Toward the Democratic Opening in Latin America: The Case of Brazil

Abstract

Dictatorship, authoritarianism, corporatism, fascism, and repression characterize much of the past and present history of Latin America. Reinforcing these tendencies has been the hegemony of domestic ruling classes in league with U.S. policymakers and multinational corporations. Over the years the involvement of the United States in Latin American affairs has assumed several forms of intervention: overt, including hundreds of incidents of direct attack by military force—before Grenada most notably the invasion by 25,000 U.S. marines of the Dominican Republic in 1965; covert, including the CIA organization of the 1954 coup in Guatemala, in Chile during the early 1970s, and current destabilization activities along the Nicaraguan border; and corporate, including efforts by ITT to depose Salvador Allende in 1970 and thereafter the invisible blockade of Chilean copper exports by Kennecott. Popular forces and classes have opposed these tendencies and the old order through numerous movements of resistance, for example, abortive military uprisings in Brazil during the 1920s; electoral strategies, resulting in social democratic regimes; and revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.