Latin America after Independence from Spain and

Portugal
1. How did the Cold War affect Latin America? Why did the United States get
involved?
The Cold War affected Latin America because the United States and the USSR were
the two main groups because they decided to go against each other and disagreed
on what each other had to say. If you said yes, then you were able to get more
power of support from the Soviets but if you said no, then the United States would
be your heavily armed buddy. The United States had to come together to fight
against the Soviet Union in communist Latin American countries such as Cuba,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Chile. The United States thought that the meaning of
communist equaled evil.

2. What is the difference between left and right wing? And why is it confusing?
The people that believed in the left wing government are called liberals which
means that they believe that more people should take part in government choices,
to give more people a voice. While for those that believe in the right wing
government are called conservatives and they are the smaller government. The
conservatives think that the government should play a less of a job in helping
people out. They consider the left leaning government a bigger one and they control
business. While for the right leaning government, they let business do whatever.

3. Why did the United States get involved in Cuba?

The United States was extremely involved with the economy in Cuba and they
decided to control the sugar production because it was the main crop there. Cuban
people were mostly poor since all the money was either going to the United States
or corruption of the government. Since Fidel Castro was a communist, Cuba was an
enemy of the United States and the United States refused to trade with Cuba.
United States citizens are not really able to go to Cuba and Castro imposed strict
censorship. He is still currently the leader today even though he is in ill health but
his brother Raul is now charge.
4. Whats a banana republic?
A banana republic is a country that has a powerless government and is controlled
by a company for the purpose of producing and exporting a good. They mostly
export bananas. People export bananas because its the cheapest fruit around.
5. How did the CIA get involved in Guatemala?

Militant dictators took control of Guatemala all the way up until the 1950s and one
of the dictators was named Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. He had enacted land reforms
that were communist in nature but the United States was strongly anti-communist.
The CIA also known as Central Intelligence Agency tried to help overthrow him in
1954. The coup was followed by decades of violence that was under the leadership
of a military junta. The Guatemalans began to have a democratic government in the
year of 1996 and there is currently and still a strong military force there. But people
blame the United States for starting the violence.
6. What is the other infamous September 11th?
Salvador Allende, Soviet leader, took control of Chile in 1970. The United States
helped Augusto Pinochet took over the government in a military coup on the original
infamous September 11th, 1973. People suffered massive human right violations
from the harsh rule of Pinochet. Thousands of people were killed and tortured while
Pinochet gave up power in 1990 to a democratically elected leader. But there was
hundreds of legal charges that was against him for the human rights violations. He
ended up dying before he had to pay for the price.
7. Who were the disappeared in Argentina?
Argentina was making a lot of money from the meat production before the Great
Depression occurred. When the depression did hit, the people decided to turn to the
authoritarian leadership. Juan Peron, military general, took power after the World
War II. Eva Peron, his wife, was popular but when she was alive, she enjoyed a lot of
support. But she was popular with the poor workers which is also known as the
descamisados or the shirtless ones. During the time of Perons dictatorship, he
supported the Dirty War, the government sponsored the killing of about 30,000
people who didnt agree with the government's views. The ones that were killed
were called disappeared, because they were taken out of their homes or even off
the street by secret police.
8. Why was it controversial when the United States intervened in Nicaragua?
The United States intervention was held in Nicaragua and it was the most
controversial. Somozas family held control of Nicaragua until 1979 and that same
year the Sandinistas went against the government. They were very far left so they
ended up connecting with Cuba and the USSR and they helped them because those
countries helped them to supply them with weapons. Contras, who fought against
the Sandinistas for power were the ones the United States supported (anticommunist group). The United States helped supply the Contras with weapons by
secretly sending the weapons to Iran which then shipped them over to the Contras.
Since it was during the Iran-Iraq war they ended up calling it the Iran-Contra Affair.
9. What violence occurred in Brazil and El Salvador?
After the Great Depression, Brazil turned to dictatorship. Getulio Vargas was the
dictator for them and he turned Brazil into a fascist state. Fascism is the most
extreme form of conservative government but he ended up ruling until 1945 as the
poor slept in favelos. SInce all of this occurred, Brazil slowly returned to a

democratic rule and a civil war broke out in El Salvador in 1979. 75,000 people
ended up being killed during the war.