Augusto Pinochet over threw Salvador Allende who was a Socialist leader. This was
backed by the US and it took place on September 11, 1973. Pinochet took over but after
this, a lot of people had their human rights violated. Many were killed and tortured. He
gave up his power in 1990 and a democratically elected leader took over.
Who were the disappeared in Argentina?
After a depression hit in Argentina, they created an authoritarian government.
Argentina previously was making their money from meat production. Juan Pern came
into power after WWII and he supported the Dirty War. The government killed at least
30,000 people who disagreed with the government. Theyre called the disappeared
because they were talked out of their homes and off the streets and no one ever heard
from them again. Perns wife was popular and widely liked. She was a distraction from
the things that the Pern was doing.
Why was it controversial when the United States intervened in Nicaragua?
When Nicaragua became close with Cuba, the USSR and started heading towards the
idea of communism, the US started supporting a different group. The Contras were
fighting Nicaragua for power and the US sent them weapons until congress told
President Reagan that they could no longer support them. Reagan didnt stop sending
weapons though. Instead, he would send them to Iran who would send them to the
Contras. This is known as the Iran-Contra affair.
What violence occurred in Brazil and El Salvador?
Just like Argentina, Brazil became a dictatorship after the Great Depression. Getlio
Vargas was a dictator and he turned Brazil into a fascist state. Fascism is a conservative
government to the extreme. When he was in power, the poor lived in slumps which were
also known as favelos. This was until 1945 and then they slowly went back to a
democracy. In 1979, there was a civil war in El Salvador between the conservatives and
the liberals. The United States supported the right wings, When the war ended, 75,000
people had been killed. They signed a peace treaty in 1992.
If democracy is a goal of the L.A. nations, what does a nation have to have in
orfer to achieve this goal?
The Latin American governments are extremely weak and they have a long way to go
until they can become democratic. There have been countless times where leaders
violated human rights and many people have been killed. These countries should start
off by getting rid of dictatorships. They need to do this because its obvious that the
people are too power hungry and cant handle having power. If they started a
government system like the US it would help because not one power would have power.
Free elections are also a good idea because it shows what the people want. Altogether, a
country needs to have free elections so that the people can have a say and a government
ruled by more than one person.