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Since we meet only to present papers next week, there is no requirement to post for the last week.

Week 13: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 12/02)

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A film we will watch in class on Tuesday. If Guatamala (with three major invasions/destabalizations by the U.S. are known), Cuba with several hundred presumed attempts on Castro's life by the U.S.--along with the failed "Bay of Pigs" invasion of 1961--represents a failure at least from the standpoint that many operations were a failure. However from Stockwell and Blum's point of view, if you merely symbolically delegitimate an attempt at independence you have succeeded.

However, the strange context is that Castro was quite U.S.-friendly originally. Howard Blum even mentions that Castro was accepting U.S. CIA funds in 1957-8 immediately before he was in power. In other words, it's the same story as other destabalizations that Blum mentioned. However, it represents a case that they were unable to "re-topple" once they disliked many of his policies within Cuba. This set up the embargo by the U.S. attempting to starve the island into submission. And thus contributed to the huge sponsorship of the USSR afterwards. Castro had been unable to get armaments from the USSR before, though after the Bay of Pigs incident he was increasingly successful.

We will treat Guatamala and others like El Salvador as completely U.S. dominated on many infrastructural levels, and we can treat Cuba as only partial U.S. dominance (through the trade and travel blockade (intermittently the latter) that still goes on by the U.S. against Cuba). I have a lot more to say about comparisons than this, particularly what it means for sociological analysis of state/cultures when much of Latin American experiences economically, financially, and culturally are covertly manipulated and the governments seated and unseated with such regularity.

Even this documentary leaves out some issues that are worth mentioning. I will integrate what is known from Blum's collated research as well as others into this documentary as we watch it.

Fidel.the.Untold Story - Part 1 CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Company
44 min - 21-Sep-07 - (5 ratings)
"Fidel" tells a previously untold story and presents a new view of this powerful and compelling figure. On July 26, 1953, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6718909413798152672

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This week's theme: 100 years of U.S. military invasions of Latin America


Since Stockwell's voice is somewhat muffled, I post two links to the same audio. The first version has key phrases subtitled:

1a.

Whistleblower, Ex-CIA Station Chief, John Stockwell: The Third World War
[subtitled English phrases, his voice from 1988, without face, 6 min]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VxnCBD9W4

1b.

John Stockwell (voice and face, same audio as above, 7 min)
John Stockwell: Crimes of the CIA (recorded in 1988)
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&gid=157767&vid=182610&b=66


2.

OPTIONAL: Case Studies: very violent images, be warned; we are not watching these in the course. I place them here as optional resources. The first is the famous BBC reporter John Pilger's documentary about U.S.-Nicaraguan relations in the 1980s:

Nicaragua - A Nations Right to Survive
52 min 34 sec
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=727858608691408118

This one was produced by Canadians and won the 1992 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The audio is slightly out of sync with the video. However, most of the film is narrated so this is not wholly annoying.

The Panama Deception
1 hr 31 min
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1723848710313426491

The Panama Deception is a controversial documentary film that won the 1992 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The film is critical of the actions of the US military during the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States, covering the conflicting reasons for the invasion and the depicting of the US media as biased. It was directed by Barbara Trent of the Empowerment Project and was narrated by actress Elizabeth Montgomery.

One of the many allegations made by the film is that the United States tested some form of laser or energy weapon during the invasion. The film also includes footage of mass graves uncovered after the US troops had withdrawn, and depicts some of the 20,000 refugees who fled the invasion.

3.

For a comparison of different ethnic politics, I mentioned on one side you could place very mixed-race Brazil (noted in the reading packet as an example, to where the European concepts were later inverted in their experience because the plurality of the population is mixed race despite ongoing skin color class stratification), versus very ethnically separated Bolivia where the majority of the population is indigenous. Particularly look at the ethnic politics involved in this short film:

Unreported World: Anarchy In The Andes
24 min - 12-Oct-07
This documentary has nothing to do with anarchy. But uses the word in the title in the common "anarchy is chaos" meaning. This sets the level of the documentary. Hamida Ghafour reports from Bolivia, where natives are exercising political power for the first time since the Spanish conquest more than 470 years ago. The election of the country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, who pledged to redistribute land and resources, has rapidly led to confrontation between various factions (and the ethnic based mobilizations of these factions are well seen). [This was filmed before the factions agreed on the novel Bolivian Constitution.]
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=6928016964832751026

Week 11: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 11/18)

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Week 9: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 11/04)

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Week 7: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 10/21)

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Honoring Che? or Ghost in the Machine? You decide.
Link to a detailed article about the life of Che Guavara from a dependency theory standpoint. Think of this movement's context (the 'dependency theory' era of the 1960s; stalled modernization theory; stalled suggestions about import substitution development.)

Week 6: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 10/14)

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[Different once-autonomous areas integrated into the Incan Empire]

1. Mark Whitaker
2. Incan Mummy Evidence Highlights Food Hierarchy in Incan Society
3. This story neatly connects with some of the lecture material this week about the Inca. That image is not a model. It is the actual perfectly preserved mummy.


[nearly perfect condition. The mummy "La Doncella" or "The Maiden" sits on display at the High Mountain Archeological Museum in Salta, Argentina, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007. "The Maiden," who is on display for the first time since her discovery in 1999, was approximately 15-years-old when she and two younger children died as human sacrifices to Gods by the Incas more than 500 years ago.]

Incan Sacrifices May Have Been Drugged
Children Appear To Have Been "Fattened Up" In Yearlong Ritual, Then Left To Die

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2007

(AP) Children sacrificed by the Inca appear to have been "fattened up" in a yearlong ritual, new research suggests.

Researchers studied hair from the heads and in small bags accompanying four mummies of children sacrificed in Inca rituals. Their findings are reported in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The children's hair had been cut first a year and then six months before they were killed. By studying the chemicals preserved in the hair researchers can calculate the diet of the children.

The Inca lived in the area that is now Peru and were conquered by the invading Spanish in the early 1500s.

The children's diet was initially focused on vegetables such as the potato, but in the last year of their lives it was enriched with corn, an elite food, and protein probably from llama meat, according to the researchers led by Andrew Wilson of the University of Bradford in England.

"Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised," Wilson said in a statement. "In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death."

Changes in the hair samples indicate that in their last 3-to-4 months the children began their pilgrimage to the mountains, probably from Cuzco, the Inca capital.

The scientists are not certain how the children died, but think they were given maize beer and coca leaves.

"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a yearlong rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure," said co-author Timothy Taylor, also of the University of Bradford.

---
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/02/tech/main3319052.shtml


Source: Wellcome Trust
Date: October 2, 2007

More on:
Early Climate, Fossils, Cultures, Lost Treasures, Origin of Life, Anthropology
Inca Children Were Fattened-up Before Sacrifice, Hair Samples Show

Science Daily — Hair samples from naturally preserved child mummies discovered at the world's highest archaeological site in the Andes have provided a startling insight into the lives of the children chosen for sacrifice. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust used DNA and stable isotope analysis to show how children as young as 6-years old were "fattened up" and taken on a pilgrimage to their death.

A team of scientists led by Dr Andrew Wilson at the University of Bradford analysed hair samples taken from the heads and from small accompanying bags of four mummies found in the Andes. These included the 15-year old "Llullaillaco Maiden" and the 7-year old "Llullaillaco Boy" whose frozen remains were found in 1999 at a shrine 25m from the summit of Mount Llullaillaco, a 6,739m volcano on the border of Argentina and Chile. The Maiden, described as a "perfect mummy" went on display for the first time last month in Salta, northwest Argentina.

Dr Wilson and colleagues studied DNA and stable light isotopes from the hair samples to offer insight into the lives of these children. Unlike samples of bone collagen and dental enamel, which give an average reading over time, hair growth allows scientists to capture a unique snapshot at different intervals over time, helping build up a picture of how the children were prepared for sacrifice over a period of months.

"By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were 'fattened up' for sacrifice," says Dr Wilson, a Wellcome Trust Bioarchaeology Fellow.

It is believed that sons and daughters of local rulers and local communities were chosen for sacrifice, possibly as a way for the ruling Incas to use fear to govern their people. Some girls, know as acllas, were selected from around the age of four and placed under the guardianship of priestesses; some would later be offered as wives to local nobles, others consecrated as priestesses and others offered as human sacrifices.

By analysing stable isotopes found in the hair samples, Dr Wilson and colleagues were able to see that for much of the time prior to sacrifice, the children were fed a diet of vegetables such as potato, suggesting that they came from a peasant background. Stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen from an individual's diet are deposited in their hair where they can remain unchanged over thousands of years.

However, in the twelve months prior to sacrifice, the isotopic evidence shows that the Maiden's diet changed markedly to one that was enriched with plants such as maize, considered an "elite" food, and protein, likely to have come from charki (dried llama meat).

"Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised" says Dr Wilson. "In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death."

Changes in the isotopes in the hair sample in the final 3-4 months suggest that the children then began their pilgrimage to the mountains, likely from Cuzco, the Inca capital. Whilst scientists cannot be certain how the children died, it is believed that they were first given maize beer (chicha) and coca leaves, possibly to alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness and also to inure them to their fate. This theory is supported by evidence of coca metabolites that the researchers found in the victims' hair, and in particularly high concentrations in the Maiden's.

"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure," says co-author Dr Timothy Taylor, also of the University of Bradford. "Although some may wish to view these grim deaths within the context of indigenous belief systems, we should not forget that the Inca were imperialists too, and the treatment of such peasant children may have served to instil fear and facilitate social control over remote mountain areas."


Previous research has shown that Llullaillaco Boy appears to have met a particularly horrific end. His clothes were covered in vomit and diarrhoea, features indicative of a state of terror. The vomit was stained red by the hallucinogenic drug achiote, traces of which were also found in his stomach and faeces. However, his death was likely caused by suffocation, his body apparently having been crushed by his textile wrapping having been drawn so tight that his ribs were crushed and his pelvis dislocated.

This research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Wellcome Trust.

---
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172756.htm


Other South American preserved mummies (Learn about Chinchorro mummies found preserved on the very arid Western coast of South America).

Week 4: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 9/30)

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Week 3: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 9/23)

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Week 2: Everyone Posts Comments to This Thread (by Sunday 9/16)

Mark Whitaker
"After the 'indigenous party' takes power in Bolivia, capital move planned"

This capital move is interesting given what I have written about Bolivia before--at this link--about the 'first indigenous government' in 500 years in Latin America, the dynamics that led to the indigenous Bolivian President, the historic ostracizing from public spaces well into the 20th century for them, as well as now their attempt to reconstruct the state on more locally autonomous zones. You might find that link an insight into the dynamics of one area of South America.

And for those interested in soccer, and its 'weak links' for uniting many different people (a social movements term in Sociology) President Evo Morales' was a keen soccer organizer his whole life before he became more openly political. Soccer seemed to be crucial to the social capital and networks that allowed him to make weak links with a huge amount of people in Bolivia--and then this went political. For more on the soccer angle, see the active link below. [Researchable Question/Paper suggestion: Perhaps the same could be said for other Argentinian or Latin American political leadership? "The Politics of Soccer?" To what extent has soccer been mobilized both to create apolitical ambivalence and 'fellow feeling' in Latin American states (an elite interest), as well as sometimes highly political movements (like the kind that is linked to Evo Morales)? Not that soccer is the only issue: only that those with economic and "anti-Drug War" grievances looked to him as their candidate. He happened to be positioned as the soccer organizer in the union from the start of his political career--and that made him well known among many groups.]

-----------------------

“Capital War” in Bolivia
In July 2007, more than one million people marched in La Paz, Bolivia [picture here--the city is in a flat windblown area in a caldera which makes its urban form inverted: typically you might find slums in the middle of the city and tall buildings on the outskirts--though note the slums on the sides of the caldera--closer to the less desired windblown sand racing across the plain 'outside' the city], Bolivia to oppose a proposal to move the capital city from La Paz to Sucre. Five days later, tens of thousands of people gathered in Sucre to rally for the change.

The switch would be highly beneficial for Sucre, a city of 250,000 residents that lacks a major airport and other key infrastructure. Proponents of the move believe that because Sucre is near the country’s geographic centre, the city is better positioned to promote unity. Yet many Bolivians view the proposal as a scheme of the lowland provinces to take control of the country. Critics are concerned that changing capitals would cost billions of dollars and would only benefit the more affluent population in eastern Bolivia. The Bolivian judiciary is located in Sucre, but the larger legislative and executive branches of government are based in La Paz. The two cities have sustained a rivalry since 1898, when the administrative capital was moved from Sucre to La Paz.

---
http://www.focal.ca/pdf/focalpoint_sep_2007.pdf

[The other link:
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The Columbus Interim: 500 Years Later, the First Indigenous Government Attempts to Reinvent the State; Bolivia & Pres. Evo Morales' Ormolu Chairs
http://biostate.blogspot.com/2006/04/columbus-interim-500-years-later-first.html

Two quotes for contrast:

For a man who rose to prominence as a union leader [and their soccer organizer], and to office on the back of [indigenous] social movements with mainly economic grievances, economic policy has hardly figured in the first 60 days. Instead, he has used the parliamentary majority that came with his 54% landslide to push through a law convoking a Constituent Assembly, and allowing regional referendums on autonomy.

"In last year's election we only captured government - with the Constituent Assembly we want to capture political power."

Meanwhile:

President Bush came into office declaring that Latin America was a priority. That's hardly surprising. It's been a priority for every American president since James Monroe in 1823 whose "Monroe Doctrine" told European nations to keep out of Latin American affairs. In pursuit of American interests, the US has overthrown or undermined around 40 Latin American governments in the 20th Century.

A bit on his soccer background:

Juan Evo Morales Ayma
Evo Morales
80th President of Bolivia
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 22, 2006
Born October 26, 1959 (1959-10-26) (age 47)
Isallavi, Orinoca, Oruro
Nationality Bolivian
Political party Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)
Spouse single

Juan Evo Morales Ayma (born October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro), popularly known as Evo (IPA: [ˈeβ̞o]), is the President of Bolivia, and has been declared the country's first indigenous head of state since the Spanish Conquest over 470 years ago.[1][2][3][4] This claim has created controversy,[5] however, due to the number of mestizo presidents who came before him.[6]

Morales is the leader of Bolivia's cocalero movement – a loose federation of coca leaf-growing campesinos who are resisting the efforts of the United States government to eradicate coca in the province of Chapare in southeastern Bolivia. Morales is also leader of the Movement for Socialism political party (Movimiento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym MAS, meaning "more"), which was involved in the recent Gas Wars, along with many other groups, commonly referred to as 'social movements'.

From Soccer to Presidency:

Like many Bolivians[8][9][10], his parents, while Catholic, worshipped the native earth goddess Pachamama, often with offerings of coca leaves and alcohol.[7] At the age of 12, he accompanied his father in herding llamas from Oruro to the province of Independencia in Cochabamba.[7]

When he was 14, Morales showed his organizational skills by forming a football soccer] team with other youths; he continued herding llamas to pay the bills.[11] At the age of 16, the three ayllus (network of families) within the community elected him technical director of selection for the canton's team.[11] That same year, in order to attend high school, he moved to Oruro. There he worked as a bricklayer, a baker, and a trumpet player for the Royal Imperial Band (which allowed him to travel across Bolivia).[11][1][12] Because of a lack of money, he dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and fulfilled his mandatory military service in La Paz.[11][13]

...

In 1981, he was made the head of his local [union's] soccer organization; after his father's death in 1983, he was forced to give up that position in order to concentrate on managing his family's farm.[14]

Union activity

By 1985 Morales was elected general secretary in his union of coca farmers and by 1988 was elected executive secretary of the Tropics Federation.[14] Around this time the Bolivian government encouraged by the USA began a program to eradicate most coca production (see below). By 1996 Morales was made president of the Coordinating Committee of the Six Federations of the Tropics of Cochabamba.[14] Evo was among those opposing the governments position on coca and lobbied for a different policy. This opposition often resulted in him being jailed and in an incident in 1989, beaten near to death by UMOPAR forces (who, assuming he had been slain, dumped his unconscious body in the bushes where it was discovered by his supporters).[14]

Morales soon led a 600 kilometer march from Cochabamba to the capital of La Paz.

While they were often attacked by law enforcement, they managed to proceed by sneaking around their control posts.[14] They were often greeted by supporters who gave the marchers drink, food, clothes and shoes.

They were greeted with cheers by the citizens of La Paz and the government was forced to negotiate an accord with them.[14]

After the marchers returned home, the government reneged on the deal and sent forces to harass them.[14] Morales claims that during this time in 1997 a United States Drug Enforcement Agency helicopter strafed farmers with automatic rifle fire killing five of his supporters.[14] He also claims he was grazed by assassins' bullets in Villa Tunari in 2000.[14] His actions gained international attention, and while some claim he was nominated as a 'Drugs Pacifist' for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, this cannot be determined because Nobel nominations are secret. He was recognized in 1996 by an international coalition against the “War on Drugs”.[14]

Morales then found an audience in Europe for his positions and traveled there to gain support and to educate people on the differences between coca leaves and cocaine.[14]

In a speech on this issue, he told reporters “I am not a drug trafficker. I am a coca grower. I cultivate coca leaf, which is a natural product. I do not refine (it into) cocaine, and neither cocaine nor drugs have ever been part of the Andean culture.”[1]

1995 election, formation of MAS

On March 27th, 1995, Morales was among a united organization of farmers, colonizers and indigenous people who founded the Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Common People (ASP) and the Political Tool for the Sovereignty of the Common People (IPSP). [15] Morales and others decided to run for political office in Bolivia under this party. Since the National Electoral Court did not recognize the new organization they were forced to run under the banner of the United Left (IU), “a coalition of leftist parties that was headed by the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB).”[15]

On June 1st, 1997, Morales (who carried 70% of the votes) was one of four IU candidates that won a seat in Parliament.

The area he represented included the provinces of Chapare and Carrasco and Morales received the most votes of any candidate in Bolivia.[15]

Facing continual legal problems because the Bolivian Supreme Court continued to refuse to recognize IPSP, [13] for the local elections of December 5th, 1999 Morales came to an agreement with the leader of MAS-U, David Añez Pedraza, to assume the acronym, name and colors of that inactive organization.

So the IPSP became the Movimiento al Socialismo or Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).[15] The MAS is described as "an indigenous-based political party that calls for the nationalization of industry, legalization of the coca leaf...and fairer distribution of national resources."[16]

---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales

Opening Thread: Post your Blog Entries as Comments to my Main Post Each Week

Post Comments like this:

1. Your Name
2. A Title
3. A short personal commentary what you learned from it or what made you curious about it given the week's class content. However, it doesn't have to be about the week's content, only something related to Latin America.
4. Then put a long line ('-------------------)'.
5. Then cut/paste the article or topic you found.
6. Then a small line '---'.
7. Then, finally, paste the URL (link) of the post.

Post for this week on this thread. I'll set up a new main post each week, and then we will do the same.