Revolution in Latin America

Human Rights in Latin America

Prof. Angelina Godoy
 Cycles of reform and
retrenchment
• In Latin America, many countries experienced democratizing
reforms in the mid-20th century
– Extension of vote (to women, those without land)
– Legalization of labor unions
– Legalization of opposition parties, including socialists
– Constitutions with guarantees of labor rights, social security
– In many countries, populist or socialist parties elected to office

• Reactions to such reforms varied by country; often violent

• Cold War lens defined all reformists as Communists, justified

intervention “in the name of democracy”

• In reality, there was an enormous variation among reformists

along both ideological and tactical lines
 Los Guaraguao, “Casas de Cartón”
Qué triste se oye la lluvia
en los techos de cartón
Qué triste vive mi gente
en las casas de cartón.
Viene bajando el obrero
casi arrastrando sus pasos
por el peso del sufrir
Mira que es mucho el sufrir
mira que pesa el sufrir.
Arriba deja la mujer preñada
abajo esta la ciudad
y se pierde en su maraña
hoy es lo mismo que ayer
es un mundo sin mañana.
How sad the rain sounds
On the cardboard roofs
How sad my people live
In the cardboard houses.
The worker is coming down
Almost dragging his feet
From the weight of his suffering
Look how much he suffers
Look how much suffering
weighs.
Up the hill he leaves his
pregnant wife
Down the hill is the city below
He loses himself in its tangles
Today is the same as yesterday
In a world without tomorrow.
Qué triste se oye la lluvia
en los techos de cartón
que triste vive mi gente
en las casas de cartón.
Niños color de mi tierra
con sus mismas cicatrices
millonarios de lombrices
y por eso que triste viven
los niños
en las casas de cartón.
Qué triste se oye la lluvia
en los techos de cartón
que triste vive mi gente
en las casas de cartón.
How sad the rain sounds
On the cardboard roofs
How sad my people live
In the cardboard houses.
Children the color of earth
With the same scars
Millions of tapeworms
That’s why the children live
sadly
In the cardboard houses.
How sad the rain sounds
On the cardboard roofs
How sad my people live
In the cardboard houses.
Qué alegre viven los perros
en la casa del explotador
Usted no lo va a creer
pero hay escuelas de perros
que les dan educación
pa' que no muerdan los
diarios.
Pero el patrón,
hace años, muchos años
que esta mordiendo al
obrero.
Qué triste se oye la lluvia
en los techos de cartón
qué lejos pasa la esperanza
en las casas de cartón.
How happily the dogs live
In the house of the exploiter
You’re not going to believe it
But there are schools for
dogs
Where they train them
Not to bite the newspaper.
But the boss, for years,
many years
He’s biting the worker.
How sad the rain sounds
On the cardboard roofs
How far away is hope
From the cardboard houses.
 Social and intellectual
movements for reform
Many movements converged to support leftist platforms for
change; these did not necessarily support armed struggle

These theories were developed in, and centered on, Latin

American reality, did not rely on theories developed in North

1. Dependency theory
– “Underdevelopment” in global South not a
consequence of backwardness but of unequal power
relations between North/South
– global economic structures privilege North at expense
of South; wealth of North dependent on poverty of
South
 Social and intellectual
movements for reform
2. Liberation theology
– Christianity demands church involvement in
liberating people from oppression both
spiritual, economic, and political
– Faith compels action, and action should be
based on “preferential option for the poor”
– Critique of church focusing on spiritual
practices as if divorced from urgent human
needs
 Oscar Romero
• “The word that bothers many, liberation, is a reality of the
redemption of Christ. Liberation means the redemption
of humankind, not only after death so that they are told
to ‘resign yourselves in this life.’ No, liberation means
that there is no exploitation in this world of human beings
by other human beings. Liberation means redemption
that wants to free humankind from so many kinds of
slavery: the slavery of illiteracy, the slavery of being
hungry because of not having enough to buy food; the
slavery of not having a roof over your head, of not having
anywhere to live.” November 25, 1977
 Oscar Romero
• “It scares me, brothers and sisters, when repressive laws
or violent attitudes are denying the legitimate avenues
[of expression] of a people that needs to be able to
protest. What happens with the kettle that is boiling and
has no escape valves? It can explode. There is still time
to let our people express themselves as they wish. As
long as, at the same time, justice rules. Because
naturally, brothers and sisters, when we defend these
aspirations we are not taking the side of terrorist
demands. The church does not agree with any kind of
violence, not that which springs forth as the fruit of
repression, nor that which oppresses in such barbarous
ways. It simply calls for understanding one another, for
dialogue, for justice, for love.” March 19, 1978
 Carlos Mejia Godoy, “Cristo de
Palacaguina”
Por el cerro de la Iguana,
montaña adentro de la
cegobia,
se oyó un resplandor extraño
como una aurora de media
noche.
Los maizales se prendieron,
los quiebraplatas se
estremecieron,
llovió luz por Muyugalpa, por
Telpaneca,
por Chichigalpa.
Near the Iguana Hill, beyond
the cegovia (tree),
there was a sudden flash of
lightning,
that lit up the midnight sky as if
it were dawn.
The cornfields were alight,
The quiebraplatas (plant)
trembled,
Light rained down at
Muyugalpa, at Telpaneca, at
Chichigalpa (names of
places)
Cristo ya nació en Christ was born in Palacaguina,
Palacaguina, To Joey Pavón and some girl
de Chepe Pavón (Pavón) y named Mary.
una tal María, She works humbly, ironing the
ella va a planchar muy clothes that the beautiful wife
humildemente, of the landowner enjoys.
la ropa que goza la mujer
hermosa del
terrateniente. In order to see him, the people
La gente para mirarlo se gathered together in a crowd,
rejuntaron en un molote, And Joaquin the Indian brought
y el indio Joaquin le trajo him quesillo (traditional sweet)
quesillo en trenza de wrapped in a cornhusk braid.
nagarote, Instead of gold, incense and
en vez de oro, incienso y myrrh,
mirra, I heard they brought him diriomo
le regalaron según yo (indigenous perfume) and
supe, Guadalupe buns (traditional
cajetita de diriomo y hasta sweets).
buñuelos de Guadalupe.
Cristo ya nació en Christ was born in
Palacaguina, Palacaguina,
de Chepe Pavón (Pavon) y To Joey Pavón and some
una tal María, girl named Mary.
ella va a planchar muy She works humbly, ironing
humildemente, the clothes that the
la ropa que goza la mujer landowners’s beautiful
hermosa del terrateniente. wife enjoys.
Joseph, the poor worker, he
slaves away all day long.
José pobre jornalero se
mecateya todito el dia, The banging work of
lo tiene con reumatismo el carpentry has given him
tequio de la carpintería, rheumatism.
Maria sueña que el hijo, igual Mary dreams that her son
might grow up to be a
que el tata sea carpintero, carpenter, just like his
pero el Zipotillo piensa, dad,
“mañana quiero ser But the kid thinks, “When I
guerrillero”. grow up I want to be a
guerrilla.”
 Guerrilla movements in Latin
America
• Some on the left supported armed struggle
• The denial of political freedoms led many to join to
guerrilla movements in Latin America in the 1970s/80s
(why?)
– Cold War logic conflated most social justice movements with
communism/socialism
– failed to perceive difference between moderate social reformers
and radical revolutionaries, prohibiting both
– this left violent revolution as the only means to promote change
– Countries where those in power allowed some reform avoided
violent guerrilla movements (Costa Rica, Mexico to a lesser
extent)
 “Che” Guevara
• Foquismo:
-Marxist ideas applied to Latin America
-Idea that a small group of
revolutionaries could ally themselves
with rural peasantry and overthrow
wealthy elites
-Guerrilla leaders often well-educated,
from cities, recruited from universities

• Ernesto “Che” Guevara, 1964 speech

at UN
-Why do you think his message
resonated with so many Latin
Americans?
 State terrorism
Are we romanticizing the revolution?
• Armed guerrillas responsible for violence, destruction,
death; should the state have sat by and let them have
their way?

• No, states required to protect populations, provide

stability. But the way guerrilla movements were
combated is considered “state terrorism” for 2 reasons:
– States cast the net too wide, targeted people who were not
involved in armed insurrection
– States used terror tactics against own population, including
torture, disappearances, executions, and harassment to spread
fear
 The human rights movement
Human rights campaigns spoke out on
behalf of victims of state terror, regardless
of who they were
– AI: prisoner of conscience

Routinely accused of defending “terrorists”

(similar charges are made today)
 Authoritarianism in perspective
Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre (2004):
• The authoritarian period in Latin America should be
understood as a counterrevolution that reversed the
democratic gains of mid-century

• Why did dictatorships happen? To reverse the gains

made by popular masses in first wave of democracy

• Latin American democracies of mid-century included

extensive provisions for social rights; today’s Latin
American democracies are modeled on individual rights
Los Guaraguao, “Perdóneme Tío
Juan/ Forgive me Uncle Juan”
Perdóneme Tío Juan Forgive me Uncle Juan
pero se ve que no sabe nada But it´s clear you don´t know
las cosas que yo le digo anything
se sienten en carne propia The things that I´m telling you
about
que en tierra venezolana
Can be felt in our own experience
el imperialismo yankee
In Venezuela, Yankee imperialism
hace lo que le da la gana
Does whatever it pleases
¿es que usted no se ha paseado
por un campo petrolero? Haven´t you passed by
The petroleum fields?
¿usted no ve que se llevan
Haven’t you seen how they take
lo que es de nuestra tierra?
What is ours?
y solo nos van dejando
They only leave behind
miseria y sudor de obrero
y solo nos van dejando Misery and workers’ sweat
They only leave behind
miseria y sudor de obrero
Misery and workers’ sweat
Los niñitos macilentos
que habitan allá en los cerros
mas que vivir agonizan
entreteniendo sus sueños
mas que vivir agonizan
entreteniendo sus sueños.
Contésteme Tío Juan
no se me quede callado.
Conteste si no hay razón
en que sigamos luchando
por echar de nuestra Patria al
yankee que nos la quita
y al lacayo que lo tapa
¿es que usted no se ha fijado
lo que pasa con el hierro?
nos pagan la tonelada
por menos de tres centavos
¡vamos a luchar, caramba!
o nos quedamos sin cerro
¡vamos a luchar, caramba!
o nos quedamos sin cerro
The malnourished children
That live there in the hills
More than living, they’re agonizing
As they entertain their dreams
More than living, they’re agonizing
As they entertain their dreams
Answer me Uncle Juan
Don’t just stay silent
Answer me, isn’t there a reason
For us to keep struggling
To throw out of our country
the yankee that takes it from us
And the lackey that covers it up
Haven’t you noticed
What happens with the iron?
They pay less than three cents
For the ton
Let’s fight, damn it!
Or we’ll be left without our land
Let’s fight, damn it!
Or we’ll be left without our land
No te dejes engañar
cuando te hablen de
progreso
por que tú te quedas flaco
y ellos aumentan de peso
por que tú te quedas flaco
y ellos aumentan de peso.
Contésteme Tío Juan
no se me quede callado
conteste si no hay razón
en que sigamos luchando
por echar de nuestra Patria
al yankee que nos la quita
y al lacayo que lo tapa
Don’t be fooled
When they talk about
progress
Because you’ll stay skinny
While they gain weight
Because you’ll stay skinny
While they gain weight.
Answer me, Uncle Juan,
Don’t just stay silent
Answer me, isn’t there a
reason
For us to keep struggling
To throw out of our country
the yankee that takes it from
us
And the lackey that covers it
up
¿Es que usted no se ha
paseado
por un campo petrolero?
¿Usted no ve que se llevan
lo que es de nuestra tierra?
y solo nos van dejando
miseria y sudor de obrero
y solo nos van dejando
miseria y sudor de obrero.
Los niñitos macilentos
que habitan allá en los
cerros
mas que vivir agonizan
entreteniendo sus sueños
mas que vivir agonizan
entreteniendo sus sueños
Haven´t you passed by
The petroleum fields?
Haven’t you seen how they
take
What is ours?
They only leave behind
Misery and workers’ sweat
They only leave behind
Misery and workers’ sweat.
The malnourished children
That live there in the hills
More than living, they’re
agonizing
As they entertain their dreams
More than living, they’re
agonizing
As they entertain their
 Communism vs. Capitalism:
Different ways of dividing the pie
Capitalism
-individuals pursuing self-interest is key to productivity: Adam Smith
-individual freedom is paramount; the law of supply and demand is
the best way to distribute resources
-perfectly compatible with socioeconomic inequality
Communism
-idea that capitalism is built on exploitation of working class
(proletariat) by capitalist class (bourgeoisie) who own the means of
production, and that capitalist society is inevitably exploitative
-Communists seek to overthrow capitalist state through revolution
and impose new communist order based on equality
-In a communist society, social justice and equality more
important than individual liberties
Socialism
-usually does not aim to overthrow state but to elect reformers through
democratic channels and then impose reforms to more equally
distribute resources among population
-usually aims at balance between social justice and liberties