Latin American dictatorships: what they were and context

In the 20th century, a series of dictatorships, about everything military, developed in Latin America. Different countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America had dictatorial experiences marked by State terrorism, when the State itself promotes actions of terrorism against society.

These dictatorships were strongly influenced by the United States, which found a way to keep the American continent under its influence and prevent the Cuban experience from being repeated in others locations. One of the first coups to be supported by the Americans was what happened in Brazil, in 1964.

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Context of dictatorships

THE second half of the 20th century was marked in the history of Latin America by the large number of military dictatorships implanted in different countries of the region. This model consolidated in the1960s, especially when the civil-military coup of 1964 installed it in Brazil.

Different countries on the American continent, such as the Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, RepublicDominican, among others, they had conservative dictatorships led mostly by the military. Their implementation is directly associated with the scenario of disputes of Cold War.

After Second World War, the rivalry between U.S and Soviet Union gained a planetary dimension and the dispute for influence has increased considerably. At first, the United States focused its efforts to prevent the growth of Soviet influence in Europe and Asia.

From the late 1950s, the US government realized the need to increase its influence over the continent itself, and this started the actions in Latin American countries. The goal was weaken left movements through the establishment of conservative military dictatorships.

The big turnaround for the change in the American posture towards Latin American nations came with the Cuban revolution, in 1959. This revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, was a nationalist revolution that ended up approaching the Soviet Union due to US hostility against the new Cuban government.

Cuba's rapprochement with the Soviet Union was considered by the United States as a dangerous precedent for the continent. Before the Cuban Revolution, the United States had sought to create a way to intervene diplomatically and economically in Latin America through the Pan American Operation.

The developments in the situation in Cuba made US action in Latin America more aggressive, and one of the first cases of this approach was Brazil.

• US interference in Brazilian politics

The Brazilian case was the first of a phase of dictatorships throughout South America. The US interference in our country took place from the possession of João Goulartas president. Goulart was frowned upon by the US government because he had turned against the excessive profits of multinationals of the United States in Brazil, besides having been a politician supported by the left and who defended the realization of socioeconomic reforms in the parents.

The government of João Goulart, as well as the political and social scene in Brazil, was seen as contrary to the American interests, so through the intelligence service, the United States began to submit financial incentives to opposition groups and conservative politicians. The objective was to deeply erode João Goulart's government.

In 1962, dozens of candidates with a conservative bias had their candidacies in that year's elections financed with American money. In addition, the United States, through the Alliance for Progress, released economic aid to states ruled by opponents of João Goulart; the US ambassador to Brazil, LincolnGordon, supported the articulations of the coup against the Brazilian president; and the United States, through the Operation Brother Sam, they would intervene militarily in Brazil if the military coup had not worked out in 1964.

Latin American Dictatorships

From 1954 to 1989, Paraguay was ruled by dictator Alfredo Stroessner, responsible for violating the human rights of 20,000 people.[1]

O Brazil case is very symbolic because it is the largest and most populous country in Latin America, therefore, from the US strategic point of view, it was essential that the advance of progressive agendas was barred and that the alignment of Brazilian politics with the conservative interests of the United States established.

At that time, some dictatorships throughout Latin America were already in force, but after the coup in Brazil, a phase began in which military dictatorships gained the entire southern cone of the continent. They were marked by the practice of state terrorism. Within this idea, the kidnappings of citizens, the use of torture, you bombings it's the disappearance of corpses —practices carried out against opponents that resulted in the death of thousands of people.

In the 1950s, a South American country was already under dictatorship: the Paraguay. The Paraguayan civil-military dictatorship extended from 1954 to 1989, being governed throughout this period by the General Alfredo Stroessner. Stroessner's dictatorship was brought about by a coup against the country's constitutional president, Federico Chaves.

The consolidation of the Stroessner dictatorship had the direct support of the United States, which provided economic aid to the new Paraguayan government. Over 35 years of military rule, it is estimated that about 20 thousand people were victims of violations of Human rights. The best known cases are those of girls kidnapped by government agents to be raped by Stroessner.

With the consolidation of the dictatorship in Paraguay and the civil-military coup in Brazil, other dictatorships were created across America. In the 1960s, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina fell into the hands of the military; in the 1970s, it was Chile, Uruguay and again Argentina. All these regimes made use of practices such as torture.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a great articulation of six South American nations to expand the fight against opponents and “subversives” throughout the southern cone. This joint was named Condor Operation and had the involvement of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, and was also supported by the United States.

In the rest of Latin America, civil and military dictatorships still existed in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Now let's look at two examples of them: Chilean and Argentinean.

Accessalso: History of Chile - a little about one of the main countries in South America

Chilean dictatorship

Tribute to the victims of the Chilean dictatorship at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, in Santiago, capital of Chile.[2]

The Chilean dictatorship extended from 1973 to 1990, being governed throughout this period by Augusto Pinochet. The construction of the Chilean dictatorship occurred as a strategy to overthrow the government of Salvador Allende, the first socialist elected by popular vote in South America. He was the winner of the 1970 presidential election at the head of a coalition of left-wing parties known as Popular Unity.

Allende's victory immediately caught the attention of the US government, fearful that the victory of a socialist in Chile could drag other South American countries down that path. Writer Elio Gaspari demonstrated the concern of the United States through a speech by the president Richard Nixon in 1970:

If Chile goes in the direction we are planning and leaves unscathed […] it will encourage other Latin Americans who are on the fence. […] If we let South America's potential leaders think they can move in the direction Chile is going, maintaining normal relations with us, we will have problems. I want to work on it, and on military relations — putting money|1|.

Since then, the secret action of the United States created a scenario for the political and economic destabilization of the Chilean government and fomented a military coup. On September 11, 1973, the military surrounded and bombed the La Moneda Palace, center of power in Chile. President Allende resisted the coup and, in order not to be arrested, committedsuicide.

The Chilean dictatorship was one of the most aggressive in all of Latin America and responsible for about 40 thousand cases of torture in 17 years of regime. Sites such as the Estádio Nacional, Santiago's main football stadium, have been turned into a prison and a place of torture. Heraldo Muñoz, a Chilean politician, stated that, from the first day of the dictatorship, Pinochet authorized the persecution of Marxists, defenders of Allende, opponents of the military, etc.|2|

One of the significant cases of the Chilean dictatorship's mode of operation was against the student LumiVidela. She was arrested by Dina, the Chilean dictatorship's intelligence service, in 1974 for being a member of a revolutionary left group. Lumi Videla was tortured to death (as was her husband) and her body was thrown inside the Italian embassy, ​​a place that sheltered people persecuted by the dictatorship. The next day, November 4, 1974, the Chilean government accused the Italian embassy of having caused the death of Lumi Videla in an orgy|3|.

Starting in the 1980s, the Chilean dictatorship began to weaken because of US support was withdrawn due to the large number of human rights violations carried out by the government of Pinochet. In 1988, under the watchful eyes of international representatives, a plebiscite to decide on Pinochet's permanence in the power.

The result of this referendum showed that 56% of the Chilean population wanted the end of the dictatorship. He left power in 1990 but remained an influential figure in Chilean politics throughout that decade. In addition to human rights violations, the Chilean dictator was also known for enriching himself via trafficInternational of cocaine. To learn more about this dark period in Chile's history, read: Chilean dictatorship.

argentine dictatorship

To this day, groups in Argentine society carry out actions in honor of the dead of its dictatorship.[3]

The 20th century was of chronic crisis for Argentina and marked by different coups d'etat. In 1966, Argentina had undergone a coup that established a military dictatorship that lasted until 1973 and ended with Perón's rise to power. the return of the peronism, however, was short-lived, and soon the military regained power in the country with another coup, on March 24, 1976.

This entire period that incorporated the 1960s and 1970s was marked by social upheaval in response to authoritarianism and the economic crisis. The crisis of the Peronist regime (1973-1976) intensified from 1975 onwards and led big businessmen, rightists and the military to unite to organize a new coup.

With the victory of this coup, the National Reorganization Process, the name that the military gave to the dictatorship that existed from 1976 to 1983. The Argentine dictatorship was administered by a military junta that chose Jorge Rafael Videla as president of the country. What was seen in this country in seven years was a unprecedented political persecution.

Leaders of opposition political groups, social and revolutionary movements, as well as trade unionists, priests, intellectuals and lawyers who defended Human Rights, among others, were systematically persecuted. Kidnapping, physical and psychological torture and the disappearance of corpses were practices of the Argentine dictatorship.

It is estimated that, in its seven years of duration, about 30,000 people have been killed by state-sponsored terrorism|4|. Society was silenced by terror. In the economic sphere, the Argentine dictatorship, as well as the Brazilian and Chilean ones, contributed to the impoverishment of the population and for the increased concentration of income.

In the 1980s, the Argentine dictatorship sought to recover the Malvinas, occupied by the British since the 19th century. THE Falklands War it was a great failure, and the defeat, together with economic problems, weakened the military, who ended up handing power, in 1983, to Raúl Alfonsín, elected president that year.

Grades

|1| GASPARI, Elio. the gaping dictatorship. Rio de Janeiro: Intrinsic, 2014. P. 307-308.

|2| MUÑOZ, Heraldo. the shadow of the dictator: political memories of Chile under Pinochet. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2010. P. 69.

|3| Idem, p. 67-68.]

|4| ROMERO, Luis Alberto. Argentine contemporary history. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2006. P. 199.

Image credits

[1] rook76 and Shutterstock

[2] Yasemin Olgunoz Berber and Shutterstock

[3] AstridSinai and Shutterstock

By Daniel Neves
History teacher