The Massive Impact of Neoliberalism

The Massive Impact of Neoliberalism

            Liberalism returned and the new generation of liberals were called neoliberals. Neoliberalism emphasized free trade, export production, and the doctrine of comparative advantage. People such as Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Carlos Menem were neoliberals. Free-trading neoliberals slashed the import tariffs that nationalists had raised to protect Latin American industries. They deregulated capital flows such as removing nationalist-inspired limits on profit that multinational corporations could freely take out of a country each year. They removed the nationalist-inspired subsidies that made basic foodstuffs and public services affordable for the poor. In the 1980s, many Latin American countries struggled to keep up payments on foreign debts. The debts increased due to high world oil prices and heavy short-term borrowing. Foreign lenders believed that the solution to their debt was in free-market policies. Now Latin America was able to make payments on their debts and for a few years, Latin America was considered a great emerging market among US investors which offered vast investment opportunities. US fast-food franchises arose in major cities in Latin America. In 1994, the Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was created. A year later, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay inaugurated their own free-trade zone called Mercosur. This allowed middle-class apartment dwellers from Mexico City to Santiago to access the Internet, tune in via satellite to US or European television, and become avid consumers in a transnational economy. Chile stood out the most as a neoliberal success story. Chile boasted low inflation, good credit, steady growth, and diversified exports. http://www.naftanow.org/

Some social consequences of neoliberal reforms are that the dismantling of bureaucracies left many without employment and providing water and electricity to the poorest areas was not profitable. There were some challenges to neoliberalism such as the Zapatistas. They were a group that used Zapata’s name on the day NAFTA went into effect to rebel in Mexico. These Zapatistas were Mayas from villages near the Guatemalan border. They had a subcomandante named Marcos who was a mysterious ski-mask-wearing, pipe-smoking spokesperson who appeared on T-shirts all over the country. Thousands went to Chiapas where the rebellion was occurring. Due to this group, the Mexican government devoted itself to deporting the observers and crushing the rebellion. Another challenge came from the Shining Path insurgency that arose in the Peruvian highlands. The Shining Path’s “campaign of terror” owed more to the mystical vision of its leader, Abimael Guzmán, than to its old-style Marxist ideological roots. They soon lost momentum after the capture of their leader in 1992. Indigenous leaders demanded sufficient land to farm and a fair share of government benefits. Above all, they asked to be allowed to remain themselves, preserving their language, their lifeways, and aspects of their political autonomy. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376

Industrialization in Latin America

Industrialization in Latin America

            After World War II populism played a big role in Latin America. Populism was a leadership style focused on mass politics and winning elections. Changes were beginning to occur such as women’s suffrage which allowed women to vote. Not only that but the voting age was lowered to 18 and literacy requirements were struck down. Populist leaders depended on the votes of middle-class people and industrial workers, so they used tactics such as mass rallies, radio, bashed old hierarchies, attracted working-class votes with promise of improved living conditions, and avoided class warfare to maintain support of the middle class.

Latin American industrialization had begun to slow after World War II. ISI was starting to have issues because Latin American manufacturers needed new machinery to compete with Europe. The US recommended a return to pre-1929-style import/export trade which would allow industrial countries to focus on producing finished products. This would lead to an improved living standard everywhere. The United Nations set up the ECLA (Economic Commission for Latin America). The “guiding light” was an Argentine economist named Raúl Prebisch who is known as the most influential Latin American economist. His economic analysis focused on Latin America’s “peripheral” position within a global economy increasingly dominated by an already industrialized “center”. Latin American nationalists then faced a set of problems such as urgent social needs, a counterattack form their old political adversaries, a weakening economic base, and the hostility of the United States. Events in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico show variants on the populist extreme.

            Argentina was the richest, most industrialized, urban, and literate country in Latin America at this time. Argentina also had the most dynamic nationalist movement called Peronism. The Argentine military had controlled the country acting as nationalists of a right-wing sort, but more often as guardians of the old social hierarchy. Peronism is named after Juan Perón, a nationalist army officer who won a strong following among Argentine workers. The government had removed him because they feared his influence. Peronists commemorated October 17 as Peronist Loyalty Day. Perón’s presidency witnessed the rapid unionization of the country’s industrial workforce. Peronism improved the workers’ lives, restored their dignity, and gave them hope. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/452397/Peronist

Brazil’s history ran a similar way to Argentina’s, but theirs was not as strong. Vargas had created two political parties and then returned to presidency in 1950, but he accomplished little. He had committed suicide in 1954. His suicide note ranted on against dark “forces of interests” that “sucked the blood of the Brazilian people” and angered his nationalist goals. The death of Vargas produced an outpouring of public grief. A new capital at Brasília was conceived as an ultramodern design of widely spaced apartment blocks which was constructed with vast outlays of government resources at the expense of surging inflation.

            Mexico had the PRI (the Institutional Revolutionary Party). The military had been subordinated by the PRI and because of that Mexico had a one-party system of admirable stability, but questionable democracy. Mexican industrial growth continued, but landowner power had been shattered. Since the government marketed food grown on the restored lands called ejidos, it could hold process down and subsidize urban living standards. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289313/Institutional-Revolutionary-Party-PRI

WHOA WHOA WHAT HAPPEN!!!- Chapter 9

            In chapter 8 of Born in Blood and Fire by John Charles Chasteen, we learned that there was a backlash reaction to the Cuban Revolution. People who fought for what they believed in where made to choose and deal with the consequences. As the 26^th of July Movement which the revolutionaries wanted to be called would rise and claim the power of Cuba; people were shocked throughout the region. However, out of all the countries, the one that probably most surprised that Batista lost would be the United States; I believe and we can see what happened when the people were forced out of the country by the revolutionaries in the movie Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Since, Batista had the backing of the states, I believe that the US did not take in consideration the will and power of the angry Cuban population. In the process of Batista removal, the United States really did not want Castro to rise, so with approval of the executive branch of our government; the US would invade Cuba to stop Castro and this would know as the Bay of Pigs.

            As Castro claimed the presidency many things happened. First and foremost, Castro blamed the United States for everything that happened in Cuba when Batista was in charge. To further humiliation Castro would travel to the states to explain his revolution but was turned away and this fueled an already intense situation. So as the United States started to cut-ties with Cuba, Castro would have to look elsewhere for support.

            When finding support for his country to survive, Castro was able to ally with an enemy of the United States. With the development of the Organization of American States (OAS) would severely limit the economy of the country due to the US embargo trade. As the Soviet Union traded with Cuba over time, the two countries would work together against a common enemy which is the United States. So in 1961, Cuba would agree to the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles to aim toward the United States. This would anger the neighbors, and President John F Kennedy would send the navy to stop the arrival of such weaponry and this could become known to the American people as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Before Kennedy sent the US Navy to the island of Cuba, he would have extensive correspondents with military leaders and here is a hyperlink of such conservation.

Since our government did not know the directional that the Soviet Union would take, the navy would surround Cuba to block all entry aspects and ships were sent to block any Soviet ships that were leaving the Panama Canal; my uncle was on the first ship that arrived. Although the navy was sent to intercept foreign imports, President Kennedy was not taking any chances and he started to deploy the army to the south. American citizens how that if the army was sent to a place and they made landfall, this would not have been a crisis but a war.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the last major coos that Cuba and the Soviet Union would perform together. Over the years, the activity in Cuba was monitored excessively and the biggest issue that is faced is the domestic portion of the island, which is the people that flee to have a better life in the United States. In my previous blog, I touched base on how the borders of Cuba have opened up— this is ironic though. As the Cuban borders open for safe travel, the borders on the United States are currently being considered as closed off to immigrates.

© Mary Costley, February 28, 2015

links are embedding into the texts and references are upon request

Metamorphosis Anyone??—Cuba

History shows that the different political systems around the world are unique. Over time there have been three countries that would rise to power and claim superiority of everyone else. These countries are the Soviet Union (Russia), England (English), and who could forget the United States of America. The result of the end of the Second World War, there were events that were put in place that would shape what happened in other area of the world.

Before we discuss what happened in these countries before they changed, we need to discuss what happened in both places that would lead the people to do what they did.  The events that lead to what happen was different in both places— there was no single event that happened in Germany to lead to the occupation. When Germany fall apart after the Second World War, the country was divided among the allies. However, in Cuba there was something that was different, there was progression of events that would lead the people of Cuba rise follow Castro and his fellow revolutionaries. First, we need to know a little Cuban history.

What we know is complex and started well before the insurrection. Before the Revolution, Cuba was aiming toward independence and formed a republic until the rise of Fulgencio Batista. Batista would become president of Cuba for the 1^st time in 1940-1944.  Even though he did not believe in a communist government; he did except financial help from the Democratic-Socialistic party to campaign for the presidency, which we can read in the connected hyperlink on Batista. During his first term, Batista could have a normal political incumbency. Most of his big mistakes were made during his second term of president were he appointed himself to dictator and it is here that Batista was supposedly connected to organized crime. Because he was not call the shots in government, Castro and the revolutionaries would rise to overthrow him and put him in exile. During his fight to stay in power, there were many popular culture that would show what happen. For example, in the 1974 classic movie—The Godfather Part II; when the audience can see how the people were celebrating the removal of Batista.

We cannot discuss the reign of terror of Batista without mentioning his competition of Castro. We learned in lecture that Castro came from the elite portion of the countries. His political views along with his brother would put a kink into the current form of government and this would lead to the exile of the duo to neighboring Mexico. However, they did not stay there long; they would use this time to come up with a strategy to overthrown Batista and start of the Cuban Revolution.   

 Historians and different authors like John Charles Chasteen who have studied the subject of Latin America have claimed that the Soviet Union had little to do with what transpired in Cuba in the middle of the 20^th century and the same could be said from lecture. Conspiracy theorists have deduced that what happened in Europe and in Cuba, were related. What I mean about related, there are many similarities between what happened there is Europe and what happen in Cuba. In the table below, some facts that I was able to research from different sources;

Events	Countries
	East Germany- USSR	Cuba
Conception (dates)	1949-1990	1953-1959; 1959- present
Death Tolls	Not Available
Escape Attempts	4 million surviving   171 reported deaths	Over a million Unknown reported death
Immigrating Population	NA	1,785,547
Geography	Land	Water & island
Military	Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deuschlands; aka Stasi	Revolutionary Armed Forces
Political System	Communism/socialism
Population	≈ 2,277,000 during occupation	≈ 11,210,064
Security Measures	Inner & Outer Wall surrounded	US Military Base & the Caribbean Sea

Although that history shows that there is no connection between Soviet Union and Cuba that is not what I am trying argue. What I am trying to argue is that there are similarities in how everything happened with the people when the power shifted. Although what happen in East Germany was temporary (1949-1990); we can hope that pretty soon the same could be said in Cuba. Today, we are now slowly seeing changes within the Cuban government when Raúl stepped up and Fidel retired. 

© Mary Costley, February 28, 2015

outside links are hyperlinked into the text. 

Pink is the New Black

Pink is the New Black

                  Post-World War II was a troubling and unstable time for most, if not all, of Latin America. Industrialization slowed down, Nationalist goals of economic independence were far out of reach, and population skyrocket as improvements in health and sanitation lowered the death rate. While the economy itself enjoyed some growth in this post war era, it wasn’t nearly enough to deal with the needs of the increasing population, evidence of this being how shantytowns began popping up everywhere; entire neighborhoods made from trashed wood and metal whose inhabitants struggled for the most basic of necessities. With things in such bad shape, the idea of revolution was incredibly appealing, with ideas of Populism and Marxism joining with already established ideals of nationalism, a dangerous combination considering that the United States had begun sticking its imperialist noses were it didn’t belong.

                  After World War II the United States gave almost no aid to their Latin American allies, instead their focus was placed on Russia and Western Europe, as well as Asia soon after, due to their growing fear of Communism. This conflict, known as the Cold War, caused the U.S. to go crazy with Communist hysteria, so much so that they saw any sort of opposition as the hand of Communism at work, and with Latin America’s growing Nationalism and resentment of their imperialist neighbors, they were a prime target for this hysteria. The U.S. often placed their support behind Latin American dictators, such as Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic or Marco Perez Jimenez of Venezuela, purely because they were anticommunist, disregarding how their leadership effected their countries. They even went as far as actually overthrowing democratically elected officials that were “too pink” for their taste and replacing them with anticommunist dictators, all in the name of containment. However, the greatest clash between the United States and Latin America came in the form of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.

                  After the 1950s, Latin American became more and more interested in the Marxist way of thinking, seeing a Marxist Revolution as the solution to all of the social and economical injustice that they had suffered through for centuries, they also saw it as another way for them to rebel against the United States, who by then was clearly anticommunist. However, it wasn’t until two revolutionaries, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, met in Mexico that a true revolution began brewing. The two, along with Fidel’s brother Raul, mounted a small invasion on Cuba and successfully overthrew the U.S. backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, establishing a communist dictatorship with Castro as President for Life. This was the United State’s worst fears come to life and they desperately tried to rectify the situation, enacting an embargo on Cuban goods in the 1960s and sending in a proxy force in what would come to be called the Bay of Pigs invasion, which failed horribly. Both actions practically drove Cuba into the Soviet Unions arms, culminating in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the U.S. had to promise not to invade Cuba in exchange for Russia removing their missiles from the island nation. To this day the U.S.’s relations with Cuba had been rocky at best, but there is hope for cooperation in the future as talk of lifting the embargo has been floating around congress recently, hoping that it would encourage Cubans to push for reform in the corrupt Castro Dictatorship, and loosen the brother’s hold on the country. (http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/294458041.html)

Image from: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2014/12/18/abc-offers-little-criticism-obamas-cuba-move-it-helped-thaw-cold-war

Ch.8 - Peron, Populism and the United States

The focus of this brief will encompass the post World War 2 effects of populism in Latin America. Populism is a political theory that appeals to the general people, which include the middle and lower classes, typically against any type of elite figure. Moreover, the concept of populism is geared more towards the interests of the people in regards to mental stability, meaning that the government must address any hopes and possible fears. For many of the Latin American countries, populism was the backbone of their success. This claim is justified by the sense of nationalism expounded by individuals in central and South America. Why do we care about populism? Because without populism, people may lose the faith required to survive and establish an identity among other nations. We will discuss a time period where “Juan Perón” reigned over Buenos Aires, Argentina. During this time, Perón advanced the nation in various ways, two of which were establishing a political party and also a pursuit of societal change. As a step outside the boundary, we will also briefly compare and contrast various aspects of Latin American history with that of the United States.

A few important changes will include the creation of the Populist Party as a political contender, battling left and right wing prominence. The Populist party, or Perónist party, could be thought of today as a third party. During Peron’s affiliation with politics, he managed to reach out to the public in more efficient and effective ways. The radio was a fantastic means of expressing ideas that hit all target audiences in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The populist notion appeals to the working class, middle and lower, so this was an effective way to reach them.Because of the newly attained technological advance, Perón was able to achieve mass political importance with populism. More people came out to vote and continued to vote because of Perón. A few voting changes also granted women with the opportunity to vote and also, the reduction of literacy type tests required to vote.

In the United States, we can also see slow changes occurring that include the reduction of literacy tests, as seen through court case precedent. The U.S was earlier in granting suffrage to women in 1920, as well as the age for an individuals to vote. However, in the U.S, the main concern was battling communism and radical individuals.

To summarize these points, it is important to grasp the fact that these changes were slow, but they still had to happen. If not for Perón and the populist perspective, there may have still been oppression against women in regards to voting. I think that in our growing society, it is important to distinguish the characteristics that define us, in other words, that nationalism is key to identifying oneself. We discussed traits from Argentina and the United States and how both countries have come to address the pressing socials issues. The rights of all the people should be prioritized in any country and society.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/452378/Juan-Peron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism

Chapter 8: Cuban Revolution

Big Brother Is At It Again:

A Look At U.S. Imperialism In Cuba

In 1898, Cuba had formally gained their independence from Spain as a result from the Spanish-American War. Although, just two years later, the U.S. through an act of Congress, proceeded to exercise a degree of imperial colonialism over Cuba and continued to have that stronghold until Fulgencio Batista, a puppet for the U.S. government, was over thrown by the Castro brothers and Che Geuvara during the late 1950s. 

Throughout the 1950s-60s, the US and Soviet Union participated in who can stare down who the longest contest, AKA the Cold War. While these two super powers were busy seeing who was bigger and badder, just 90 miles away from the tip of Florida, the Cubans are in an all out uprising. In 1953, Fulgencio Batista was put into power by the US government to protect their trade businesses and interests. However, by employing Batista; who was widely hated amongst the people, the US inadvertently kick-started the Cuban Revolution.

            Historically, Cuba’s predominant source of revenue had been in the sugar industry. This commodity was very much in popular demand in the U.S., as well as the world market (http://revcom.us/a/056/cubahist-en.html). Such sheer dependence on one revenue source created a weakness in Cuba’s economy, which was easily exploited by their neighbors to the north. The sugar industry offered those in power the ability to remain in power. However, the workers were stuck in low paying jobs without the ability to better themselves (http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=23761). This reality led to the uprising of the middle class, and as a result the uprising of Marxist theorists brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro who came from a wealthy sugar planting family. 

            Meanwhile in Argentina, another revolutionary by the name of Ernesto “Che” Geuvara became enamored with Marxist and revolutionary theories after witnessing the destitute peoples of Latin America as a result of U.S. imperialism. Geuvara traveled throughout South America while studying to become a physician. It was while he was in México City that he met the Castro brothers, with whom he shared a vision of anti-imperialism and aiding the lower class Latin Americans. With the encouragement of the Castro brothers, Geuvara accompanied them back to Cuba and helped lead guerrilla warfare in the mountains against Batista’s military regime.

            Finally on January 1, 1959 the Cuban rebels led by the Castro brothers and Geuvara marched into Havana and began to secure their hold over Batista and his government. The U.S. had originally supported Fidel, but he refused to appease the U.S. concerns over the spread of communism. As a result of this in 1961 the U.S. attempted to invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs under the Kennedy Administration. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a disaster for the U.S. and forced Cuba into an alliance with the then Soviet Union.

           

                                             

            Cuba’s economy became wholly tied to and dependent upon the Soviet Union. This alliance was strengthened when the U.S. blocked trade between Cuba and U.S. allies and essentially isolated and crippled their trade. Despite the U.S. trade blockade, Batista’s dictatorship, and world-wide pressure, Fidel Castro succeeded with his revolution and altering the Cuban economy and mindset for decades to come.

           

            The Cuban Revolution became a worldwide symbol of resistance and true independence of U.S. imperialism. Castro implemented important social achievements such as: increase in literacy, medical care, improved housing, an end to racist practices, and became a leader in Latin American culture.