Communism In Chile

The government also advocated the development of domestic industry in order to protect Chile from future external economic shocks. Thus, Chile, like many other Latin American nations at the time, adopted a policy of import-substitution industrialization. Its aim was to “encourage the creation of homegrown industries to replace Latin American dependence on foreign manufactured goods” (Berliner) which was done in part by establishing quotas, licenses, and higher tariffs on imports and a strict exchange rate in Chile.

There were several sources of conflict. There was the Nuclear arms race and proliferation. The US was especially concerned with Communism spreading to Latin America and Korea.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was plagued with a stagnant economy – it had no incentive to promote communism in Central America. Ignoring the USSR’s economic weakness, Reagan asserted squashing the Salvadoran rebels would stem the spread of communism and would reestablish American preeminence in Central America. Reagan believed that enforcing anti-communist ideology would protect American national security interests by protecting the United States from its Bolshevik enemies.

According to Garreton, the oppositions had successfully created a political front that aggregated enough support for an alternative to the current regime. This resulted in a democratization in Chile that was also free and repressive. Chile had a pacted transition which was actor-centered. This transition to democracy was repressive in that the elections were started from the top down, only once the elites and the official agreed to hold an election was there any form of a transition. As O’Donnell described it, it is ironically non-democratic because these pacts are negotiated among small numbers of elites. It was also repressive in that once Chile was democratized it delayed truth and justice. Those that were involved in many of the atrocities did not serve jail time because of the amnesty laws. However, this transition was also free because it resulted in elections that allowed for the public to decide whether or not they were going to transition to democracy. These elections were also free in that they were inclusive and also non-violent. This then resulted in a stable democratic government that was bred through both freedom and

During the Cold War, the United States was worry of the threat of international Communism. The fear of Communism spreading was the excuse they gave to assassinated presidents in Latin America countries that had an inclination

One of the most speculative experiences of conquest and dictatorship in the history of Latin America has been the socialist and dictatorial regimes in Chile. Chile has gone through multiple times of dictatorship, lead by the military, and also had lapses of a socialist government. The film “Machuca” by Andres Wood provided an insight of the series of social events in Chile in 1973, ranging from inter personal experiences to political issues and the Chilean nation. “Two dictators, Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet, both brought tremendous suffering upon the Chilean people -- one through his socialist policies and nationalization of

The motivation behind US endeavors during the Cold War was to interfere with Latin American countries politically to counter the spread of communist ideologies that were seen by the US as being directly opposed to its economic and philosophical interests. The US’ economic interests were spread and consolidated through corporations operating within Latin America such as Alcoa, United Fruit, and others. It is through these corporate interests, which were under threat of nationalizion in their respective countries by leftist governments taking hold, that the US justified much of its involvement toppling governments in the region.

The Yarur textile factory played an important role in Chilean politics, and was the central role for the uprisings and downfalls in Chilean history. Its first key component was that it represented an economic empire based of paper and cloth that used these resources to gain political power through the aspect of having wealth. The second element of the Yarur factory that gave its importance in Chilean politics was that it represented a monopoly of Chile’s political capital. In Weavers of Revolution, Peter Winn depicts the relationship from a “revolution from above” and “revolution from below” and how the workers of the Yarur textile factory faced an on-going struggle between the working class and the government. Winn focuses his analysis of

The United States and the Soviet Union competed against each other during the Cold War in the second half of the 20th Century like a chess game, with the world as their chessboard and countries as pawns in their game. For the Russians, a critical part of the chessboard was Cuba and Latin America. The Russians believed that if they could align themselves with countries in the western hemisphere, America’s “backyard”, it would help the Soviet Union counter the strong political influence and military presence America had in Europe, which made the Russians feel threatened. The Soviet Union tried to align itself politically, militarily, and economically with as many Latin American countries as it could. In

When looking at the history between the United States and Latin America, you see many interactions between them, all that aided the relationship that they have today. Despite that the United States and Latin America are in the same part of the world, the beliefs in which they govern may differ. This difference has often been seen playing a major role in the disputes that have occurred in past. The United States and Latin America have faced many social, economical and governing barriers in forming a strong and positive relationship in the early twentieth century, this is due to the differences that the two had between cultures and the constant demand for power. However, the two countries have found ways to meet in the middle of their cultural differences, to form an equally fair relationship.

The CIA used Chilean media to perpetuate a smear campaign against Allende and encouraged a coup against the communist government that made the conditions ripe for a coup. After the coup, General Pinochet was a close U.S. ally up until the Carter administration. President Carter, who made human rights as the driving force behind his foreign policy, distanced himself from Pinochet because of alleged human rights violations conducted by Pinochet’s regime.

With Pinochet’s rejection of communist thinking he was able to obtain the backing of the United States which was a key difference in his ability to come to power in his country. This in comparison with Castro and the hard hand that the United States used to try to make crush Castro’s reign in Cuba. The United States was not happy that Chile had elected a well-known socialist into presidency and

Chile’s economy was effectively owned by US corporation’s, and these corporation’s controlled the country's resources. When Allende nationalized copper the two main American corporation were financially hurt severely and lost a lot of profit. This concerned the US and Nixon worried that Chile was falling under soviet control and communism. One of Nixon’s fears was that the Soviets would have total control in Americas backyard. However, the major reason that the US instigated the overthrow was because the corporations did not want Chile to take over their own resources and use them for their own benefit. The corporations were able to exercise leverage over Allende because Chile was in the middle of an economic depression and Chile was receiving loans from American banks. Once Allende was in power these loans were stopped by US foreign policy and of course Chile suffered economically . At this point,

Galeano portrays this moment in Latin American history as the instant U.S investors took control over the industries. He details the dangers they went through when producing one item to export for the benefit of foreigners, and how they later imported the processed goods from those same foreign countries, injecting money only overseas. The fact that Latin America needed imports to survive initiated the imperial link the U.S has upon it. As stated by Galeano, “The growing dependence on foreign supplies produces the growing identification of the interest of U.S. capitalists operating in Latin America with U.S. national security”11, bluntly showing the relationship between the United States and Latin America. “With petroleum, as with coffee or meat, rich countries profit more from the work of consuming it than do poor countries from the work of producing it”12. Because profit was not being retained in the Latin American countries, nationalization of the industries became of importance. The United States offered intervention in order to protect everyone’s interests with the proposal of free trade, but this was no more than another manipulation to continue having power over Latin America and its resources: “Latin America’s big ports, through which the wealth of its soil and subsoil passed en route to distant centers of power, were being built as instruments of the conquest and domination of the countries to which they belonged, and as conduits

“Durante los últimos treinta años, la política del Estado chileno se ha orientado a lograr la