:: Latin America
[Book] Politics and Social Forces in Chilean Development
09.03.2024Chile, which suffering from many of the same social and economic problems that afflict other Latin American countries, has enjoyed remarkable political stability. With the exception of one brief interlude, Chile has been governed by elected rules for half a century.
This title was originally published in 1969. 1st Edition in UCPRESS: Sep. 2020
This title was originally published in 1969. 1st Edition in UCPRESS: Sep. 2020
U.S. Offensive in Latin America. Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization
09.03.2024The worldwide U.S. military-political offensive is manifest in multiple contexts in Latin America. The U.S. offensive aims to prop up decaying client regimes, destabilize independent regimes, pressure the center-left to move to the right, and destroy or isolate the burgeoning popular movements challenging the U.S. empire and its clients.
United States and Venezuela: A Historical Background
05.13.2019Introduction: US hostility and efforts to overthrow the Venezuelan government forms parts of a long and inglorious history of US intervention in Latin America going back to the second decade of the 19th century.
Why Venezuela has not been Defeated
04.14.2019Introduction: Over the past half decade, a small army of US analysts, politicians, academics and media pundits have been predicting the imminent fall, overthrow, defeat and replacement of the Venezuelan government. They have been wrong on all counts, in each and every attempt to foist a US client regime.
The Recolonization of Latin America and the War on Venezuela
03.05.2019Introduction Not since the US pronounced the Monroe Doctrine proclaiming its imperial supremacy over Latin America, nearly 200 years ago, has a White House regime so openly affirmed its mission to recolonize Latin America.
US ‘Regime Changes’: The Historical Record
02.04.2019As the US strives to overthrow the democratic and independent Venezuelan government, the historical record regarding the short, middle and long-term consequences are mixed.
Peculiarities of US Imperialism in Latin America
01.28.2019Understanding imperialism as a general phenomenon loses sight of its modus operandi in any specific and meaningful context. While the exercise of imperialist power is a common strategy, its motives, instruments, objectives and engagement vary, depending on the nature of the imperial ruler and targeted country.
Brazil’s Neo-Liberal Fascist Road to Power
10.12.2018Introduction: The decisive electoral victory of far-right Brazilian presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro startled politicians and analysts of the traditional parties of the left and right.
The possible implications for the present and near future raises a number of fundamental questions whether it represents a ‘model’ for other countries or is the result of the specific circumstances of Brazil.
The possible implications for the present and near future raises a number of fundamental questions whether it represents a ‘model’ for other countries or is the result of the specific circumstances of Brazil.
Latin America: Rightwing Interlude and the Death Rattle of Neoliberalism
09.05.2018Introduction: Business writers, neo-liberal economists and politicians in North America and the EU heralded Latin America’s embrace of a ‘new wave of free markets and free elections’. Beginning in 2015 they predicted a new era of growth, stability and good government free of corruption and run by technocratic policy-makers.
Latin America in the Time of Trump
04.22.2018President Trump cancelled his attendance at the Summit of the Americas meeting of all the 35 presidents of the region designed to debate and formulate a common policy. Trump delegated Vice President Pence in his place. VP Pence a known nonentity with zero experience and even less knowledge of Latin America – US relations indicates the Trump regime’s disdain and low opinion of the eighth meeting of the tri-annual Summit.
Latin America: The Pendulum Swings to the Right
12.19.2017Clearly the pendulum has swung to the right in the past few years. Numerous questions arise. What kind of right? How far right? How did they gain power? What is their appeal? How sustainable are the right wing regimes?
Why the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Won the Election
10.25.2017Every major newspaper, television channel and US government official has spent the past two years claiming that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), founded by the late Hugo Chavez, had become a marginalized political party, supported only by ‘hard core Chavistas’ and public employees.
Latin America in Search of an Alternative
06.16.2017Many experts and commentators describe the political process in Latin America as one of ‘alternating right and left governments’. Journalists focus on the abrupt regime changes from democratic to authoritarian; from neo-liberal to progressive programs; and from oligarchs to populists.
Peace Accords or Political Surrender? Latin America, the Middle East and Ukraine
03.18.2017Introduction: Over thirty year ago a savvy Colombian peasant leader told me, “Whenever I read the word ‘peace accords’ I hear the government sharpening its knives”.
The ‘Worker President’ and the Banker Regime: Brazil under Lula DaSilva 2003-2010
11.28.2016Introduction: Leftwing academics, writers and journalists have written tendentious articles where they manage to transform reactionary political leaders into working class heroes and present their dreadful policies as progressive advances. Recently, leftist pundits throughout US and Latin America have plagued the reading public with gross distortions of historical events contributing, in their own way, to the demise of the left and the rise of the right.
Overview of Class Struggle
10.17.2016The class struggle from below has taken different forms and directions, with greater or lesser intensity, between countries and within countries in different time periods.
Brazil: The Billion Dollar Coup
10.11.2016Introduction: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office through a well-organized, carefully planned operation among the corrupt Brazilian political elite, closely linked to the stock-market, financial institutions and foreign energy companies.
Washington’s ‘New Managers’ in Latin America: Oligarchs, Bankers and Swindlers
07.07.2016Introduction: Amid raging corruption, social pathologies and outright political thuggery, a new gang of vassal regimes has taken-over Latin America. The new rulers are strictly recruited as the protégé’s of US financial and banking institutions. Hence the financial press refers to them as the “new managers” - of Wall Street.
The Class Struggle in Mexico
07.01.2016Capitalist expansion and the explosion of class struggles in Mexico follow a very distinct trajectory. Large scale, long-term foreign investment in minerals and land from the late 19th to early 20th century based on high intensity exploitation, set the stage for the Mexican Revolution.
The Left: Business Accommodation and Social Debacle
05.04.2016Prologue: In 2004 I wrote Brazil and Lula: Year Zero (Edifurb: Blumenau, Sao Paolo 2005), in which I presented my analysis of the Lula-Workers Party (PT) regime in Brazil undergoing a Grand Transformation with the first stage represented by the PT’s incorporation into a government apparatus led by of bankers and exporters (the agro-mineral elite).
Class Struggle in Latin America
03.25.2016The role of the class struggle has been the most slighted dynamic dimension of Latin American development. The most influential writers have at best paid passing reference to the class struggle in discussing the capital accumulation process, while the high priests of underdevelopment, dependency and world systems have relegated it to the status of a ‘byproduct’ of global processes.
Twilight of the Idols: Rise and Fall of the Personalist Left
03.04.2016Introduction: Over the past three years Latin American leftist leaders, who presided over heterodox free trade and commodity based welfare economies, lost presidential, legislative and municipal elections and referendums or faced impeachment.