Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 

El mundo se llenó de sinembargos, de infundados temores y dolor, pero hay que reconocer que sobre el pan salobre o junto a tal o cual iniquidad los vegetales, cuando no fueron quemados, siguieron floreciendo y repartiendo y continuaron su trabajo verde —“Los materiales,” Pablo Neruda (Chilean, 1904-1973), Nobel laureate for literature, 1971

Countries:

• Venezuela
• Bolivia
• Southern Cone- Argentina and Chile
• Colombia
• Peru

Venezuela:

Chávez is a symptom of polarization, not the cause:

• Los Angeles Times, 19 August 2004: U.S. Should Form a Marshall Plan for Latin America: Venezuela’s vote points to the threat of growing, far-reaching class turmoil

United States fails first test of new OAS Democracy Charter:

• Pacific News Service, 19 April 2002: Bush Must Re-Embrace Latin Leaders After Break Over Chávez

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

go to top

Bolivia:

When the free market alone isn’t enough:

• Newsday, 30 October 2003: Bush’s Trade Policy Alienates Latin America
• Newsday, 27 February 2003: U.S. Policies Fuel Latin America’s Problems

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

go to top

Southern Cone — Argentina and Chile:

Argentina’s economic meltdown is symptom of social problems that plague most of Latin America and threaten proposed hemispheric free-trade zone:

• San Antonio Express-News, 13 January 2002: Argentina struggles stem from Perón and patronage

Brazil and Southern Cone leading the way in curbing the power of the military in Latin America:

• Los Angeles Times, August 1999: Military Strongmen Just Fading Away

Chile’s timid centrists are arguably doing more to restrain the advance of Chilean democracy than the widely discredited army:

• Journal of Commerce, 3 December 1998: Timid Chile lacks will on Pinochet

Menem abandons quest for third term as civil society in Argentina and Chile demands real democracy:

• Journal of Commerce, 24 July 1998: Southern Cone Cleanup

To assist a stalled democratic transition:

• Journal of Commerce, August 1995: Chile: Reforms First, Then Nafta

The Southern Cone’s military nightmares:

• Argentina web site: The Vanished Gallery, documenting the secret detention centers, the estimated 12,000 persons who were made to “disappear” and more than 8,000 others killed in “confrontations,” the military officers who were responsible, the abductors and torturers, the report of the National Commission on the Disappeared, and the mothers of Plaza de Mayo
• Chile web site: Chile: Ayer y Hoy Derechos , documenting detention centers, killings, Operation Condor, and the other grim details of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, and efforts to bring the dictator to justice

Books:

• Miguel Littín and Gabriel García Márquez: Clandestine in Chile

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

go to top

Colombia:

Escalating U.S. intervention in Colombian civil war due to failure to face reality about so-called War on Drugs:

• Journal of Commerce, March 2000: “War on Drugs” a game of illusion and pretense on both sides
• La Opinión, marzo de 2000: La “guerra a la droga”: Un juego de ilusionismo

To shame a domestic elite that won’t talk to “communists,” Columbia’s president arranged meeting of New York Stock Exchange chief and guerrilla leader:

• San Francisco Examiner, July 1999: Wall Street takes a meeting with Colombian rebels

How U.S. foreign policy can undermine human rights abroad:

• Fresno Bee, November 1997: Death squads lure U.S. support in Colombia

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

go to top

Peru:

Fujimori’s electoral farce — another step in trend toward plebiscitarian dictatorship in Andean arc of crisis:

• Philadelphia Inquirer, Sacramento Bee, June 2000: Fujimori set democracy aside

Execution of captives, mutilation of corpses, refusal to allow autopsies, dehumanization of adversaries:

• Newsday, April 1997: Peru’s Raid Shows State Terrorism at Its Worst

President Fujimori, the classic Latin American autocrat:

• The Globe and Mail, February 1997: Peru vs. Japan: When an autocrat meets a democrat

The crisis in Peru is not about terrorism; it’s about a social structure held over from the Spanish conquest:

• Miami Herald, January 1997: Economic Gap Fuels Insurgencies

Global Democracy and Human Rights Home

go to top