Paraguay's Archive Of Terror Analysis

5.Constable, Pamela, and Arturo Valenzuela. A Nation of Enemies Chile Under Pinochet. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993. Print.

In the last decades, narco trafficking and organized crime had emerged as the main security threats in Latin America. Deviant globalization increase their power by establishing connections with similar organizations in other parts of the world, like cocaine distribution networks, for example. This perceived danger increases the pressure on the governments for effective solutions, and some of them consider that these problems had overwhelmed the capabilities of the local police. Consequently, the intervention of military forces would be necessary to secure the stability of the countries. However, the use of force as the only solution is the outcome of a misunderstanding of the root causes that generates them. This paper presents the research for a general pattern in the region that is helpful to understand how the civil society perceives the failures of governance and how the networks of illegal activities exploit this perception.

Also, the growing presence of the Soviets and Cuba in Nicaragua escalated the cold war and in order to ‘draw the line” the Reagan administration “doubled economic aid for El Salvador to a hundred and forty four million dollars” (pg 40). According to Danner, “the priorities of American Policy in El Salvador had become unmistakable” (pg 41).Second, The American government was “opposed to dispatching American combat forces to Central America” (pg 22) and in order to prevent another Nicaragua, Congress agreed to “reform” the Salvadoran Army by financing, training and arming its troops to fight the FMLN. As Danner notes, “the Americans had stepped forward to fund the war, but were unwilling to fight it”. Third, the Monterrosa led Atlacatl led batallion through American funding descended in El Mozote with “the latest M-16’s, M-60 machines guns, 90 millimeter recoilless rifles, and 60- and 81 millimeter mortars”(pg 39) and with a list of names massacred an entire village because “communism was cancer”(pg 49). The U.S. government was clearly responsible for the Massacre at El Mozote because without the funding, supporting, and training of El Salvador troops the war would have been tilted in the guerillas favor as they had managed to hold the disorganized army in certain areas. In contrast to neighboring departments El Mozote and its inhabitants of born-again Christians did not fit in as guerilla sympathizers. In fact, the training at American hands

The United States has been an important part in the history of all of Latin America. Many times, the United States influenced Latin American countries with its economic, political, and military power. The United States looked down at Latin America as its backyard, constantly using its influence to benefit from the land and supporting dictators in the region. The United States used this power to effectively influence Latin America for decades, even when the U.S. faced communism as a new threat during the Cold War. The United States feared the communist influence of the Soviet Union in countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, because the “evil empire’s” plan for world domination included infiltrating Latin America. Even though these

Between 1973 and 1984, almost 30,000 Argentines were murdered or ‘disappeared.’ The result of a military coup d’état during which security forces and death squads acting in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, or ‘Triple A;’ hunted

Further, in the text “CIA and Guatemala Assassination Proposals,” it is revealed that the CIA “developed a major propaganda campaign” that, “included sending wooden coffins, hangmans’ nooses, and phony bombs to selected individuals” (“CIA and Guatemala”) in Guatemala. This use of terror and psychological warfare was intended to horrify Guatemalan civilians and politicians prior to executing the actual coup. It is clear that American foreign policy was quite dangerous in correlation with Guatemala and exhibited a masculine attitude. In relation to de Beauvoir, American foreign policy can be compared to “the great advantage enjoyed by the boy” in which “his mode of existence in relations to others leads him to assert his subjective freedom” (de

“The issue is our effort to promote democracy and economic well-being in the face of Cuban and Nicaraguan aggression, aided and abetted by the Soviet Union. It is definitely not about plans to send American troops into combat in Central America. Each year, the Soviet Union provides Cuba with $4 billion in assistance, and it sends tons of weapons to foment revolution here in our hemisphere…Central America is a region of great importance to the United States. And it is so close: San Salvador is closer to Houston, Texas, than Houston is to Washington, DC. Central America is America. It's at our doorstep, and it's become the stage for a bold attempt by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua to install communism by force throughout the

Paraguayans do not have many historical happy times in their past. Their history leading up to Operation Condor involves three men that led the country to a government based on military dictatorships. After Jose Francia and Carlos Lopez, two of the first leaders of Paraguay after winning independence from Spain, Francisco Lopez is in power in 1862 (Resnick). Lopez was interested in not being a country of isolation and forced everyone to be part of the military unless one was a priest or could pay the price to not be in the military. While he signs a treaty with Uruguay a war is about to begin over who is in power in Uruguay. Lopez runs into trouble with bringing Paraguay into the War of the Triple Alliance. Paraguay falls on the wrong side having to fight against Brazil, Argentina, and the Colorado Party of Uruguay (Resnick). Paraguayans are forced with two options that both end in death: not fight and be executed by Lopez or go to war and be killed by Brazilians, Argentinians, or Uruguayans. Paraguay eventually has to even send their children to fight due to the loss of many people. After Paraguay loses the war, Brazil takes the country over. The next known leader that Paraguay has after Brazil leaves is Alfredo Stroessner. This man starts the process of Operation Condor in 1975 (Resnick). Stroessner becomes leader of Paraguay in 1954 due to his planned military coup taking over the nation. He was the Commander in Chief of the military in Paraguay controlling all parts of the military. Stroessner put conditions in place like Argentina with additions including secret police, censorship, prison camps, torture, no freedom of speech, banning unions, curfew, dissolving Congress, and suspending the Constitution. His reason for the military coup and the new conditions put in place in Paraguay was due to the fear of

While the Cold War does not mark a significant distinction from US involvement in Latin America pre-Cold War, the inclusion of ideology in US foreign policy decisions did mark a change in attitudes and focus. While US policy can be described as rational to a certain point, the Cuban dilemma caused an irrational fear in US foreign policy makers to avoid a second-Cuba. The fear of a “second Cuba” can be seen in the various interventions by the US in Latin America during this period.

OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION OF CENTRAL AMERICA BY THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN

As Charles Bergquist observes, "Crises in Colombia tend to generate cycles of violence instead of mutations in the political regime." The reason is simple: regime changes in Colombia tend to produce very little change in anything other than nominal rule. Since Colombia's independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Colombia has seen a series of civil wars and secessions (Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama the last coming rather conveniently at a time when the U.S. was prepared to pay millions for a canal through its nation preparation that later resulted in a multi-million dollar redress to Columbia). Colombia's political history, therefore, has been colored by outside influences pulling on the two dominant liberal and conservative parties, with violent exchanges, and long periods of instability being the consequences. While regime changes have occurred, they have not produced significant improvements. Rather, Colombia in the 20th century has become a nesting ground for paramilitary forces and drug traffickers, with U.S. Central Intelligence operatives contributing heavily to the violent conflict that has risen between regimes. This paper will examine the regime types that preceded the Rojas Pinilla regime in mid-20th century Colombia, analyze their similarities and differences, and discuss the extent to which Rojas Pinilla reached his goals and objectives.

In the 1990’s two events officially define the current policy of the U.S-Cuban embargo, in 1996 the passage of the Helms-Burton Act, replacing, or Torricelli Act of 1992 better known as the Cuban Democracy Act, which previously embodied a tightening of the original embargo restrictions on U.S subsidiaries trade with Cuba. Also, the Torricelli Act “epitomized a change of policy aims for the embargo.” In 1991the fall of the Soviet Union call for a change of policy change in National Security. The containment of communism was harder to justify, however, given after the events in South America where new democratic governments had developed in Argentina, Brazil and Chile

"Fueled by the Cold War and transnational corporate interests, the U.S. has covertly tinkered with the governments of Latin American countries since World War 2, producing an extremely violent and unstable political climate."

The War of the Triple Alliance is regarded as the bloodiest war in the history of Latin America, taking place from 1864 to 1870. In a seemingly uneven match up, the country of Paraguay took on an alliance of three countries: Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Paraguay started this conflict under the rule of Francisco Solano López, the country’s dictator. What would make Fransisco Solano López, dictator of Paraguay, exponentially increase his military forces and attack an alliance of three countries, two of which are much larger than Paraguay? I will use operational code to study the dictator who started the war and examine reasons as to why he made such the rash and risky decision that he did. After examining Francisco Solano López’s

The USSR had recently funded a communications site on Nicaraguan soil to help them communicate with other socialist nations. With a rising fear of the USSR and other socialist nations, the US immediately accused it of being a spy base. Not shortly afterwards the US began to take action against Nicaragua by issuing an economic blockade. Because the Nicaraguan economy relied so heavily on imports, this had a profound effect and contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy. “It was impossible to spend even a day in Nicaragua without becoming aware of the huge and unrelenting pressure being exerted on the country by the giant standing on the northern front” (p.24).