Mexico and Miscellaneous
This killing of student protesters accompanied Mexico City's hosting of the 1968 Olympic Games. It represented a crack in the PRI's orderly monopolization of political power in Mexico.
What was the Tlatetlolco Massacre?
After escalating tensions strained the relationship between the United States and Cuba in 1959 and 1960, the U.S. government provided support for this failed counter-revolutionary invasion of Cuba in 1961.
What was the Bay of Pigs?
This democratically elected president of Guatemala attempted to institute major land reform by nationalizing territory owned (but not cultivated) by the United Fruit Company. He offered compensation based on the company's declared tax returns, but was overthrown in a coup d'états sponsored by the CIA in 1954.
Who was Jacobo Arbenz?
This period of large scale European immigration to Argentina from the 1870s to WWI brought millions of new laborers and accompanying political ideologies. The policy of encouraging European immigration was part of an intentional effort by the Liberal leadership of the nation to "civilize" Argentina.
What was the Aluvión?
During this 1899-1902 civil war between the Liberal and Conservative parties of Colombia, the United States supported an independence movement that resulted in the creation of the nation of Panama. Gabriel Garcia Márquez set part of his epic novel 100 Years of Solitude during this war.
What was the War of 1000 Days?
A former philosophy Ph.D. student named Rafael Guillén, he led the 1994 insurgency of the mostly Mayan Zapatistas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas that coincided with the initiation of NAFTA. The insurgency was less violent and more of a social media campaign, gaining traction and sympathy in Mexico and beyond.
Who is Subcomandante Marcos?
This U.S. legislation penalizes foreign entities who conduct business with Cuba, essentially expanding the 1960 U.S. trade embargo to include any international corporation with significant economic ties to the United States. It is still in effect.
What is the Helms-Burton Act?
This president of Costa Rica won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his role in initiating peace talks between military dictatorships (supported by the United States) and leftist revolutionary groups.
Who was Oscar Arias?
He was the populist husband of Evita who used his military background, populist rhetoric, position as minister of labor, and charismatic wife to create a long-lasting political movement in Argentina. His supporters later split into leftist and right-wing camps during the Cold War, and after his exile, return, and death, the nation splintered into violence.
Who was Juan Domingo Perón?
This massive riot shook Colombia's capital city and led to more than ten years of violent civil war. It was sparked by the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a radical and populist Liberal Party candidate for the presidency, that took place on the same day as the creation of the OAS.
What was the Bogotazo?
The son of a popular president from the 1930s and a former mayor of Mexico City, he led a breakaway faction of the PRI to create a new, and more left-leaning party called the PRD in the 1980s. He is widely believed to have actually won the 1988 presidential election despite the fact that the PRI announced Carlos Salinas de Gortari as the official winner.
Who is Cuauhtémoc Cardenas?
This nickname was given to the core group of revolutionaries who accompanied Fidel Castro on the yacht Granma and survived the initial ambush upon its arrival in Cuba in 1956. The twenty or so remaining insurgents managed to build the revolution into a widespread movement that succeeded in overthrowing Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Who were Los Barbudos?
He was a nationalist guerrilla leader who fought against occupying U.S. marines (and later the National Guard) in Nicaragua. He was assassinated by National Guard commander Anastasio Somoza in 1937 after being invited to peace talks. Later revolutionaries would take his name in homage to his nationalist and anti-interventionist ideology.
Who was Augusto Sandino?
This is a group of mothers and grandmothers of people who disappeared as a result of the military dictatorship's governmental repression during the Dirty War from 1974-1983. They have continued to march in Buenos Aires' most prominent square ever since, demanding an accounting of what actually happened to their family members.
Who are the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo?
This group of paramilitary vigilantes was founded by the Castaño brothers following the killing of their wealthy, landowning father who had been kidnapped by the FARC. The group was later implicated in the killing of many members of the Patriotic Union (the political party created by the demilitarization of the FARC).
What is the AUC?
This is the most conservative (and economically neoliberal) of the three major Mexican political parties at the end of the twentieth century. Its candidate in the 2000 election, Vicente Fox, was the first non-PRI president of Mexico since the Revolution.
What is the PAN?
This major geopolitical conflict in 1962 was sparked by the secret installation of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba. It is likely the closest the world has come to large scale nuclear warfare.
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many members of the Catholic clergy in Latin America embraced this philosophy. It identified sin as not just an individual phenomenon but also present in unjust social structures. It argued that the church had a special duty to support the poor, and advocated broad-based, grassroots efforts to create socio-political change.
What is Liberation Theology?
This economic policy promotes the rise of select domestic industries by providing them with subsidies while placing tariffs on foreign imports. It is a form of economic nationalism that many Latin American nations, such as Brazil, have implemented at times to take a direct role in developing their nations economy, as opposed to a more neoliberal approach that deregulates and privatized industries to leave the economy in the hand of the free market.
What is Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)?
This former paratrooper was elected president of Venezuela in 1998 after first gaining fame for a failed coup attempt. His platform of "Bolivarian Revolution" were influenced by dependency theory and favored heavily socialist and economic nationalist policies to redistribute wealth and nationalize oil profits. His successor is still holding on to power in the present day.
Who was Hugo Chavez?
This term refers to the new generation of bureaucrats and officials to rise through the ranks of the PRI and lead Mexico during most of the twentieth century. It refers to the role of university education in allowing a more meritocratic political system, despite the continued influence of patronage politics.
What was the licenciadocracia?
Born in Argentina, this former medical student developed a commitment to violent revolution after witnessing the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1854. He was one of Fidel Castro's closest comrades during the Cuban Revolution, and was later killed in Bolivia while attempting to spread the revolution to South America.
Who was Ernesto "Che" Guevara?
This group of Nicaraguan revolutionaries led a successful effort to overthrow the Somoza family's long-standing dictatorship in Nicaragua. After taking power in 1979, they fought a decade-long war against the U.S.-backed Contras, until a negotiated peace led to democratic elections in 1990. The current president, Daniel Ortega, was a leader of this movement, but he has grown increasingly similar to his former enemies, the Somozas.
Who were the FSLN (Sandinistas)?
These sprawling neighborhoods exist side by side with more wealthy areas of Brazil's largest cities. They frequently lack access to public utilities and building codes. Despite the vibrant cultural life that flourish in many of these areas, they are often seen as a national problem as a result of the presence of gang culture and organized crime.
What are favelas?
This conglomerated chambers of commerce group represents the business leaders of Venezuela. It served as a key source of opposition to Hugo Chavez' Bolivarian Revolution.
What is FEDECAMARAS?