15: Latin American military coups during the 60s and 70s.

This is just a simplified guide. The questions are not central to the discussion in this class, but rather basic starting points. Prof. Jorge Majfud

Brazil 1964, Argentina 1966, etc. Right Wing Paramilitarism. Operation Condor. Mockingbird Operation. Left Wing Guerrilla groups. Montoneros, FARC

1. What happened in Latin America during the 60s?
2. Name at least three new far-right military coup in the region
3. Pick one topic about Latin America which is not in our syllabus but you would like to discuss.

US Veterans For Peace: (sumary) veteransforpeace.org/

Gen. William P. Yarborough:

«A concerted country team effort should be made now to select civilian and military personnel for clandestine training in resistance operations in case they are needed later. This should be done with a view toward development of a civil and military structure for exploitation in the event the Colombian internal security system deteriorates further. This structure should be used to pressure toward reforms known to be needed, perform counter-agent and counter-propaganda functions and as necessary execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents. It should be backed by the United States.» (Colombia, February 1962)

Some Latin American military dictatorships during the 60s and 70s

Argentina: (capitalist far-right wing)

Bolivia, (capitalist far-right wing)

Brazil (capitalist far-right wing)

Chile (capitalist far-right wing)

Cuba (communist far-left wing)

Haiti (capitalist far-right wing)

Honduras (capitalist far-right wing)

Guatemala (capitalist far-right wing)

El Salvador (capitalist far-right wing)

Ecuador, (capitalist far-right wing)

Nicaragua (capitalist far-right wing)

Panamá (socialist center left, then capitalist far-right wing)

Paraguay (capitalist far-right wing)

Perú (military, left)

Dominican Republic (capitalist far-right wing)

Uruguay (capitalist far-right wing)

Right-wing paramilitarism and Death squads (see Gral. William P. Yarborough) were introduced into those countries with some form of democracy before the 60s left wing guerrilla groups.

Exposing the Legacy of Operation Condor

(New York Times)

Pepsi demands a US coup

(The Guardian)

The School of Americas: https://soaw.org/notorious-soa-graduates

Also see: The School of the Americas

Some US interventions in Latin America during this period:

1/1959 * Dictator Fulgencio Batista, supported by the US until 1958, flees Castro’s revolution in Cuba.

11/1957 * US high school students in the Panama Canal Zone burn a Panamanian flag, sparking riots that kill and injure more than 100 people.

1960- * CIA plots to depose or assassinate Fidel Castro in what is eventually named «Operation Mongoose.»

4/1961 * Failed Bag of Pigs invasion of Cuba

1961 * US-supported dictator Rafael Trujillo assassinated in the Dominican Republic.

10/1962 * Missile Crisis with Cuba and USSR

1964 * Brazilian President Joao Goulart overthrown by the military, with covert US support.

1965 * US forces takeover, occupy Dominican Republic.

1970-73 * US and multinational corporations work covertly to overthrew socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile. He dies in the September 1973 military coup.

1977-80 * President Jimmy Carter makes human rights a major goal in his Latin American policy.

1980 * Mariel boatlift brings 125,000 Cubans to the US.

1981-86 * Reagan administration officials secretly direct counter-revolutionary (contra) forces against the Nicaraguan Sandinista government. More than a dozen Reagan administrator officials are convicted of a variety of crimes in the «Iran-Contra Scandal.»

1981-88 * Reagan administration strongly supports the Salvadoran military in their fight against the FMLN guerrillas.

4/1982 * Argentina invades the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, held since 1833 by Great Britain. Reagan administration officials debate for two weeks before siding with Great Britain.

1983 * Reagan orders US forces to invade the island of Grenada to halt Cuban work on an airstrip.

12/1989 * George Bush orders «Operation Just Cause,» the invasion of Panama to capture CIA collaborator and dictator Manuel Noriega.

1991 * Collapse of the Soviet Union creates problems in Cuba and introduces a «Special Period.»

1992 * NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement * 500th anniversary of Columbus’s Caribbean landing gives rise to widespread meetings and protests against imperialism, rejuvenation of indigenous rights movements. Guatemalan Rigoberto Menchu Tum wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

more here: https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/hi453time.htm 

FARC, Shining Path, and Guerrillas in Latin America: https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-218?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199366439.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199366439-e-218&p=emailAuKqCDMHlkvbg