On November 3rd, the day after Mexico’s famous holiday, “Day of the Dead,” protests erupted across Mexico City. The protest was about the number of murdered and missing women rising across Latin America. Protesters carried over one hundred purple crosses across the country’s capital. Each cross had the name of specific women who have been murdered or gone missing. The protest was titled “Dia de Muertas,” which translates to “Day of the Dead Women.” BBC’s article discussed the reason behind women being murdered as “femicide.” “Femicide, the murder of a woman because of her gender, kills 12 women daily in Latin America according to the UN” (BBC, Violence Against Women: ‘Day of the Dead Women’ Protest in Mexico City). The protesters laid large posters across the city’s ground showcasing over forty specific women’s faces who have been murdered or gone missing. A highlight of the posters was one that said, “Not one more.” The protest was led by the group, “Voices of Absence.” Frida Guerrara, a journalist and activist, led the demonstration.

The main reason behind the protest is for women to have their voices be heard after too many have been killed because of their gender. The protest also attempted to raise awareness and “[demand] justice through the legal system” (BBC). As mentioned before, “femicide” has been a massive issue across Latin America, and the world, and the protest successfully brought people’s attention to this problem. “Latin America is home to 14 of the 25 countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world, and 98% of gender-related killings go unprosecuted” (BBC). In 2018, the United Nations started their campaign to end gender-violence in Latin America. The United Nations’ deputy head, Amina Mohammed, “… praised Mexico, among other Latin American countries, for having the ‘political courage to confront and end femicide” (BBC). A similar protest occurred in Mexico back in 2016. Instead of posters, protesters and activists laid out high heels and pink crosses to remember the women who were murdered.

In BBC’s article, they portray Latin America as a dangerous region to be in. The article mainly discusses how the majority of Latin American countries are extremely high in “femicide” and for violence, in general. The article also portrays Latin America as a region that needs plenty of help. The article discusses the United Nations’ impact in Mexico and other Latin American countries. For example, as discussed before, the UN’s campaign and initiative to eliminate gender-violence in Latin America is still a work in progress, clearly, but will eventually and ultimately help this struggling region of the world.

In relation to our class, the article shows that there is still a lot of chaos in Latin America today. The article shows how women are still being mistreated, even violently, as they were throughout revolutionary history. To summarize, the protest shows that there is still gender disparity, in incredibly unfortunate ways of violence, across Latin America and the world. Moreover, it proves that male dominance still occurs and the stereotype of a superior and inferior gender are very much active.

Article:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50287993

The feedback that I received on my proposed changes was mostly positive. An interesting suggestion was to add to the “Canudos today” section. While I am currently struggling to find scholarly sources in English on the topic, I plan to look into news sources and statements from the government on the memory of Canudos.

We began class with an overview of some of Dr. Holt’s responses to popular concerns from the class about Wikipedia projects. See Wikipedia Project Support for detailed responses. We also discussed a message Dr. Holt received from another Wikipedia contributor as an example of systemic biases in Wikipedia articles as well as other users, and in general the considerations to be made in communal online projects.

Today we began working on Chile and began with a review and discussion of what a revolution (versus a reform movement) entails. This discussion revolved around events we read about in “Chapter 6: Chilean Road to Socialism” in Twentieth Century Latin American Revolutions by Marc Becker. Dr. Holt encouraged us to treat the narrow election of Salvador Allende and the coup d’etat led by General Augusto Pinochet as two distinct events that could be assessed as revolutions or reform movements themselves. Some students argued that Allende’s adherence to the Chilean constitution meant that he was a reformer, despite his ambitious, transformation proposals to move the country toward socialism and in doing so change key socio-economic systems. Other students argued that Allende was revolutionary because of the scope of his reforms, even if he pursued them through legal means. There was wide consensus that Pinochet was not a reformer, but some disagreement on whether he was revolutionary rather than a reactionary to changes begun by Allende. We also touched on the world context of the Chilean revolution, specifically the Cold War and U.S. fear of socialism and communism spreading, as well as the U.S. role in supporting Pinochet through activities like Operation Condor.

There was no Latin America in the News today.

Key Terms:

Revolution versus Reform Movement (see HAP from 8/23 and DeFronzo ch. 1)

Operation Condor: Network of secret police that operated in Chile, Argentina, and other nations with military governments in Latin America. Operation Condor targeted political opponents of Pinochet’s regime who had fled the country, as well as refugees with no overt political agenda. Condor was supported by the United States through the CIA with supplies, training, intelligence sharing, and logistics.

Links:

Truth Commission Report from U.S. Institute of Peace (details atrocities of Pinochet’s government): https://www.usip.org/publications/1990/05/truth-commission-chile-90

Discovery of Key Evidence of Operation Condor: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20774985

NACLA (https://nacla.org/aboutus) reflection on the lasting legacy of the coup: https://nacla.org/blog/2013/9/11/other-september-11-legacy-chilean-socialism-and-salvador-allende

Potential Exam Questions:

Were Allende/Pinochet revolutionaries or better characterized as something else? Defend your answer.

What internal issues did Allende face that weakened his government?

What factors contributed to Pinochet’s substantial support, despite his brutality?

This article on Corridos does a good job at explaining the history and the role they play in Mexico today. The article begins by defining corrido and explaining where and when they originated. This entire article seems to come from a neutral perspective. Before my entry, the article only had three sources and they all seem to be credible sources. The only downside of them is that they are all in english and are most likely  for a United States audience. I can improve the article by adding a section that explains what narco-corridos are and their significance today. I can also add sources that are written by a Mexican author for a Mexican audience.

On September 23, 2019, numerous Latin American leaders – under pressure from the United States – cited the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance to impose sanctions on Venezuela. The Treaty recognizes threats against one member country as a threat to all others, and members argued that the socio-economic instability of Venezuela posed a security threat to the entire South American continent. The Colombian government is particularly vocal about this, as president Ivan Durque accused the neighboring country of harboring dissident guerilla fighters seeking to dismantle his administration. 

The United States’ current Secretary of State, Mike Pomeo, declared his intention to use the Treaty as a means of ousting Venezuela’s current president, Nicolás Madero. They would then replace him with Juan Guaido, who many countries including the United States recognize as the country’s legitimate ruler. The United States, under the Trump administration, has already imposed sanctions on the country like Barack Obama before him,  and its recent efforts are aimed towards using their influence in Latin America to pressure its countries to do likewise. 

Treaty members like Colombia claim the government under Madero eroded the democratic norms and institutions the country once had. The United States and the Lima Group – an alliance of Latin American nations centered on Venezuelan foreign policy – are currently working with think tanks and Venezuelan opposition groups to establish a Guadio-led government. 

Overall, I felt the article disproportionately represented Lima Group figures, which means there is no plurality or diversity in the Venezuelan figures discussed. This is a glaring flaw because a lot of the rhetoric around regime change in the country centers on the lack of agency and basic resources like food under the current government. People who might, perhaps, at least frame this in a different context are not even discussed and – seemingly – not reached out to. It does not discuss how or why Guardio is considered by so many countries to be the official president, or what his solutions to the multi-faceted crises would be. 

The article is not lacking in nuance, however, as it connects these sanctions to the already-prevalent instability of the Venezuela state, suggesting – if not explicitly stating – that these policies could further destabilize the country. It also discussed Cuba being an ally to the country – which reminded me of the various embargoes the United States has placed on Cuba over the last six decades. The various failed coup d’etats reminded me of the botched Bay of Pigs invasion during the Kennedy administration, and this connection also made me wonder whether the figures, both American and Latin American, given representation in the article have any material investment in ousting Madero. One likely can make these connections if the reader was thinking about them beforehand. This undeniably makes the article interesting, but had I not delved into it with this framework, I feel like I would have little more than basic knowledge about the sociopolitical crisis in Venezuela from an overly-American perspective. 

Bibliography 

Wilkinson, Tracy. “At Trump’s urging, Latin American countries set to invoke rarely used treaty against Venezuela” Los Angeles Times. September, 2019. Accessed 23 September, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-23/trump-south-american-countries-treaty-against-venezuela

This article is about the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE), the student led opposition party that was involved in the Cuban Revolution against Batista. While the article appears to be written by a neutral source, the article tends to focus on the DRE and its post-revolution opposition to Castro and involvement with the United States. This is derived from the fact that the sources of the article all focus on the Kennedy administration and its involvement with the group. From clicking on a few links within the article I was able to find out that Lee Harvey Oswald had been in contact with the group and the CIA was in touch with the group prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion. These connection are what have drawn the Cubans into the Kennedy Assassination conspiracy theory. From examining the sources and links within the page the sources were from both political science and history journals however, the lack of content and relatively few number of sources on the page suggest that there is room for improvement. For the purposes of this class the area of focus would be to increase the involvement in the time leading up to the revolution as well as its actual involvement. I think these additions would increase its start rating within the two groups that the article is a part of (Terrorism and Cuba). This lack of detailed information could have potentially led to why their is not a dialogue amongst wikipedia authors. In all this is a well written article that falls short when talking about the actual role of the DRE in the revolution and needs a little more detail (attention) to be a strong article.