Rising nationalist movements blamed the economic and social standing of their country on the neocolonial practise, and pursued unpopular policies with the elite and foreign companies by pursuing nationalization of foreign owned business, agrarian reform, and to increase political participation (McSherry 2005, 5-7). Fearing the nationalization of U.S. owned industries and the spread of leftist regimes, the United States established operation Condor, which was a joint military effort across military states that sought to eliminate opposition to U.S. friendly regimes. The program was sponsored and supported by the US military, as a part of an effort to maintain hemispheric hegemony (Mcsherry 2005, ?). Though Operation Condor sought to operate in the shadows, though sometimes would be clear with their intentions trying to dissuade opposition groups with fear tactics. Moments where the application of Operation Condor was seen was during the Argentine Dirty war (1976-1983), which resulted in several assassinations, disappearances and counter-insurgency tactics that could be considered inhuman and unethical. The military states of Latin America used the resources provided by operation Condor to coordinate information and resources to aid each other in quelling insurgencies in their respected countries. An instance of this was in 1978 when Uruguayan forces crossed into Brazil and captured two activist believed to support the opposition in Uruguay. Many have argued, such as Luis
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.
In the early sixteenth century, Spain conquered Mexico and turned it into one of their most lucrative colonies. In the search for land, labor and natural resources, Spain found everything they were looking for in Mexico. During the colonial period, Mexico was simply another kingdom of the vast Spanish Empire. As Spain largely benefited, the indigenous civilizations of Mexico were ravaged and left to be entirely dependent on their foreign counterpart. It wasn’t until the independence movement in the early nineteenth century that Mexico seemed to have some hope of being released from the hands of imperialism. Unfortunately, following independence, Mexico suffered from a half a century of economic
In Kinzer’s book, Overthrow, we are taken through the events of United States foreign intervention. We see how the United States plays a direct role in the overthrowing of leaders of countries who are not doing as the U.S. pleases. The U.S. goes about overthrowing in some very similar ways and some differing ways. However, as a whole, the U.S. shows many similar actions and reasons behind their attempts at overthrowing another country’s leader. The U.S. is trying to greater their sphere of global influence and they are using military force when needed in all the overthrow attempts. Although, the U.S. does have a slightly different reason from Part One and Part Two, and that reason is changed from being anti-colonial to being anti-Communist. Lastly, the U.S. also uses a new agency that was not at their disposal in Part One of Kinzer, and that is the CIA.
The book, Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer, is organized by chapters and parts. It begins with the introduction, and then it flows into the following parts: The Imperial Era, Covert Action, and Invasions. After these parts are the notes, bibliography, acknowledgments, and index. The book also features pictures of the people and places that are spoken of within it. The book is targeted at a mature, college-aged, or even older, audience, while remaining easy to read, and its tone is not at all tense for the subject portrayed. Overthrow is written as a historical recountal of America’s overthrow of foreign governments, including those of Hawaii, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Iraq, etc. The book uses these examples to argue that a strong nation strikes against a weaker one because “it seeks to impose its ideology, increase its power, or gain control of valuable resources.” The author of Overthrow did a phenomenal job of proving his thesis statement through his examples and making the book suitable for the audience.
In 1981 the CIA trained and armed the counter revolutionaries, which was known as Contra’s to help Nicaragua fight against the communist regime being funded by the Soviets. When Congress failed to continue funding the program, the Reagan administration imposed an embargo against the country.
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
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
Pinochet was put into power . This is a perfect example of how the US foreign policy replaced genuine democracy with dictatorship for their own benefit, and again, supposedly in the name of National Security. Latin America was a victim of US foreign policy and corporate greed.
"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."
One such instance is the CIA and International Monetary Fund covertly operating to exploit the third-world for the benefit of the corporate west. In 1954, the CIA staged a coup d 'etat in Guatemala against the democratically
During the early 1960s, Brazil entered a period of unrest caused by the military’s concern over the direction of government policies. The military’s concern rose toward the end of the 1950s due to the president’s perceived connection to communist world leaders. Prior to the Military Coup, the American government demanded that Brazil either move away from leftist policies or be forcefully changed. When Brazil did not comply, the United States, concerned that Brazil would join the communist block in South America, provided money and weapons to help the military overthrow the government. Although the Brazilian Military Coup of 1964 stimulated the Brazilian economy by investing more money into national growth, it was ultimately unsuccessful because
Colonialism, which was a major cause of the north-south gap that occurred in the period following the Second World War, is the takeover by a nation of foreign territories; making them part of it to aid its own economical, social and political structures. The mother countries succeed in doing that by using the colony’s natural resources, money savings, and their lands, which leads the colony to rely on the mother country and therefore, leaving the country underdeveloped. Hence, the world wide scramble for colonies, particularly in the late 19th – early 20th century, had a tremendous negative effect on the economic, social, and political structures of indigenous, non-industrialized peoples.
I would explain these geographical trends and how most of my clothes come from the least industrialized countries by neocolonialism. Neocolonialism is when the most powerful industrialized nations and countries like the United States use their political and economic power to dominant and use the resources of the least industrialized countries and nations. Moreover, a lot of my clothes came from least industrialized countries because the United States can exploit theses countries for cheap resources and labor. Since they can benefit from cheap labor and resources, they can also benefit from a lower cost per item made. Thus, the United States saves a lot of money and resources from taking their production to the least industrialized countries.
The film, in addition to its use of the legal pluralist perspective, also uses the postcolonial theory effectively to challenge the positive law theory. The postcolonial theory argues “the fact that despite Canadian law’s recent evolution in a direction more favorable to the Indigenous peoples, it still remains an expression of the interests of dominant society.” In the film, the postcolonial theory is effectively shown, and the audience is able to see how this perspective successfully challenges the positive law theory. For example, throughout the film, there is some negotiation occurring between the government and Canadian army, and the Indigenous people. In one section, provincial and federal politicians meet with the Mohawks in South Eastern
The postcolonial era presents various issues for the decolonized nations, like the reconstruction of a government and the maintenance of an economy. In addition to that, the individual identity of the colonized people is a complex issue that they must cope with as well, and it is an issue that is still present today. Compared to the other issues of postcolonialism, the construction of one’s identity might appear trivial; however, there are many problems of postcolonial identity, including the obligation of one to perceive themselves as people do from the outside through stereotypes, and the difficulty of unifying two conflicting identities: one that is created by outside sources, and one that is created through personal experiences.