the Colombian security forces, allowing a US-friendly rightist government to avoid dealing with the economic and social causes of unrest. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    5/12/2021

    The U.S. Role in the El Mozote Massacre Echoes in Today’s Immigration

    by Nelson Rauda and John Washington

    Renewed efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1981 El Mozote massacre of Salvadoran civilians during the civil war will further demonstrate American involvement in the perpetuation of inequality and violence in Central America and, the authors argue, the hypocrisy of US immigration policy. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    4/1/2021

    Biden’s Plan for Central America Is a Smokescreen

    by Aviva Chomsky

    The Biden plan for Central America revives the Cold War formula of business-friendly economic development and militarized security in the name of stopping migration toward the US. This, the author argues, amounts to doubling down on failed policies that have driven migration for decades.

  • SOURCE: Skipped History
    3/24/2021

    The 1954 US-Backed Coup in Guatemala

    by Ben Tumin

    Ben Tumin's "Skipped History" video series returns with a discussion of the 1954 Guatemala Coup, drawing on the work of Greg Grandin, Stephen Kinzer and Steven Schleshinger, and Vincent Bevins.

  • SOURCE: National Security Archive
    3/23/2021

    Argentina’s Military Coup of 1976: What the U.S. Knew

    Newly declassified documents demonstrate that the US government, including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, were aware of the developing coup and evaluated policy as a balancing of the prospective military dictatorship's friendliness to the US against its likely willingness to commit human rights violations. 

  • SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
    3/13/2021

    Letters From an American, March 13, 2021

    by Heather Cox Richardson

    What are the historical underpinnings of the immigration system, and what do politicians really mean by invoking a "border crisis"? 

  • SOURCE: University of California Press
    2/9/2021

    Who Gets to Govern the Global Economy?

    by Christy Thornton

    Johns Hopkins Latin Americanist Christy Thornton describes her book "Revolution In Development" and its contribution to understanding how Mexican officials fought against dismissive treatment from the world's leading economic powers as they sought a voice in shaping the international economic order. 

  • SOURCE: PBS News Hour
    1/10/2021

    Don't Compare the Capitol Riot to the "Third World"

    "Lucia Dammert, a Wilson Center Global Fellow and Professor at the University of Santiago of Chile objects to the comparison to the Global South -- adding that the U.S. has played a key role in sparking the turbulence, especially in Latin America."

  • 11/15/2020

    Can the COVID Crisis Create a New Civilian-Military Trust in Argentina?

    by David M. K. Sheinin y Cesar R. Torres

    Many Argentinians have been suspicious of military involvement in civil affairs since the end of the country's military dictatorship in 1983. Two scholars ask if the COVID crisis presents an opportunity for healing and reimagining the military's role in Argentina.