Dear Students of the United States, I am not writing to you as a politician, nor as a mere politically- minded person, rather I am speaking to you as a husband and a father. In the middle of the Dirty war, 1978, my wife Agustina was taken from our home while in labor. Up to that point, it was the most devastating moment of my life. That was until I heard what had happened while she was retained there. She had given birth to her baby, and was murdered. Later the day of the execution, her name arose with the status of “disappeared” in the local paper. My baby boy or girl was somewhere unknown and the mere thought of my child without a mother became a nightmare for years to come. I am not here to mourn further, or to ask for sympathy, but allow me to explain my experiences living in Argentina during the Dirty war, and more specifically, under the rule of Jorge Videla.
Above all, Videla’s rule was the cause for negative effects on Argentina and it’s people. This I experienced first hand. Although the baby kidnappings were cause for some people's grief, many more were affected by Videla’s strong opposition of leftist groups. In fact, he was known to torture and murder anyone who opposed his right-sided ideas, especially those associated with the government. Similar to my wife, government officials would be kidnapped and mysteriously dubbed “disappeared” the next day. But that was just the start. Videla opposed any diversity when it came to political ideas. The slightest mention of being a left- side thinker, and you would often face the same fate as my wife. This fate was, in essence, the method in which Videla avoided a rightist future, by raising kidnapped children to abide by the same ideals and political views he believed to be tr...
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...I see it, a first impression means nothing if it’s not fulfilled, and as a citizen of Argentina, I feel as betrayed as I do sad. The fact that he was unable to listen to others’ ideas and punished them for thinking differently, overweighs the glimmer of hope he initially gave off.
My message to whoever reads this, appreciate what you have. Not in the material sense, appreciate that you have the right to think freely and not be concerned for your safety. Our country was hurt by this experience, but maybe it’s just one of those lessons that needed to be learned the hard way. I have faith that Argentina will bounce back and will never allow a dictatorship to consume the country the way that Videla did. As for me, I am continuing to search for my child. Hopefully he or she had the strength to think independently and practice the liberties that we all deserve as humans.
Miguel Melendez’s book, “We Took the Streets” provides the reader with an insightful account into the activities of the Young Lords movement established in the latter years of the 1960s and remained active up until the early seventies. The book’s, which is essentially Melendez’s memoir, a recollection of the events, activities, and achievements of the Young Lords. The author effectively presents to the reader a fascinating account of the formation of the Young Lords which was a group of college students from Puerto Rico who came together in a bid to fight for some of the basic rights. As Melendez sums it up, “You either claim your history or lose authority over your future” (Melendez 23). The quote is in itself indicative of the book’s overall
Once aligned with this organization Maria’s eyes are opened to the bigger picture of political oppression in her country. She, along with many other women of El Salvador, watch as hundreds of their men are unjustly jailed, tortured and disappeared. She was also a witness to the inhuman...
I intend to outline the background of the political circumstances that lead to the coup. This will include Guatemala, the US and the world scene at the time, when anti-communism contended with communism as state ideologies. I will contend that the coup was all but inevitable in the prevailing political climate of 1954. But that still doesn't make it right. We have been finding out for nearly half a century how wrong it was. Opinions have always varied with the positions of their adherents, but I believe there is one thing that can no longer be disputed: the CIA catalyzed a turn for the worse, even to the inhuman, for many Latin American governments by its actions in managing the Guatemalan coup. They provided the essential weapon for the modern national security state, the knowledge of how to organize an efficient apparatus of state repression and terror.
Eva Perón, the 20th century Cinderella story of Argentina, was one of the most hated, loved and powerful woman of her time. Her rise to power was spectacular and her use of that ruthless power supported her husband’s regime. While some think of her as an angelic woman who sought to uplift women and the poor, others viewed her as a self-serving, egotistical woman who used sex to rise up on Argentina’s social and political ladder, all the while seeking vengeance on the upper class. Because of this power and influence, Eva Perón will not only be remembered as a dictators wife but also as someone who crushed democratic institutions to satisfy her personal agenda. Eva Perón was a fierce feminist who gave Argentinian women suffrage.
Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government abductions that took place in Argentina, the military regime began to do the same.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Throughout centuries man has witnessed some of this worlds greatest tragedies; the destruction caused by the bubonic plague, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the Rwandan Genocide. However, none of these can compare to the devastation caused by world dictators. The lives taken at the hands of these tyrannical rulers is unbelievably distressing, and ex-Dominican president, Rafael Trujillo is no exception. Throughout his thirty year reign over the Dominican Republic he is thought to be responsible for the lives of over 50,000 innocent people, none of these devastating losses, however, compare to the tragedy of the Mirabal sisters; three honourable women who did nothing but have a voice. The level of political misconduct and unjustified action was unbelievable and lead the sisters to drastic measures, Patria saying "We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime, we have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, including my life if necessary.". In their efforts to try and overthrow the totalitarian they found themselves trapped in a situation where the lives of them and their families were constantly at risk, and in the end it was through their tragical ...
...rancisco Solano López and the Ruination of Paraguay: Honor and Egocentrism. New York: Rowan and Littlefield, 2007. Print.
Eventually, Jorqe Ubico was replaced with Juan Jose Arevalo under democratic due process in 1944. Arevalo was “unlike his predecessors, and for that matter his successors… a civilian intellectual who had spent most of his adult life teaching at the University of Tucuman in Argentina. His publications on the psychology of development and the concept of social integration were well known throughout Latin American academic circles.” Arevalo’s political viewpoint was clearly influenced by the concept of social integration, arguing that “democracy was a social, not an individual, system, and it was the government's responsibility to prevent particular interests from becoming obstacles to the needs and progress of society as a whole.” Of course, some might find this viewpoint aligns itself with socialist principles, dangerously close to communism in the eyes of the United States. Arevalo repeatedly pointed out that he was not a Marxist, however, believing in liberating nature of spiritual socialism, one that “protected personal interests without producing selfish antagonisms.”
In 1940s Argentina, the populist style was beginning to dominate the political scene and its greatest trailblazer was Colonel turned President, Juan Peron. Peron rose to power using populist techniques of the time. He began by building relationships with the working class, talking one on one with the labor leaders and listening to their concerns. This intimate setting made him seem like he truly cared for the working class and unions, not just as a politician, but as a friend (Fraser, 40). A vital and unforgettable aspect of Juan Peron’s rise to power was the contributions of his wife, Eva Peron. Eva’s fanatic support for Peron’s vision of the “New Argentina” allowed him to ultimately secure the love of the people.
In this letter, Eugenio Maria de Hostos explained how he felt about people knowing they are not right plus don’t accept others with abuse of the right. Moreover, he also showed a lot of anger because the government from Puerto Rico didn’t have any representative in the Cortes. Eugenio Maria de Hostos, made emphasis that the only one to attend to the Constitutional Assembly were those executives officers of the revolution that had taken to insure that only Peninsulas who support the regime were eligible to come. In this last paragraph Eugenio Maria de Hostos, showed unhappiness when he said that they are totally able to withdraw themselves from public life. Even he said that they don’t need to have any relationships with those that for three
Jorge Videla was the leader of the military-run government. At the time, it was very easy for Videla to seize power because of the highly unstable condition that Argentina was in, and had been in for decades. In September of 1955 all three branches of the military revolted and forced the president, Juan Perón, into exile. Eleven years later, in 1966, a new leader, Juan Carlos Ongania, imposed the military rule again only to have the former president, Perón, return in 1973, and ...
“It is an act of insanity and national humiliation to have a law prohibiting the President from ordering the assassination. I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for
We cannot explain Peron’s government and why he gained so much popularity so fast, without talking about the Argentina’s context when he came to power. During the “Década Infame” (1930-1943), the government at the time protected only the rich or basically the ones in power, but did nothing to ease the people’s suffering. There was no middle class, and riches were getting richer, while the poor were getting even poorer and miserable. The masses, mostly industrial workers did not have a “voice” in politics, they were basically excluded from them; at the time politics were known as “private affairs”. Perón, which had been sent to many European countries during his military career, had adoration for many of
By the fall of 1981, the Argentinean government under the leadership of General Galtieri and the military junta was experiencing a significant decrease of power. Economical...
...Daniel Gros. "History repeating itself: from the Argentine default to the Greek tragedy?” CEPS Commentary, 1 July 2011. (2011).