These people refer to themselves as “Contras” or counter revolutionists.
These people refer to themselves as “Contras” or counter revolutionists.
The year is 1954. Government agencies resurrect secret plans previously discarded until a more forceful administration comes to power. Behind the scenes, the CIA and State Department are fervently working in over time trying to engineer a government overthrow against a populist nationalist in their own backyard who has the dare audacity to threaten both US economic and geopolitical interest. Accusations of communism and Soviet penetration permeate the discourse and heat up the rhetoric; swift action must be taken to stabilize the hemisphere. Intervention by any means necessary. Exiled opposition leaders are paid off, trained, equipped, and installed. Propaganda transmits through jammed radio towers and warns the peasant population of invasion and liberation. Psychological warfare in conjunction with paramilitary covert operation is launched. The target—Guatemala, a third world poverty stricken country in which the fruits of revolution and conflict are as ripe as the bananas that dot the landscape. Such a riveting story could easily fill the pages of Tom Clancy’s next best-selling and fictional political thriller but instead, it is the true story unearthed through extensive investigation by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, who with Bitter Fruit, meticulously detail a thought provoking and well-documented historical account of the Guatemalan coup d’état. The sowing of the seeds, subsequent cultivation, and ultimately the dangerous harvest of these bitter fruits is the basis for this compelling chronicle of one of the most controversial and…
The New World beginning in 1492 brought about the Christian era, the Spanish and a new morale code, baptism, Mass and new concept of good and evil and the concept of a crucified…
The Filibusters Group of soldiers of fortune led by William Walker who invaded Nicaragua in an attempt to set up english speaking colonies under his control. At the time this practice was called filibustering, hence the name for the soldiers. This was important at the time period because it led to the strenuous ties involving the Clayton- Bulwer treaty. This caused discontent not only in Washington but in England as well with each thinking there might be a breach in the treaty. Clayton-…
The tensions between the classes, the halves and the halve-nots are therefore represented by the two warring factions. The harrowing events in Mark Danner’s Massacre at El Mozote investigates and questions three central issues; the Massacre, the role of American Policies in the region during the Cold War and the executive cover-up of the events as Propaganda. One of the concerns is what responsibility (if any) did the U.S. government have for the massacre at El Mozote?El Mozote was “uniquely” different from most villages because it had resisted the Liberation Theology taught by left-leaning Catholic Priests and according to the author was “as as stronghold of the Protestant evangelical movement” (pg 19) . The villagers of El Mozote had their own chapel and referred themselves as born-again Christians and as Danner states were known for “their anti-communism” (pg 19). The villagers of El Mozote did not support the guerillas. According to Danner the Massacre at El Mozote takes place when American trained Salvadoran Armed forces called the Atlacatl Batallion arrived at the village and began systematically killing men, women and children by various means such as torturing, hangings, decapitation, and shooting. The U.S government was responsible for the massacre at El Mozote for a plethora of reasons. First, The Reagan…
He, She and It tells the story of Shira Shipman, a recently divorced mother, in the near future United States in the year 2059. The story begins with the trial of custody for Shira’s son Ari, whom she loses to her ex husband Josh. Shira’s grandmother Malkah tries to convince Shira to return to her hometown but Shira refuses to leave until her appeal for Ari’s custody is over. Unfortunately, Shira discovers that Josh has been relocated by Y-S (The multi company that Josh and Shira work for) to a new facility on the moon and he has taken Ari with him. After discovering the news, Shira decides to take up a lab positition with Avram, father of her past lover Gadi, in her home town of Tikva, a Jewish free town. At this point, the story shifts from past and present, as well as taking the perspective of the story told by Malkah to Yod about the life of rabbi Judah Loew, the Maharal of Prague. Back in Tikva Shira is introduced to Yod, a cyborg created by Avram to protect the city of Tivka and its inhabitants. Avram wants Shira to teach Yod how to pass as human in order for him to assimilate him into civilization so he can blend into the human crowd. Shira teaches Yod how to “become human” and assimilates her ideals onto Yod, basically programming Yod into a man that she wants.…
The book The CIA in Guatemala gives a very interesting insight of what was going on between the United States and Guatemala during the time of the cold war. It gives facts and explanations of what was going on at the time and how the CIA and United States we really involved in the Guatemalan affairs. During this time there was a lot of information left out of the public and no one, truly knew what was going except for a select few. Richard Immerman goes into depth of the facts and reality of what went on, beginning to end. We will discuss the topics given in this assignment and how they are told through the book.…
During the American Civil War, there were such things called guerrillas. No, I am not talking about the muscular black creatures that hide in the jungle. Though that is exactly how the Confederate independent companies got there name. Where and when did guerrilla warfare begin? Who did it involve? Who were these so called guerrillas and what was there strategy? Did certain Military commanders in Arkansas make an impact on the use of guerrillas? What were the strategies that Federals and Unionists used to stop guerrilla warfare? Daniel Sutherland’s Guerrillas: The Real War In Arkansas explains how partisan fighters helped shape the strategic and tactical patterns of the war. Shows us the reasons men became guerrillas, their roles in the Confederate service, and the guerrilla operations effectiveness.…
They outline that civilian defense forces as a permanent and defensive form of pro-government militia that officials will often use to harness civilians during a counterinsurgency campaign. The authors argue that a civilian defense forces will reduce the problem of insurgent identification. This will lead to a reduction in state violence that targets civilians. Nevertheless, they also claim that these actors can and will undermine civilian support for insurgents, which can lead to rise in rebel violence targeting civilians and overall escalation of violence. the evidence in this article shows that a permanent civilian defense forces decreases the state’s use of indiscriminate violence, but causes a rise in insurgent violence. They also demonstrated that by making civilians the epicenter of the unconventional war effort, civilian defense forces increase the overall loss of life in civil conflicts, at least in the short run. “This underscores the significance of civilian support and control in determining the type and level of violence in civil wars” (Clayton…
Members of this group were responsible for many deaths and were thought to be members of Nicaragua government. When Reagan came to office in 1981, a policy he put in place was to create a group known as Contras who would help over throw the Nicaragua government in an attempt to stop the spread of Communism, but Reagan was misinformed and later found out that the deaths were the product of guerilla men. When this information was exuded, the CIA but an end to aiding Contra affiliation. During this time there were numerous American hostages in Lebanon taken by Islamic extremist, and Reagan used illegal bargaining to retrieve them. Because Iran was an ally with the Islamic activist, bargaining with them was not foreign policy procedure. With Iran on the brink of war with Iraq, they needed weapons and Reagan needed money to continue funding the Contras, so Reagan illegally traded weapons with Iran for money and the American…
The United States has a long history with intervening, occupying, and invading. In the mid to late 1800s a common thing to do was something called filibustering. Filibusters were private enterprises where United States citizens launched privately funded military expeditions to invade the western hemisphere, civilize the people, make a profit, and calm political unrest. These expeditions violated the peace acts in place at the time. One of the most famous filibusters was conducted in Nicaragua by William Walker.…
What is the motivation for the Guatemalans in the film to migrate to the United States?…
ter a period of political and economic turmoil under dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (commonly known by the initial FSLN or as the Sandinistas) came to power in Nicaragua in 1979 supported by much of the populace and elements of the Catholic Church. The government was initially backed by the US under Jimmy Carter, but the support evaporated under the presidency of Ronald Reagan in light of evidence that the Sandinistas were providing help to the FMLN rebels in El Salvador. The US imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo instead which contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy in the early to mid-1980s. While the Soviet Union and Cuba funded the Nicaraguan army, the US financed the contras in neighboring Honduras with a view towards establishing a friendly government in Nicaragua. Nicaragua won a historic case against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice in 1986 (see Nicaragua v. United States), and the U.S. was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for undermining the nation's sovereignty.…
Let me describe Nicaragua. Tall, silver buildings , people scurrying on the sidewalk, giant green palm trees, tropical breezes, and even a cool gust on a hot hot summer day. Nicaragua is the place to be. But that’s only what the capital is like. The rest is poor cities. Nicaragua’s main oceans are the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and they have a lake named after them. Since its such a big country, it has three climates. The Pacific Region, Central Highlands, and the Caribbean Region, which I’ll explain later. “Violence has been Nicaragua’s most important export to the world.” -Ronald Reagan, or, the Spanish version, which Nicaraguans would be able to read,”La violencia ha sido la exportación más importante de Nicaragua al mundo” -Ronald Reagan (no date shown). Now, you want to learn more? Continue reading. You will read about geography, climate, government, economy, culture, and find out some interesting facts.…
Throughout the Cold War the United States considered the installation in Latin America of radical regimes-socialist, Marxist-Leninist, or "leftist" in any way- to be utterly intolerable. Any such development would represent an advance for the communist cause and a vital loss for the West. Acceptance of this outcome could weaken the credibility of the United States as the leader of the west and as a rival for the USSR. In the eyes of Cold Warriors, the consolidation of any left-wing regime in the Western Hemisphere would have dire and perilous implications for U.S. national security and for the global distribution of power. It was therefore crucial to resist this possibility by any means necessary in countries such as Grenada, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.…
The roaring cry of “para todas todo, para nosotros nada” (for everyone everything, for us nothing) fills the land of Mexico, bringing hope and faith to the indigenous people. Since the 1990s, the Zapatistas have brought independence to Mexican citizens, fought for rights of all people, and brought back what was originally theirs. Even now, the modern day Zapatistas are continually fighting for their cause in more nonviolent ways. Power and control are allowed to be fought by the Zapatistas because the Mexican government is unfairly using their authority, and the actions of the Zapatistas allow their cause to increase in support.…