Unit 3 - Making Latin America:

From Revolution to Urbanization

Part 4:
Events that
produced Latin
America’s
Geography:
Wars and
Madres de la Plaza de Mayo Dictatorships
Mothers of the Disappeared, Argentina
 Making Latin America
Lecture Outline
Part 1 – Introduction to “Making Latin America”
Part 2 – European Occupation:
Conquest and Colonization
Part 3 – Events that produced LA’s Geography:
Revolution and Land Reform
Part 4 – Events that produced LA’s Geography:
Dictatorships and Wars
Part 5 – Democracy… or not?
Part 6 – Inequality in Urban Latin America:
Weak institutions or Urban Fallacy?
 US sponsored Dictatorships and
Increased Violence
Ø1950s – 70s many democratically elected
governments almost inevitably overthrown by
militaries, usually with help from the US
WHY?
1. majority peasant populations elected
governments that supported land reform,
often associated with communism
2. US economic interests were at stake
Marston et al (2017)
1960s –
1980s:

Brutal
dictators in
most countries
 Brutal Dictatorships included…
Ø Chile (Pinochet) 1973-
1990. Thousands killed
and tortured
Ø Paraguay (Stroessner)
1954 to 1989
Ø Argentina: 1976 to 1983.
‘dirty war’
Ø Bolivia: in 1971, 1980
Ø Most other Latin Mothers of the Disappeared
American countries (Madres de la Plaza de Mayo)
(Brazil, Guatemala… )
http://www.gustavogermano.com/
Ausencias Argentina (2006)

http://www.gustavogermano.com/
Ausencias Brazil (2012)
Ausencias Uruguay (2017)
 The Other 9/11
(Chile - September 11, 1973)
Up to 1920s:
• haciendas controlled 80%
of agricultural land
• 75% of rural peasants in
hacienda system
1950s: Socialist party rose in
popularity, with promise of
land reform
1970: Allende elected, pushed
for land reform and
Salvador Allende, nationalization of mining
President of Chile, 1970-1973 1973: Pinochet coup
 Wars
• Guatemala: 1960-1996. Est. 200,000 killed
• Nicaragua: 1979-1988. Est. 60,000 killed
• El Salvador: 1980-1992. Est. 80,000 killed
• Peru: “Shining Path” insurgency
• Colombia: 1964-present. Est. 200,000 killed
• Plus many smaller conflicts
Ø Fear of communism
Ø Economic Interests
Ø Monroe Doctrine
 Unit 3 - Making Latin America:
From Revolution to Urbanization

Part 5:
Democratization
… or not?
 The Pink Tide

(AKA pink wave)

Credit: The Economist, Sept.5, 2019
Recent history…
 Community of
Latin American and Caribbean States
(CELAC)
 Agrarian Revolution Today
https://www.thenation.com/article/zapatista-chiapas-caracoles/

Zapatistas of Chiapas, southern Mexico

 Agrarian Revolution Today
http://www.map-of-mexico.co.uk/map-of-chiapas.htm

Zapatistas - Chiapas, Mexico

Ø 27 years/500+ years
Ø 1994 Declaration of War in
response to NAFTA
Ø Autonomous municipalities
https://www.thenation.com/article/zapatista-

(counties)
Ø “Rule by obeying”
chiapas-caracoles/
 Agrarian Revolution Today

Zapatistas - Chiapas, Mexico

Credit: Pedro Valtierra

Also…
Ø 77 military bases in the state
Ø Paramilitarism continues
Ø Right to self-determination
https://www.thenation.com/article/zapatista-
chiapas-caracoles/
 Unit 3 - Making Latin America:
From Revolution to Urbanization

https://whataboutbrazil.com/where-
are-the-favelas-in-brazil/
Part 6: Inequality in Urban Latin America –
Weak Institutions or Urban Fallacy?
Weak Institutions
• Socio-institutional maze
that imprisons the region in
underdevelopment
(Sanchez-Masi)
• Persistence of ‘corruption,
political volatility, legal and
economic unpredictability…’
• Aggravated by systemic
marginalization and social
inequality
• Inability to reach national
consensuses on basic
aspects of a country’s future
Urban Fallacy
• ‘the [false] notion that the
problem is with the city
itself and not with the social
relations that govern
society’ (Angotti)
• Need to start by paying
attention to capital and land
• LA cities as product of
‘gigantic land grab’ that
perpetuated longstanding
unjust distribution of land
• Rooted in colonial and
postcolonial history
 Urbanization

Collins World Atlas, Illustrated Edition (2021), pp.22-23

https://slideplayer.com/slide/12815437/
http://www.fao.org/3/y5271e/y5271e05.htm
Urbanization and the Rural

BBVA Research
Sao Paulo area: 22 million people

https://www.circleofblue.org/2018/water-climate/drought/sao-paulo-heading-to-another-dry-spell/
 Greater Mexico City area: 22 million

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/12/mexico-city-water-crisis-source-sewer
Zona Metropolitana Ciudad Mexico

Credit: Jairo Antonio Melo

Slums in Latin America
• Slum: housing without land
permits, inadequate access
to basic services, unsafe
housing
• One in seven people in
world live in slums
• In LA, it’s one in four (113
million people)
• 54% in informal
employment, so exacerbates
COVID response
 Low-income communities
Canada
• Precarious housing
• Poor quality housing
• Transportation challenges
• Security/violence
• Schools/youth issues
Latin America… ADD
• Access to land
• Access to water
• Access to sanitation
• Access to electricity
• Land rights issues
• Threat of large-scale eviction
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gal
lery/2015/aug/03/mexico-largest-mural-
in-pictures-pachuca-german-crew
 Why are we doing this ‘sit-in’?
“Over the past five years, the privatizing
government of Mexico City… has created
a series of laws that negatively affect the
future of the city’s people…”

• Privatizing water
• Indebting earthquake victims
• Imposition of garbage incinerator

What we propose:
• Legal protection of the right to water
• Reconstruction program for
earthquake victims
• Sustainable energy without
Mexico City, December 2017 contamination
• 5% of city’s budget for housing
 What is accomplished by protest?

https://www.veolia.com/en/news/waste-to-energy-renewable-energy-mexico
 Example from
Argentina

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/10/occupy-buenos-aires-argentina-
workers-cooperative-movement
 Example: Cochabamba Water Wars

Bolivia
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jun/09/communities-cochabamba-taking-control-water-supply-bolivia
 Main argument
Ø Latin America has very high levels of inequality, and
high levels of conflict and protest.
Ø The underlying reason is that the Spanish (and
Portuguese) imposed a feudal land ownership structure
based on large land grants to wealthy elites
Ø This left most farmers to farm land that is not their
own
Ø This led to the revolutions of the 20th Century, to
dictatorships, and to the pink tide
Ø And more recently has inspired urban land invasions,
community self-sufficiency, and resistance to neoliberal
government policies (privatization)
 To Summarize

Ø Dictatorship: History of popular mobilization and

repression, with U.S. involvement
Ø Democracy? Clamour for equality continues
Ø How does this lecture illustrate the geographic
concepts for you?
Ø Think about how the course’s global themes are
reflected in this lecture
Ø Summary of geographic concepts and global
themes available in Unit 2 folder