Latin American History

Spain and Spanish America:

Exploration and settlement of the Caribbean –
1492 – The Catholic and the Surrender of Granada. Queen Isabella of castille married to
Ferdinand of Aragon. They were the Catholic Kings. 711 Moors invade Iberian Peninsula.
Around 1480 Isa and Fer reconquest the lands lost to the Moors.
Granada is the last Muslim Kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. Boabdil surrenders to the
Catholic Kings. Isa was the power in the relationship. She was intensely religious. She
wanted a single faith state. Up until 1492 religious tolerance was strong in Spain.
1492 – Fall of Granada. Consolidation of power of Isa. She decides to sponsor Columbus.
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. They were told “Convert or leave”.
Columbus was a Genoese sailor who said he could find a shorter route to the spice islands of
India, the Indies. The voyage was commercially motivated.
He landed on an island that he called Hispaniola. It became the Spanish base for imperial
expansion. The island was home to the Taino people. Columbus died in 1506 refusing to
believe that the lands he found were not the Indies.
Queen Isa, when she found out about the existence of the peoples of the new world, ruled that
no one may enslave the them.
When Columbus returned to the New World the sailors he left behind had been killed by the
natives for the crimes they had committed against them.
1493 – The Pope gave an order to convert the people of the New World.
Taino Society – Estimated Pop of 1 mill. Matrilineal.
Decline of the Taino people: the Europeans brought pathogens that the Taino had no
immunity to. There was forced labour of the natives. Disruption of the native way of life –
new animals and plants from Europe. The final rebellion came too late – their population was
already too weakened.
Exchanges between the Old and New Worlds:
From Europe: Pigs, Horses, Mastiffs.
To Europe: Beans, potatoes, tomatoes, avocadoes.
Settlements:
Settling was dangerous and a hardship – only those with something to gain actually wanted to
go to the new world.
Those who went to the New World were given lands and lordship over natives. Each estate
also would have a representative of the Catholic Church to teach the “truth” to the natives.
Bartolome de las Casas wrote against the colonisation and sparked debate until Pope John
Paul III, in 1537, ruled that the natives were equally human to the Spanish.
The question persisted if Spain had the right to interfere. Conservatives say the natives were
lesser than the Spanish.

Conquest of the Aztec Empire: Hernán Cortés 1519-21

He was a encomendero, had arrived in the Caribbean in 1504. 1519 he undertook an
expedition to the mainland. Within three years they overthrew the Aztec empire. His original
mission was an expedition to the mainland, but the governor decided to recall him because of
questions of loyalty. He hastened his departure, unauthorised, with 500 men, 11 ships, 16
horses and some artillery.
Bernal Díaz: eye witness account of the conquest. His book was written long after the
conquest. He wrote to refute earlier histories that were negative of Cortés.
Jerónimo de Aguilar was a Spanish sailor that was shipwrecked and taken prisoner by the
Maya. He was ransomed by Cortés and acted as a translator. He had heard of a second sailor
that had been ship wrecked.
Gonzalo Guerrero a Spanish sailor shipwrecked but he became a war chief in Mayan
civilisation.
Malinche/Doña Marina/Malintzín she was a native woman that was given to Cortéz. She was
bi-lingual. She became Cortés’ mistress. She becomes a fluent Spanish speaker and becomes
a political advisor to Cortés.
Mestizaje – unions between Spanish and natives. The mixing of the races. Marriages were
used to forge strong bonds between the Spanish and the native peoples.
The Cholula Massacre: It is reported that Malintzín told the Spanish that Cholula was going
to ambush them. In response to this Cortés massacred the entire city, all inhabitants were
killed. Cortés wrote to the emperor afterwards to try to justify what he had done.
Cortés is victorious in numerous skirmishes with groups of Mayans. He consolidated his
success with alliances.

Francisco Pizarro and the Conquest of the Inca Empire:

Inca Empire: 1438-1527
Pacific Coastline, from what is now Ecuador through Peru down partway into Chile. Mostly
mountainous areas.
It functioned through tribute and labour – the ‘mita’ system. The mass of the people work the
land and pay tribute in material goods to the higher up in society. This higher up included the
ruling class and the religious elites. The excess after this tribute was placed in warehouses to
stockpile goods in case of any emergency. They had built roads which were used by state
trained runners that communicated by way of a relay, passing the message from runner to
runner as each travels a set distance.
They had a form of record keeping, not quite writing. Quipu. Different colours of beads were
added to a central thread.
They had built rope bridges around the mountains. They had levelled sections of mountain to
make it habitable.
Religion: Belief in two principle gods – Viracocha, the sun god, and Pachamama, the
goddess of the earth.
The Incan Civil War: 1525
Huayna Capac and his set heir die. His other sons, half-brothers, Huascar and Atahualpa fight
with each other until 1532. This war weakened the Inca jut before the Spanish arrives.
Pizarro: Born in 1473. Arrived in the Caribbean in 1502 and Panama in 1519. He explores
south of Panama in 1522.
1532: The Spanish emulate Cortes’ plan for the Aztec empire. The meet with and capture the
emperor and take over the empire in one move. Pizarro eventually grew paranoid and had
Atahualpa killed. He then instated a puppet emperor, Tupac Huallpa, and rules the empire
through him. His sudden death led to Manco Inca inheriting the mantle of emperor. He fled
and lead a rebellion against the Spanish. He nearly beat them, but Almagro returned and
helped save the Spanish. 1537 Almagro seizes the city after saving it and 1538 this causes a
civil war between the factions of Almagro and Pizarro. Pizarro’s side won and Almagro was
executed.
1541 The remaining Almagro loyalists killed Pizarro.
1542 Almagro (Jr.) is defeated by the royal army which the King had sent to the new world.
The King instated a Governor. Who was killed by Gonzalo Pizarro, main Pizarro’s brother,
the King sent second army and had Gonzalo and his rebellion against the crown killed.
The Spanish built over the Inca cities and main places of industry but the new building were
not suited to the land and they were mostly destroyed by earthquakes as the original Incan
buildings.
Early Colonialism:
Ruler during the period: Isabella of Castile was ruler when Columbus first set off.
Juana married Philip the fair of Burgundy. She never ruled in her old right as she was deemed
to be insane. Her father Ferdinand ruled in her stead and after his death her son, Charles V,
took the ruling position. He ruled for the fall of the Incan empire and the period of rebellion
thereafter.
The Early Spanish Empire: The Native Populations
• Smaller sedentary societies (Taíno in the Caribbean).
• Major urban civilizations (Maya, Aztec, Inca).
• Nomadic and semi-settled populations (e.g. the Mapuche in Chile or the Plains tribes
in North America).
• Massive decline in the native population base due to introduction of European
diseases to which they had no immunity (90%+ population decline).
Queen Isa:
• She wished the Native peoples to be equal to the Spanish settlers.
• Encouraged marriage between Spanish settlers and native women.
• Bernal Díaz writes of alliances with native leaders cemented through marriages.
• Mestizo children born of these marriages.
• It was common for Spanish men to have native mistresses outside of marriage.
• Status of mestizo children depended on the status of their father and their own
legitimacy or illegitimacy.
El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega:
• Son of an Inca royal and a Spanish soldier.
• Bilingual in Spanish and Quechua, also educated in Latin.
• Age 20 travelled to Spain to seek social advancement.
• Claims rejected by the Crown because father linked to Gonzalo Pizarro’s rebellion.
• Connected with this father’s family – made heir to his uncle’s estate.
• Joined the army and helped put down the morisco revolt (descendants of the Moors in
Spain).
• Wrote Royal Commentaries of the Incas, based on what he had learned of the Inca
empire from his mother’s family and General History of Peru about the period of
Spanish conquest.
The Spanish Empire under Charles V:
He was King of Castile and Argon and their overseas possessions through his mother, Juana.
Through his paternal line he became Holy Roman Empire, Archduke of Austria and Lord of
the Neverlands.
New Laws 1542:
• Designed to protect native Americans from enslavement and abuse.
• Curb the power of the encomenderos.
• Prevent the emergence of a new aristocracy in the New World.
• Encomiendas were to revert to the crown on the death of their holder.
• This provoked rebellion in Peru.
• Compromise allowed one extension into the next generation.
• However, native labour was replaced with slave labour from Africa.
The Slave Trade in the New World:
• 1550-1700 estimated that 350,000 individuals were brought in enforced slavery from
West Africa to Spanish America
• Mostly urban workers (some of whom were able to work to buy their freedom)
• Had legal protections against abuse
• Courts assumed all were free unless owner could prove otherwise
 • Catholic Church also offered protection
• Religious brotherhoods raised money to free enslaved people
• Numerous runaway communities in remote regions
Race, class and casta paintings:
 These paintings represented attempts to define (and therefore control) the variants of
ethnic and racial mixing in the Americas.
 Indian (indigenous American)
 European (Peninsulares – born in Spain; Creoles – of Spanish blood but born in
America)
 African
o and
 Mestizo (European and Indian)
 Mulatto (European and African)
 Zambo (Indian and African)
The African Presence:
• Slave trade already existed in the Iberian Peninsula since before 1450, following
Portuguese contacts with West Africa.
• Forcibly enslaved Africans and descendants of these subjects, along with free men of
colour were present in the early years of exploration and settlement and some served
as soldiers.
• Born in Senegal, Juan Valiente, became an encomendero in Chile.
• Many of these were Hispanicized people.
Challenges to the Imperial Order:
• Challenge of imposing and maintaining control over so vast an empire from so great a
distance.
• Threat of indigenous uprisings.
• Threat from overly ambitious Spanish conquistadors.
• Over time a new challenge in the growing mestizo population.
• Challenges from other European powers.
Governance:
Appointment of Viceroyalties. Representatives of the Empire.
• Royal Authority
• Viceroys
• Viceroyalties
• Governors
• (all of the above Peninsulares only)
• Mayor
• Town Council
Catholic Church:
• Church: Highest office available only to Peninsulares
• Evangelizing mission was the reason Spain was ‘allowed’ to conquer the New World.
• Jesuit presence
• Importance of convents
• Church a major landowner
• Cathedral’s central position in each city
Gender:
• Women had limited societally accepted options.
• Women had the right to own and to bequeath property.
• Widows were entitled to half of the communal property/wealth.
Trade and the Fleet System:
Strictly regulated and only permitted directly between Seville and Cadiz. Spain had total
control of goods. They had a monopoly on goods from the New Worlds. Threats of piracy
from many sources.
The Bourbon Empire:
Expansion and ambitions of other European rivals. France and England begin o encroached
upon Spain’s territories.
Threats of piracy and a break down of communication between Spain and the colonies. The
colonies begin to develop greater economic and administrative independence. This fostered a
desire for this independence in full.
Bourbon Reforms:
Stricter administration. This included more efficient tax collection, trade restrictions
(countries couldn’t trade with each other unless the trade went through Spain first). Creation
of smaller viceroyalties.
Viceroyalties: New Spain, Peru.
Peru was then spilt into New Granada and Rio de la Plata.
Demographics: Less direct migration from Spain in the 1700. Growth of the creole
population, those of Spanish descent. At least half a million African people. Growth of mixed
race groups, especially the mestizos. Recovery of the natives during the 1700.
Native Uprisings: 1712 – Chiapas, Mexico. Mayan villagers rebelled against taxation ad
labour demands and erosion of the status of their leaders.
1742 – Peruvian Andes. Lead by Juan Santos Atahualpa. He declares himself descendent of
the last Inca emperor. Massed a group of guerrilla forces based in lowland tropical areas,
dense jungle.
His followers were mostly natives and mixed peasants from the highlands. He campaigned to
oust to colonial leaders and Christianity. Viceroys sent military expeditions against them in
1742, 43, 46, 59.
The Great Rebellion of Tupac Amaru:
Increased demand for silver lead to female and child labour in the silver mines. There was a
large increase in tax demands. This lead to attacks on Spanish officials. Juan Gabriel
Condocanqui took the name Tupac Amaru II and lead a revolt.
Some early Creole support but this was lost when the revolt attacked creoles and Spanish
alike. The rebellion attempted to take back Cuzco, they fail. It was defended by a Spanish
militia and by loyal native regiments still within the empire. Tupac Amaru was captured and
executed.
Influential World Events:
1785-1783 American War of Independence
1789-1799 French Revolution
1791-1803 Haitian Revolution – First successful slave revolution. Haiti becomes a free black
republic.
Haitian Rebellion: Lead by Toussaint L’Ouverture. The population of the enslaved people
vastly out numbered the French and by the end of the rebellion they massacred the colonists.
(L’Ouverture was against the massacre).
The Creoles feared independence because they were outnumbered by the native and mixed
race populations, they feared action by other colonial powers and because they feared a lack
of unity in the new nation.
The Catalyst for independence came when Napoleon overthrew the Spanish crown and gave
power to his brother. The Creole population of the New World refuse to follow the new
kingdom of French-governed Spain. They independently governed themselves “in the name
of the true colonial crown”.
In 1812 a new Liberal Constitution in Spain. In 1814 Ferdinand was restored to the throne.
He repealed the constitution and this forced to colonies to either give up all progress made or
push for full independence.
1806 there was an attempt by the British to take Buenos Aires the viceroy fled and the
creoles defended Buenos Aires themselves. This gave them a sense of independence. The
Napoleonic wars give a further taste of independence. In 1810 Argentina declared
independence from Spain.
San Martin: Born in Argentina. Son of Spanish appointee. Professional solider. Fought in
the Napoleonic Wars. 1811 returned to Argentina to fight for independence. Leading
Independence General. He went into voluntary exile after independence was secured.
1813 Independence was won. 1816 Congress formed and independence declared.
Chile: 1810, sept, creole leaders declared Chile an autonomous region within the empire.
1811 they held elections for their own national congress. 1814 independence forces defeated
by Peruvian royalist army. The Chilean army had to flee across the Andes. 1817 joint army of
San Martin and Bernardo O’Higgins. 1818 Chile is declared an independent republic.
O’Higgins ruled Chile until he was exile by the next Government.
Bernardo O’Higgins: Son of Irish born Spanish governor and a creole mother. He was
recognised by his father and studied in London.
Símon Bolívar: Creole elite in Caracas. Enlightened education. Belief in liberation of all
people and classes. Ambition f a federation of states in south America. Led independence
forces against Spain 1813-14. He was defeated in 1814. Ferdinand sent an entire army to the
New World and this alienated the remaining creoles. 1815 Bolívar sought support from Haiti.
Amassed a new army of llaneros (cowboy cavalry). 1816 another unsuccessful rebellion.
Hired many mercenaries and finally won independence.
1822 Meeting between San Martín and Bolívar. After this meeting San Martín stepped aside
to allow Bolívar to lead the last phase of the war in Peru. He felt he had done as much as he
could do.
Peru: Stayed loyal to Spain the longest. After victory in Chile San Martín leads his army
North. The war continued for many years and the creoles kept switching sides. Met Bolívar
and stepped aside. Bolívar wins independence in Peru 1826.
Independence:
 Bolivar wants a USSA (United States of South America).
 Fragmentation and interterritorial warring.
Argentina in the 19th Century:
Conflict with Neighbours: Argentina wants to expand its power over old territories of the
previous viceroyalty.
Uruguay tried to push for a federal state to combat this but are taken over by Brazil in their
time of weakness.
Federalists and Unitarians:
Feds: want a united group of states. Mostly the major landowners or Argentina. Favoured
local autonomy. Socially and religiously conservative.
Units: want a single state and single government. Wanted European colonists and investment.
Establishment of a national bank. Separation of Church and State. Wanted to modernise the
nation.
1825 National Republic Declared:
Berardino Rivadavia was first president. Exiled after a year. Civil war happens.
Taken over by Juan Manuel de Rosas. 1830s he become a terrible dictator and ruled through
fear. Overthrown in 1851.
Urquiza was elected head of the Federal Argentine Republic. He had opposed Rosas. He was
fairly liberal. Province of Buenos Aires remains independent and autonomous. Urquita was
defeated by Mitre.
Mitre: Unitarian. Diplomatic. Looks outward and forward. Wanted to open Argentina up
after Rosas’ dictatorship.
Became part of the ‘Triple Alliance’, with Brazil and Uruguay, in a war with Paraguay
from1864-1870.
Domingo Sarmiento: Long term opponent of Rosas. Spent years in exile in Chile. Teacher,
Author and Politician. Major investment in education: new schools and standards of teaching.
Brought in trainers for teachers from the US. Viewed Europe as a civilising force, compared
to the barbarism of the provinces. He promoted immigration.
Avellaneda 1874-80: Had been a minister under Sarmiento. Faced a financial crisis and
responded with an austerity budget. Overly depended on the export of raw materials.
Development of refrigerated ships meant new European demand for Argentinian beef.
Invested in infrastructure especially trainlines for communication and to facilitate agricultural
development.
Incorporation of Buenos Aires into the wider nation. (Violently).
General Roca and the War of the Desert 1879-80:
The expansion of Argentina’s borders and in forced incorporation or culling of the native
peoples that had previously owned those lands. Aim was to provide land for new European
settlers, actually gave more land and power to a few families in the country. Land was fenced
and used for agriculture.
Roca: was elected President twice and served his first term in office in 1880-86 and again
until 1898-1904.
The caudillos of the past form an oligarchy where their power comes from their ownership of
vast amounts of land. Only cared about furthering their power and wealth. Electoral fraud and
manipulation was rampant.

Cuba:
Pre-revolution it was a colony of Spain. Enforced slavery of 850000 Africans many after
1800. Sugar Plantaions, slavery abolished in 1886. Remained a part of the Spanish empire but
there were rebellions, the 10 year war (1868-78) and later a second war of independence led
by José Marti.
José Marti: Died a martyr on the battlefield in 1895.
Spanish-American War: 1898 Spain lost Cuba to the US.
US Dominance in Cuba:
1899-1902: US occupation.
1902: Cuba is technically independent but is a protectorate of the US. Platt Amendment gives
US the right to intervene in Cuba.
1906-09: Occupation by US troops in response to rebellion.
1912: US helps to repress black protests against inequality.
Tyrannical leaders favourable to Us business and political interests.
Fulgencio Batista:
1952-59 is a dictator. Inequality. Corruption.
Fidel Castro:
1953: revolt against Batista. Tried and imprisoned and then exiled in 1955. He met Ché
Guevara during his exile in Mexico. He returned in 1956 and lead a guerrilla war against the
dictator. They fought based from the Sierra Maestra. 1958 the US ceased their military aid to
Batista and he fled the island in 1959.
Castro is now the leader. His political ambitions were land reform, education reform, end to
corruption in government and a reduction in expenditure on the military.
The new government alienated the US by expropriated US properties on the island. The trade
embargo is put in place and the CIA funds the Bay of Pigs. In response Cuba join the Soviet
Union. It became a very important part of Cold War politics. Soviet Union sends missiles to
Cuba and causes the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Exporting the Revolution: served as an example for revolutionary groups elsewhere in the
world. Radical left wing groups were encouraged by this example. Also supported anti-
colonial elsewhere, notably in Angola. Cuban troops fought there between 1976-1988.
Achievements of the Revolution: Brought about land reform. Extensive education system
and instituted a literacy campaign. Improved healthcare.
Economic five year plans: Attempts to diversify and modernise Cuba’s economy failed, due
to the model being imported from USSR and Germany, both developed countries.
These failures lead to wage incentives and the emergence of a mixed economy.
Cuba was not a democracy. Totalitarian, one party, no dissent.
Collapse of the Soviet Union: 1989 the economic grow drops by 45%. In 1992 extended its
embargo. This leads to opening up to both the church and there was a papal visit in 1998.
Opening up to tourism during the 90s. Called the Special Period.
Emigration: Hundreds of thousands left just after the Revolution. Political prisoners are
periodically exiled instead of keeping them locked up.
2000-03: US relations worsen. Crackdown on dissent.
Castro grows ill, his brother takes over. Raúl, his brother, allows private ownership of
computers and phones.
Chile in the 20th Century:
1960s: emergence and sudden rise to power of a new party, the Christian Democrats. 1964
their candidate Eduardo Frei Montalva was elected president. Proposed education, housing,
and agrarian reform. The were opposed by the left because of their ambition to win power,
and opposition from the right due to their radical ideas.
1970: socialist party wins. Salvador Allende was president. Alliance between many left-wing
parties called Popular Unity.
It was not uncommon for the lead candidate to receive such a low share of the vote, but it
made it difficult to claim to have an overall endorsement for a raft of radical policies.
Reforms were carried out as promised but Allende was unable to fully control his own party
whose members often proposed more radical measures that increasingly alienated the middle
class as well as those who had benefited from the early reforms:
 Land reform
 Education and culture: many were illiterate
 Housing: large numbers moved from country into shanty towns around Santiago
 Nationalisation of copper industry
 Nationalisation of some private property and businesses
Military Coup:
Chilean society became increasingly polarized throughout the late sixties and early seventies.
Indeed, there was an early attempt at a military coup in June of 1973. The successful coup
came on September 11th, 1973. The Air Force bombarded the Moneda Palace in central
Santiago and President Allende committed suicide there, rather than surrender to the military.
Dictatorship:
Instead of a swift return to democracy, the leader of the armed forces, Augusto Pinochet
assumed control of the military and the country. He also introduced neoliberal economic
policies, including the privatization of pensions, health care and university education. The
military regime lasted until 1989. In the first years there was brutal repression against the left
and Pinochet established an order of secret police, the DINA, who were dissolved in 1978
when their activities attracted too much negative international attention.
Human Rights Violations:
• The DINA that was responsible for the majority of human rights violations carried out
under military rule.
• In the days and months immediately after the coup tens of thousands of Chilean
citizens were detained in camps throughout the country. It is estimated that 3200 were
disappeared.
• At least 30,000 were tortured in secret detention centers across the country.
• Tens of thousands were forced into exile for their political beliefs.
• In 1978 the military government introduced a Law of Amnesty that covered the
majority of crimes committed by the military to date and which ensured that the guilty
could not be brought to justice even when their guilt could be established.
Constitution of 1980:
• Pinochet held a plebiscite in September 1980 to ratify a new constitution that made
him president and stated that the military would remain in power until 1988 when
another plebiscite would be held to see if a military candidate would be endorsed for a
further term in power. In 1988 Pinochet stood as the military candidate and 54.5% of
the electorate voted ‘no’ to his continuing in power while the remainder voted ‘yes’.
Pinochet stepped down as president but remained head of the Armed Forces until
1998.
Transition to Democracy:
• In December 1989, Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin, led a coalition of left and
middle opposition parties including Christian Democrats and Socialists and was
elected president. One of his first steps was to set up the National Commission for
Truth and Reconciliation which in 1991 produced a report on Human Rights
Violations during the period of military rule. In the 1993 election, Christian Democrat
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle was elected president as leader of the coalition.
2000 and onwards:
• In 2000 the socialist Ricardo Lagos was elected president as head of the same
coalition.
• Lagos established a commission to investigate torture under the military dictatorship.
It gathered testimony from 30,000 victims and produced the Valech Report in 2004.
Michelle Bachelet:
• In 2006, Chileans elected their first woman president, the socialist Michelle Bachelet
(2006-2010) who insisted on an even gender balance in the distribution of ministerial
posts within her government.
• Daughter of a General who had died as a result of torture under Pinochet’s rule.
• Had herself been detained, tortured and exiled.
• Served as Health Minister and later Defence prior to standing for the Presidency.
• Pursued policies of health reform, social welfare, pensions, education reform, etc.
• Faced the first mass protests by students.
• Death of Pinochet 2006.
Conservatives in power 2010:
• The next president was conservative Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014). Piñera too had to
contend with the mass mobilisation of students demanding education reform, perhaps
the most significant mass political protest in Chile in decades. Several of the student
protest leaders were elected to Parliament in the next Chilean elections. This was one
of the biggest shake-ups in Chilean politics in decades.
2014-2018 Bachelet elected again: She faced further student protests. There have also been
ongoing protests in Mapuche territory over land ownership and restitution of traditional tribal
lands. Bachelet very controversially used Chile’s anti-terrorism laws against the protesters.
This issue remains unresolved.
Immigration policy:
There was a concerted effort to attract immigrants from Germany because they were
associated with modernisation and progress, in addition to being considered to have a good
work ethic. Most settled in the southern part of Chile in a landscape similar to that of
Germany. Much of the land they settled had belonged to Mapuche groups. (Tensions
regarding this displacement of the native peoples have resurfaced in recent years and
represent one of the most important social and political problems in contemporary Chile.)
Constitutional Reform: The political order was taken by surprise by the suddenness, the
scale and the intensity of the mass social protests of 2019-20. The entrenchment of social
inequality over the past 30 years under the neoliberal economic model imposed under the
dictatorship, and reinforced in the 1980 constitution, has led to demands to dismantle that
constitution. The President acceded to a referendum on constitutional reform for April of this
year.