Latin America
This collection contains materials from Central and South America and the Caribbean. Primary topics include Cuba and the Cuban Revolution, the Sandanista revolution in Nicaragua, the Nicaragua-Contra War, the Chilean struggle for independence and US imperialism.
Subcollections
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Chile
This collection focuses primarily on the advent of the elected socialist Presidency of Salvador Allende in Chile, the 1973 fascist coup against Allende, engineered by the CIA and led by General Augusto Pinochet, and the subsequent repression of the left. -
Cuba
This collection primarily contains recordings focusing on various aspects of life in Cuba after their Communist Revolution. -
El Salvador
This collection contains materials related to the liberation struggle in El Salvador. -
Guatemala
This collection contains materials detailing the revolutionary struggles in Guatemala, the role of Guatemalan women during the revolution and the United States role in Guatemalan politics. -
NACLA
North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) is an independent non-profit organization founded in 1966 to research the political economy of the Americas and US policy towards the region. -
Nicaragua
These materials focus primarily on the Sandanistas and their struggle for national liberation. -
Struggles in Latin America
This collection contains materials from throughout Latin America. Detailed interviews, poems and accounts from the 1973 revolution in Chile, the Sandinista Contra conflict in Nicaragua, and from revolutionary forces El Salvador are all included.
Documents
Interview with Colleta Youngers on Colombia
Colleta Youngers of the Associate Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit organization following issues of US Foreign Policy and human rights speaks of the political struggle and structure of the Colombian drug trade. She speaks of the main components there of: the guerillas, the traffickers and the military organizations and death squads. She addresses as well the misperceptions in the United States of who really controls the drug trade in Colombia.
School of the Assassins Tape 1of 2
School of the Americas, WHINSEC
Discussion on the School of the Americas (SOA), now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Father Roy Bourgeois from School of the Americas Watch speaks about the institute, Jennifer Harberry speaks of her husband’s years of torture and murder by an SOA graduate and her hunger strike in Guatemala, Professor Noam Chomsky speaks in length of the school as well. This is tape one of two.
El Salvador in Focus
Date: 10/28/1989Call Number: LA 119AFormat: Cass AProgram: El Salvador in FocusCollection: El Salvador
More allegations arise implicating the El Salvador military and their direct involvement with the Death Squads torturing, executing, and terrorizing the civilian population. Members of the military and the national police have been repeatedly identified as active in the Death Squads. A deserter from the First Infantry Brigade and former Death Squad member testifies that high ranking military officials and U.S. advisors directly support Death Squad activity. Students at the National University are targeted. Sixteen hundred refugees begin a long march home from Honduras. Refugee and repatriation leaders are captured by the El Salvador military on their way to the border and their whereabouts are unknown. In San Jose, Costa Rica, peace talks between the FMLN and the Christiani government end with no resolution.
Interview with Paul Fitch
Paul Finch, a former Co-Administrator from the Lutheran church in El Salvador, talks about his experience during the war in El Salvador in the 1970s. Finch worked for the children who were displaced after the war, organizing activities for children who were in their shelter with his wife. The Church had open doors for whoever needed help, even when the Army of El Salvador began to settle in the church. He mentions how in the beginning of the war, the Guerillas and the Salvadorian Army used different tactics to attack one another, some more drastic than others. Citizens and anyone who were against the Salvadorian government were being tortured to death. He also discusses how he managed to get out of jail before being killed.
Chile 3 and 4
A panel of representatives from the Socialist and Communist parties in South America speak on various issues facing Chile after the coup d'etat in September of 1973. Topics discussed include: Chile's natural resources, boycotting imports from countries supporting the military Junta, United States support of Pinochet's fascist repression of the Unidad Popular, information of disappeared people and the National Liberation Movement's fight to regain socialist momentum. Speakers reflect on the effectiveness of Allende's Socialist party's dedication to equality for women, and the failures of the party's armed forces.
Chile 5 and 6
A panel of representatives from the socialist and communist parties in South America speak on various issues facing Chile after the coup d'tat in September of 1973. Speakers discuss the history of Chile's armed forces, why these armed forces provided insufficient defense during the coup, the Junta's political prisoners, and the United State's involvement in the demise of the Unidad Popular.
Chile 7 and 8
A panel of representatives from the Unidad Popular on their resistance to the Fascist dictatorship that took over Chile in the coup d'etat in September of 1973. The panel discusses the Socialist Alliance as a combination of communists, socialists, workers, the Radical Party and members of the Christian Left. Speakers outline expanding the Unidad popular outside of Chile and South America, keeping the working class at the center of the movement but incorporating members of the "petty bourgeoisie" and the "middle bourgeoisie."
Barbara Trent: The Making of the Panama Deception
Date: 8/9/1994Call Number: LA 188Format: Cass A & BProgram: Alternative RadioCollection: Struggles in Latin America
Barbara Trent, the writer and director of The Panama Deception, a documentary about the 1989 invasion of Panama talks about its production. Some challenges in making the movie include exclusion from press pools, interference by the US military, and a lack of funding.
John Stockwell Speaks at Berkeley
John Stockwell speaks at Berkeley about the CIA and the results of various programs and covert operations he was involved with during his time with the Agency and Bush's involvement with the CIA as Director.
Deputy Prosecutor John Keker Speaks on Iran Contra Affair
Remarks and Q&A with John Keker after the prosecution of Oliver North, including Keker’s thoughts on US foreign policy, executive v. judicial power and especially how the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iran to provide support to the Contras in Nicaragua. Future implications of this prosecution and investigation are also discussed.
