1940 19601950

898

Latin America1945–Present

Key EventsAs you read this chapter, look for the key events in the history of Latin

American nations.• Many Latin American nations have experienced severe economic problems, and their

governments have been led by military dictators.• Successful Marxist revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua fed fears in the United States

about the spread of communism in the Americas.

The Impact TodayThe events that occurred during this time period still impact our lives today.

• Latin American influence in the United States can be seen in art, music, literature, and foods.

• Rapid and unplanned industrial development in some Latin American countries has led to heightened concern about the environment.

World History Video The Chapter 29 video, “The Cuban Revolution,”chronicles the causes and effects of Castro’s revolution in Cuba.

1948Organizationof AmericanStates formed

1946Juan Perónestablishesauthoritarianregime inArgentina

1952Juan Perónelected tosecond termas president ofArgentina

1959Fidel Castroseizes powerin Cuba

1961 Bay of Pigsinvasion fails

1962 Cuban missile crisisresolved

898

Juan Perón

899

Sugarloaf Mountain overlooks Rio de Janeiro, one of Brazil’s most populous cities.

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the Glencoe WorldHistory Web site at

and click on Chapter 29–ChapterOverview to preview chapter information.

wh.glencoe.com

Art or Photo here

1970 19901980 2000

1967Ché Guevaradies in Bolivia

1989United Statesinvades Panama

1990Violeta Barrios deChamorro electedpresident of Nicaragua

2000Vicente Foxbecomespresident ofMexico

Arrest of Panamanianleader Manuel Noriega

Ché Guevara

900

The Castro Brothersn July 26, 1953, two brothers, Fidel and Raúl Castro, leda band of 165 young people in an attack on the Moncada

army camp at Santiago deCuba. While a law student at the University of Havana,Fidel Castro had become arevolutionary. He was deter-mined to overthrow the gov-ernment of Fulgencio Batista,the dictator of Cuba.

The attack on Moncada, however, was a disaster. Many ofthe troops led by the Castro brothers were killed, wounded,or arrested. Fidel and Raúl Castro escaped but were later captured and sentenced to prison for 15 years.

The Castro brothers could easily have died in prison, wherepolitical prisoners were routinely tortured. Instead, they werereleased after 11 months. By freeing political prisoners, Batistahoped to win the favor of the Cuban people.

He certainly did not gain the favor of the Castros. After hisrelease, Fidel Castro fled to Mexico and built a new revolu-tionary army. Six years later, on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castroand his forces finally seized control of Cuba. Hundreds ofthousands of Cubans swept into the streets, overcome withjoy. One person remarked, “We were walking on a cloud.” To the many Latin Americans who wanted major social and economic changes, Castro soon became a source of hope.

O

Caribbean Sea

Gul f o fMexico

CUBA

MEXICO

Florida

Santiago de Cuba

Havana

A victorious Fidel Castro rides through the streets of Havana in 1959.

Why It MattersSince 1945, the nations of LatinAmerica have followed differentpaths of change. In some countriesmilitary dictators have maintainedpolitical stability and initiated eco-nomic changes. A few nations, likeCuba, have used Marxist revolutionsto create a new political, economic,and social order. Many Latin Ameri-can nations have struggled to builddemocratic systems, especially sincethe late 1980s. The Cold War hasalso had an impact on Latin America.

History and You As you readthis chapter, document the strugglebetween democracy and dictator-ship in the Latin American states.Make a chart or diagram comparingthe different states, their leadership,and reasons why the regimes wereable to gain power.

Guide to Reading

General Trends in Latin America

Preview of Events

One Latin American observer discussed the United States’s invasion of Panama in1989 in the following words:

“The first official [U.S.] reason for the invasion of Panama was ‘to protect Americanlives there.’ This pretext was not credible, for the cry of ‘wolf! wolf!’ has been usedbefore in Latin America. . . . The danger to American lives is a hundred times greaterevery day and night in Washington, D.C., ‘the murder capital of the United States,’ andin other American cities to which President Bush has hardly applied his policy of pro-tecting North American lives and waging war against drugs (he prefers to wage thatwar on foreign battlefields).”

—Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present,Benjamin Keen, 1996

U.S. intervention in Latin American affairs has been a general trend in Latin Ameri-can history since 1945.

Economic and Political DevelopmentsSince the nineteenth century, Latin Americans had exported raw materials

while buying manufactured goods from industrialized countries. As a result of theGreat Depression, however, exports fell, and the revenues that had been used tobuy manufactured goods declined. In response, many Latin American countriesdeveloped industries to produce goods that were formerly imported.

Voices from the Past

CHAPTER 29 Latin America 901

✦1940 ✦1950 ✦1960 ✦1970 ✦1980 ✦1990

1948The Organization ofAmerican States is formed

1980A movement toward democracytakes place in Latin America

1982Gabriel García Márquez winsthe Nobel Prize for literature

1990Twenty-nine Latin Americancities have over a million people

U.S. soldiers in Panama

Main Ideas• Exporting raw materials and importing

manufactured goods has led to eco-nomic and political troubles for LatinAmerican nations.

• Many Latin American nations began tobuild democratic systems in the late1980s.

Key Termsmultinational corporation, magic realism

People to IdentifyGabriel García Márquez, Oscar Niemeyer

Places to LocateChile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia

Preview Questions1. What factors undermined the stability

of Latin American countries?2. How did the roles of women change

in Latin America after 1945?

Reading StrategyCategorizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to identify social andpolitical challenges in Latin America since1945.

SocialChallenges

PoliticalChallenges

By the 1960s, however, Latin American countrieswere still experiencing economic problems. Theywere dependent on the United States, Europe, andJapan, especially for the advanced technologyneeded for modern industries. Also, many LatinAmerican countries had failed to find marketsabroad to sell their manufactured products.

These economic failures led to instability andreliance on military regimes. In the 1960s, repressivemilitary regimes in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina abol-ished political parties and returned to export-importeconomies financed by foreigners. These regimes alsoencouraged multinational corporations (companies

with divisions in more than two countries) to come toLatin America. This made these Latin American coun-tries even more dependent on industrialized nations.

In the 1970s, Latin American nations grew moredependent as they attempted to maintain their weakeconomies by borrowing money. Between 1970 and1982, debt to foreigners grew from $27 billion to$315.3 billion. By 1982, a number of Latin Americaneconomies had begun to crumble. Wages fell, andunemployment and inflation skyrocketed.

To get new loans, Latin American governmentswere now forced to make basic reforms. During thisprocess, however, many people came to believe that

Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection1,000 kilometers

1,000 miles0

0

N

SE

W

EQUATOR

TROPIC OF CAPRICORN

TROPIC OF CANCER

80°W 70°W 60°W 50°W 40°W 30°W 20°W 10°W 0°90°W100°W110°W120°W130°W

30°N

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0°

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PERU 1958: Riots against U.S.

VENEZUELA1958: Riots against U.S.

MEXICO 1994: U.S., Mexico, and Canada enter into North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

GUATEMALA 1954: U.S. supports overthrow of Socialist government.

EL SALVADOR Late 1970s and 1980s: U.S. supports Salvadoran army against Marxist-led guerrillas in civil war. 1992: Peace settlement ends civil war.

HONDURAS 1981–1990: U.S. supports contra rebels in Nicaragua from bases in Honduras.

NICARAGUA 1979: U.S. withdraws support for corrupt Somoza family; Somozas are overthrown by Sandinistas (Marxist guerrilla forces).1981–1990: U.S. secretly aids contra rebel efforts to overthrow Sandinista government.

PANAMA 1989: U.S. invades Panama and arrests and imprisons General Noriega on charges of drug trafficking.1999: U.S relinquishes rights to Panama Canal Zone.

GRENADA 1979: U.S. ends aid as Marxist government assumes power. 1983: Extremists overthrow government; U.S. invades to restore stable government.

CUBA 1959: Castro overthrows Batista.1960: U.S. declares trade embargo upon Cuba.1961: U.S. supports attempted overthrow of Castro's government (Bay of Pigs invasion).1962: U.S. blockades Cuba during Cuban Missile Crisis.1980: Thousands of Cuban refugees enter U.S.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC1965: U.S. military forces intervene to suppress possible communist influence.

CHILE 1970: U.S. tries and fails to prevent election of Socialist President Allende.

ARGENTINA 1946: U.S. tries and fails to prevent election of President Peron.

1

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COLOMBIA

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URUGUAY

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FRENCH GUIANA Fr.

UNITED STATES

BELIZE

COSTARICA

HAITI

FALKLANDISLANDSU.K.

902 CHAPTER 29 Latin America

U.S. Involvement in Latin America since 1945

government had taken control of too many indus-tries. Trying to industrialize too quickly had led tothe decline of the economy in the countryside as well.

Many hoped that encouraging peasants to growfood for home consumption rather than exportwould stop the flow of people from the countrysideto the cities. At the same time, they believed thatmore people would now be able to buy the productsfrom Latin American industries.

With the debt crisis in the 1980s came a movementtoward democracy. Some military leaders wereunwilling to deal with the monstrous debt problems.

At the same time, many people realized that militarypower without popular consent could not maintain astrong state. By the mid-1990s, several democraticregimes had been established.

The movement toward democracy was the mostnoticable trend of the 1980s and the early 1990s inLatin America. This revival of democracy was fragile.In 1992, President Alberto Fujimori returned Peru toan authoritarian system.

Explaining Why did the debt crisisof the 1980s create a movement toward democracy?

Reading Check

903CHAPTER 29 Latin America

Year

Popu

latio

n (in

mill

ions

)

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

600

166218

286362

443

520586

645700

500

400

300

200

100

0

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Note: Populations for 2010 and 2020 are projections.

Population of Latin America,1950–2020

N

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1,000 kilometers

1,000 miles0

0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

TROPIC OF CANCER

TROPIC OF CAPRICORN

EQUATOR

70°W80°W90°W100°W110°W 60°W 50°W 40°W 30°W 20°W

40°S

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COLOMBIA

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SURINAMEGUYANA

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PERU

HONDURAS

EL SALVADORNICARAGUA

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1,000 kilometers

1,000 miles0

0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

N

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TROPIC OF CANCER

TROPIC OFCAPRICORN

70°W90°W100°W110°W 60°W 50°W 40°W 30°W 20°W

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Amazon R.

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Per Capita Income, 1960s Main Exports, 1990s

Below $200$200–$350$351–$500Above $500Informationnot available

Average annualper capita income, late 1960s:

BananasCattleCoffeeCopperFish/fishproductsManufacturedgoodsOil/petroleumproductsSugar caneTobaccoWheat

�

Main exports, 1990s:

Over the past 50 to 60 years, the United States has beenactively involved in Latin American affairs.

1. Interpreting Maps What information can you find inthe map on page 902 that supports the view that thepeople of Latin America would prefer that the UnitedStates not interfere in Latin American affairs?

2. Applying Geography Skills Create a thematic timeline based on the data presented in the map on the leftpage. Then, pose and answer a question about the pat-terns in world history shown on your time line.

3. Applying Geography Skills Create a database forLatin America that includes elements from each of themaps and the graph on pages 902 and 903. Analyzeyour data, then write one paragraph stating which LatinAmerican country you think will have the greatest popu-lation increase over the next 20 years.

International Women’s ConferencesAs women around the world organized movements

to change the conditions of their lives, an internationalwomen’s movement emerged. Especially in the 1970s,much attention was paid to a series of internationalconferences on women’s issues. Between 1975 and1985, the United Nations celebrated the Decade forWomen by holding conferences in such cities as MexicoCity, Copenhagen, and Nairobi.

The conferences made clear how women in bothindustrialized and developing nations were organizingto make people aware of women’s issues. They alsomade clear the differences between women from West-ern and non-Western countries.

Women from Westerncountries spoke aboutpolitical, economic, cul-tural, and sexual rights. Incontrast, women fromdeveloping countries in

Latin America, Africa, and Asia focused on bringing anend to the violence, hunger, and disease that haunttheir lives.

At the International Women’s Year Tribunal in Mexicoin 1974, sponsored by the United Nations, Dimitila Bar-rios de Chungara, a miner’s wife from Bolivia, expressedher lack of patience with professional women at theconference. She said, “So, I went up and spoke. I madethem see that they don’t live in our world. I made themsee that in Bolivia human rights aren’t respected. . . .Women like us, housewives, who get organized to bet-ter our people well, they [the Bolivian police] beat us upand persecute us.”

Latin American SocietyLatin America’s economic problems were made

worse by dramatic growth in population. By the mid-1980s, the population in Latin America had grownfrom about 165 million people in 1950 to 400 million.

With the increase in population came a rapid risein the size of cities. By 1990, 29 Latin American citieshad over a million people. Slums, or shantytowns,became part of many of these cities.

The gap between the poor and the rich remainedenormous in Latin America. Landholding and urbanelites owned huge estates and businesses, while peas-ants and the urban poor struggled just to survive.

The traditional role of homemaker continues forwomen, who have also moved into new jobs. In addi-tion to farm labor, women have found jobs in indus-try, and as teachers, professors, doctors, and lawyers.

The international drug trade brought crime and cor-ruption to some Latin American countries, undermin-ing their stability. Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia wereespecially big producers of cocaine and marijuana.

Evaluating Describe the effect(s) of Latin America’s dramatic increase in population.

Reading Check

� Latin American mother with children

The United States and Latin America

The United States has always played a large role inLatin America. For years, the United States had senttroops into Latin American countries to protect U.S.interests and bolster friendly dictators.

In 1948, the states of the Western Hemisphereformed the Organization of American States (OAS),which called for an end to military action by one statein the affairs of any other state. The formation of theOAS, however, did not end U.S. involvement in LatinAmerican affairs.

As the Cold War developed, so, too, did the anxi-ety of American policy makers about the possibilityof Communist regimes in Latin America. As a result,the United States returned to a policy of taking actionwhen it believed that Soviet agents were trying toestablish Communist governments or governmentshostile to United States interests. The United Statesalso provided massive amounts of military aid toanti-Communist regimes.

Examining How did the Cold Warimpact United States policy in Latin America?

Reading Check

Women from industrialized and developing nationsfocus on very different issues.1. Which concerns of women are most important?2. Do you think women’s conferences are needed?

What purposes might conferences serve otherthan raising issues?

Latin American CultureWriters and artists have played important roles

in Latin American society. They have been given a public status granted to very few writers and artistsin other countries. In Latin America, writers andartists are seen as people who can express the hopesof the people. One celebrated Latin American writeris the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral.

In literature, Latin Americans developed a uniqueform of expression called magic realism. Magic real-ism brings together realistic events with dreamlike orfantastic backgrounds.

Perhaps the foremost example of magic realism isOne Hundred Years of Solitude, a novel by Gabriel Gar-cía Márquez. In this story of the fictional town ofMacondo, the point of view slips back and forthbetween fact and fantasy. Villagers are not surprisedwhen a local priest rises into the air and floats. How-ever, when these villagers are introduced to magnets,telescopes, and magnifying glasses, they are dumb-founded by what they see as magic. According toGarcía Márquez, fantasy and fact depend on one’spoint of view.

García Márquez, a Colombian, was the mostfamous of the Latin American novelists. He was aformer journalist who took up writing when hebecame angered by the negative reviews Latin Amer-ican authors were receiving. He was awarded theNobel Prize for literature in 1982.

905CHAPTER 29 Latin America

9. Descriptive Writing A uniquelyLatin American literary form is magicrealism, which combines realisticevents with elements of magic andfantasy. Research further the ele-ments of magic realism and thenwrite a short story about a real orimagined event, using that style.

Checking for Understanding1. Define multinational corporation,

magic realism.

2. Identify Organization of AmericanStates (OAS), Gabriel García Márquez,Oscar Niemeyer.

3. Locate Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru,Colombia.

4. Explain how the Great Depression hurtLatin American economies. Have theseeconomies recovered from the prob-lems caused by the Great Depression?

5. List two well-known Latin Americanwriters. Why are writers and artists heldin such high regard in Latin America?

Critical Thinking6. Analyze Why did the rapid rate of

population growth in many Latin Amer-ican countries cause problems for theirpolitical and economic systems?

7. Organizing Information Draw a chartlike the one below to list economicchallenges in Latin America since 1945.On your chart, use dates and names ofcountries from the text to make eachentry as specific as possible.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photograph of a Latin

American mother with her childrenshown on page 904 of the text. Howdoes this photograph reflect the con-cerns faced by many Latin Americanwomen?

Gabriela Mistral1889–1957—Chilean poet

Gabriela Mistral, whose real namewas Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, was apoet and educator. She was trainedto be a teacher and became the direc-tor of a school for girls in Santiago,Chile. In 1922, she was invited by theMexican government to introduce educationalprograms for the poor in that country. Later, she took upresidence in the United States and taught at Middleburyand Barnard Colleges.

In 1945, she became the first Latin American authorto win the Nobel Prize for literature. Her poems exploredthe many dimensions of love, tinged with an element ofsadness.

Economic Challenges

Latin American art and architecture were stronglyinfluenced by international styles after World War II.In painting, abstract styles were especially important.Perhaps the most notable example of modern archi-tecture can be seen in Brasília, the capital city ofBrazil, built in the 1950s and 1960s. Latin America’sgreatest modern architect, Oscar Niemeyer, designedsome of the major buildings in Brasília.

Identifying What novel is the fore-most example of magic realism?

Reading Check

Guide to Reading

Mexico, Cuba, andCentral America

Preview of Events

Nancy Donovan, a Catholic missionary in Nicaragua, described her encounter withthe military forces known as the contras:

“It is not easy to live in a war zone. The least of it was my being kidnapped by con-tras early this year. The hard part is seeing people die and consoling families. . . . Inthose eight hours I was held, as I walked in a column of 60 or so men and a fewwomen—all in uniform—I could hear shooting and realized that people I knew werebeing killed. Earlier I had seen bodies brought back to town, some burned, some cut topieces.”

—Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present,Benjamin Keen, 1996

Financed by the United States, the contras were trying to overthrow the Sandinistarulers of Nicaragua in one of several bloody wars fought in Central America.

The Mexican WayThe Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century created a

political order that remained stable for many years. The official political party ofthe Mexican Revolution—the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI—came todominate Mexico. Every six years, leaders of the PRI chose the party’s presiden-tial candidate, who was then elected by the people.

Voices from the Past

906 CHAPTER 29 Latin America

✦1950 ✦1960 ✦1970 ✦1980 ✦1990 ✦2000

1959Castro’s revolution-aries seize Havana

1961United States breaks diplo-matic relations with Cuba

1979The Sandinistas overthrowSomoza rule in Nicaragua

1983Noriega takes control of Panama

2000Vicente Fox defeats the PRI candi-date for the presidency of Mexico

Contra soldiers

Main Ideas• Mexico and Central America faced polit-

ical and economic crises after WorldWar II.

• The United States feared the spread ofcommunism in Central American coun-tries, which led to active Americaninvolvement in the region.

Key Termsprivatization, trade embargo, contra

People to IdentifyVicente Fox, Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega

Places to LocateHavana, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama

Preview Questions1. What problems did Mexico and the

nations of Central America face after1945?

2. What were the chief features andimpact of the Cuban Revolution?

Reading StrategyCategorizing Information Use a tablelike the one below to identify the politicaland economic challenges faced by El Sal-vador, Nicaragua, and Panama after1945.

El Salvador Nicaragua Panama

During the 1950s and 1960s, steady economicgrowth led to real gains in wages for more and morepeople in Mexico. At the end of the 1960s, however,students began to protest Mexico’s one-party gov-ernment system. On October 2, 1968, university stu-dents gathered in Mexico City to protest governmentpolicies. Police forces opened fire and killed hun-dreds. Leaders of the PRI grew concerned about theneed for change in the system.

The next two presidents, Luís Echeverría and JoséLópez Portillo, made political reforms and openedthe door to the emergence of new political parties.Greater freedom of debate in the press and universi-ties was allowed. Economic problems, however,would soon reappear.

In the late 1970s, vast new reserves of oil were dis-covered in Mexico. The sale of oil abroad increaseddramatically, and the government became moredependent on oil revenues. When world oil pricesdropped in the mid-1980s, Mexico was no longer ableto make payments on its foreign debt. The govern-ment was forced to adopt new economic policies.One of these policies was privatization, the sale ofgovernment-owned companies to private firms.

The debt crisis and rising unemploymentincreased dissatisfaction with the government. Sup-port for the PRI dropped, and in 2000, Vicente Foxdefeated the PRI candidate for the presidency.

Evaluating How was Mexico’s econ-omy affected by its oil industry?

The Cuban RevolutionAs you will learn, the Bay of Pigs

invasion was an attempt by the United States to moveforcefully against Fidel Castro and the threat of com-munism that he represented.In the 1950s, a strong opposition movement arose

in Cuba. Led by Fidel Castro, the movement aimedto overthrow the government of the dictator Fulgen-cio Batista, who had controlled Cuba since 1934. Cas-tro’s army used guerrilla warfare against Batista’sregime. As the rebels gained more support, theregime collapsed. Castro’s revolutionaries seizedHavana on January 1, 1959. Many Cubans who dis-agreed with Castro fled to the United States.

Relations between Cuba and the United Statesquickly deteriorated when the Castro regime beganto receive aid from the Soviet Union. Arms from East-ern Europe also began to arrive in Cuba. In October1960, the United States declared a trade embargo,

Reading Check

prohibiting trade withCuba, and just threemonths later, on January 3,1961, broke all diplomaticrelations with Cuba.

Soon after that, in April1961, the American presi-dent, John F. Kennedy,supported an attempt tooverthrow Castro’s gov-ernment. When the inva-sion at the Bay of Pigsfailed, the Soviets were encouraged to make an evengreater commitment to Cuba. In December 1961, Cas-tro declared himself a Marxist, drawing ever closer tothe Soviet Union. The Soviets began placing nuclearmissiles in Cuba in 1962, an act that led to a show-down with the United States (see Chapter 27).

The Cuban missile crisis caused Castro to realizethat the Soviet Union had been unreliable. If the rev-olutionary movement in Cuba was to survive, theCubans would have to start a social revolution in therest of Latin America. They would do this by startingguerrilla wars and encouraging peasants to over-throw the old regimes. Ernesto Ché Guevara, anArgentinian and an ally of Castro, led such a war in

907CHAPTER 29 Latin America

A Cuban refugee is carried ashore by a U.S. Marinein 1975. Over the past few decades, thousands ofCuban refugees have entered the United States.In what year did the United States break diplomatic relations with Cuba?

History

HISTORY

Web Activity Visitthe Glencoe WorldHistory Web site at

andclick on Chapter 29–Student Web Activity to learn more aboutFidel Castro.

wh.glencoe.com

908 CHAPTER 29 Latin America

MilitaryRegime

CivilianRule

1955: MilitaryoverthrowsPerón.1973: Perónis reelected.1976: Militarytakes overagain.

1964: Militaryseizes control.1982: Severerecessionundermines military control.

1985:Free electionsheld.1989: 80 millionBrazilians vote.1999: Military putunder civilian control.

1973: Military,under Pinochet,overthrowsMarxist Allendeand establishesregime.

1989: Pinochetis overthrownin freeelections.2000: Socialist Ricardo Lagos Escobar elected president.

1990:Sandinistaslose freeelections butremainstrongest party.1996: Elections resultin peacefultransfer ofpower.

1972: Militaryprevents freeelections.1979: Militarytakes over.

1979:Sandinistas(Marxistguerrilla forces)bring downdictatorshipof Somozafamily.

1989:U.S. troops arrest Noriega; democracyreturns.1999: Female, Mireya Moscosode Gruber, electedpresident.

1983: NationalGuard, underNoriega, seizescontrol.1989: Norieganullifies electionresults.

1980: Civilianrule returns.1990–2000:Fujimori isdictatorialpresident.2001: Toledowins freeelections.

1968: Military,under Alvarado,takes over.1975: MilitaryremovesAlvarado.

1984:ModerateDuarte iselected but civilwar continues.1992: Peacesettlement endscivil war.

Argentina Brazil Chile El Salvador Nicaragua Panama Peru

1983: Civilianrule returns;Alfonsín iselected.1994: Constitution is reformed.

Government Reforms in Latin America

Many Latin American countries have had problems maintaining stable governments.

1. Problem Solving Use a problem-solving process and the information in this chapter to list options and choose possible solutions to suggest how these countries might avoid takeovers bymilitary regimes in the future.

Bolivia but was killed by the Bolivian army in the fallof 1967. The Cuban strategy failed.

Nevertheless, in Cuba, Castro’s Marxist regimecontinued, but with mixed results. The Cuban peopledid secure some social gains. The regime providedfree medical services for all citizens, and illiteracywas nearly eliminated.

The Cuban economy continued to rely on the pro-duction and sale of sugar. Economic problems forcedthe Castro regime to depend on Soviet aid and thepurchase of Cuban sugar by Soviet bloc countries.After the collapse of these Communist regimes in1989, Cuba lost their support. Economic conditions inCuba have steadily declined. Nevertheless, Castrohas managed to remain in power.

Describing How was Castro’s Cubaaffected by the collapse of Communist governments in EasternEurope?

Upheaval in Central AmericaCentral America includes seven countries: Costa

Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama,

Reading Check

Belize, and Guatemala. Economically, Central Amer-ica has depended on the export of bananas, coffee,and cotton. Prices for these products have variedover time, however, creating economic crises. Inaddition, an enormous gulf between a wealthy eliteand poor peasants has created a climate of instability.

Fear in the United States of the spread of commu-nism often led to American support for repressiveregimes in the area. American involvement was espe-cially evident in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama.

El Salvador After World War II, the wealthy eliteand the military controlled the government in El Sal-vador. The rise of an urban middle class led to somehopes for a more democratic government. The army,however, refused to allow free elections that wereplanned for 1972.

In the late 1970s and the 1980s, El Salvador wasrocked by a bitter civil war. Marxist-led, leftist guer-rillas and right-wing groups battled one another.During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the UnitedStates provided weapons and training to the Sal-vadoran army to defeat the guerrillas.

In 1984, a moderate, José Duarte, was elected pres-ident. However, the elections failed to stop the sav-age killing. By the early 1990s, the civil war had ledto the deaths of at least 75,000 people. Finally, in 1992,a peace settlement brought the war to an end.

Nicaragua In Nicaragua, the Somoza family seizedcontrol of the government in 1937 and kept control forthe next 42 years. Over most of this period, the Somoza

regime had the support of the United States. TheSomozas enriched themselves at the nation’s expenseand used murder and torture to silence opposition.

By 1979, the United States, under President JimmyCarter, had grown unwilling to support the corruptregime. In that same year, Marxist guerrilla forcesknown as the Sandinista National Liberation Frontwon a number of military victories against govern-ment forces and gained virtual control of the country.

The Sandinistas inherited a poverty-stricken nation.Soon, a group opposed to the Sandinistas’ policies,called the contras, began to try to overthrow the newgovernment. The Reagan and Bush administrations inthe United States, worried by the Sandinistas’ align-ment with the Soviet Union, supported the contras.

The war waged by the contras undermined sup-port for the Sandinistas. In 1990, the Sandinistasagreed to free elections, and they lost to a coalitionheaded by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. They lostagain in 2001 but remained one of the strongest par-ties in Nicaragua.

Panama Panama became a nation in 1903, when itbroke away from Colombia with help from the UnitedStates. In return for this aid, the United States gainedcontrol of the Panama Canal and extensive influenceover the government and economy of Panama. Awealthy oligarchy ruled, with American support.

After 1968, power in Panama came into the handsof the military leaders of Panama’s National Guard.One such leader was Manuel Noriega, who tookcontrol of Panama in 1983.

At first, Noriega was supported by the UnitedStates. His brutality and involvement with the drugtrade, however, turned American leaders againsthim. In 1989, President George Bush sent U.S. troopsto Panama. Noriega was arrested and sent to prisonin the United States on charges of drug trafficking.

Summarizing What factors led toconflicts in Central America from the 1970s to the 1990s?

Reading Check

909CHAPTER 29 Latin America

Checking for Understanding1. Define privatization, trade embargo,

contra.

2. Identify Vicente Fox, Fidel Castro,Manuel Noriega.

3. Locate Havana, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador.

4. Explain why the Cubans attempted tospur revolution in the rest of LatinAmerica.

5. List the political reforms enacted byMexican presidents Luís Echeverría and José López Portillo.

Critical Thinking6. Evaluate Why did relations between

the Soviet Union and Cuba becomemore difficult after 1962?

7. Cause and Effect Use a chart like theone below to show how Mexico hasreacted to political and economic crisessince World War II.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photo of Castro on page

900 and the photo of a Cuban refugeeon page 907. What inferences can youdraw about Castro’s reign in Cuba fromlooking at these photos?

Crisis Reaction

Rigoberta Menchú 1959– Guatemalan activist

Rigoberta Menchú is a reformerwho worked to save her fellowQuiché Indians from the murdersquads of the Guatemalan govern-ment. She grew up in a poor family.Her father helped organize a peasantmovement, but he and other family memberswere killed by government troops.

Rigoberta Menchú then began to play an active rolein her father’s movement. Condemned by theGuatemalan government, she fled to Mexico. Her auto-biography, I . . . Rigoberta Menchú, brought world atten-tion to the fact that 150,000 Native Americans had beenkilled by the Guatemalan authorities. In 1992, shereceived the Nobel Peace Prize and used the moneyfrom the award to set up a foundation to help NativeAmericans.

9. Persuasive Writing The UnitedStates has increasingly tried to nego-tiate conflicts using economic toolsrather than military force. Researchthe trade embargo imposed uponCuba. Write a persuasive argumentfor or against this embargo.

910

Student Revolt in MexicoA GROWING CONFLICT BETWEEN THEgovernment and university students in Mexicocame to a violent climax on October 2, 1968, justbefore the Olympic Games were tobegin in Mexico City. The official government report said that Mexicanauthorities were fired upon, and theyreturned the gunfire. This excerpt istaken from an account of the events bythe student National Strike Council.

“ After an hour and a half of a peaceful meetingattended by 10,000 people and witnessed by scoresof domestic and foreign reporters, a helicopter gavethe army the signal to attack by dropping flares into the crowd. Simultaneously, the plaza was sur-rounded and attacked by members of the army andpolice forces.

The local papers have given the following infor-mation, confirmed by firsthand witnesses, about the attack:

1. Numerous secret policemen had infiltrated themeeting in order to attack it from within, withorders to kill. They were known to each other by the use of a white handkerchief tied aroundtheir right hands. . . .

2. High-caliber weapons and expansion bulletswere used. Seven hours after the massacrebegan, tanks cleaned up the residential build-ings of Nonoalco-Tlatelolco with short cannonblasts and machine-gun fire.

3. On the morning of October 3, the apartments of supposedly guilty individuals were still beingsearched, without a search warrant.

4. Doctors in the emergency wards of the city hos-pitals were under extreme pressure, being forcedto forego attention to the victims until they hadbeen interrogated and placed under guard. . . .

5. The results of this brutal military operationinclude hundreds of dead (including womenand children), thousands of wounded, anunwarranted search of all the apartments in

the area, and thousands of violent arrests. . . . Itshould be added that members of the NationalStrike Council who were captured were strippedand herded into a small archaeological excava-tion at Tlatelolco, converted for the momentinto a dungeon. Some of them were put upagainst a wall and shot.

All this has occurred only ten days before thestart of the Olympics. The repression is expected tobecome even greater after the Games. . . .

We are not against the Olympic Games. Welcometo Mexico.”

—Account of the Clash Between the Govern-ment and Students in Mexico, October 2, 1968

Student demonstrators in Mexico City

MexicoCityPACIFIC

OCEAN

Gulf ofMexico

MEXICO

UNITED STATES

Analyzing Primary Sources

1. What was the reason for the military attack on the students?

2. Why do you think the government reacted with such violence?

3. Do you think the government handled the situation well? Why or why not?

1946Juan Perón is electedpresident of Argentina

1982Argentina sends troopsto the Falkland Islands

Guide to Reading

The Nations of South America

Preview of Events

1973Military forces overthrowAllende presidency in Chile

2001Alejandro Toledo iselected president of Peru

✦1945 ✦1955 ✦1965 ✦1975 ✦1985 ✦1995 ✦2005

In 1974, a group of Brazilian Catholic priests talked about an economic miracle thathad taken place in Brazil:

“Beginning in 1968, Brazil’s gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of about10 [percent]. . . . The consequences of this ‘miracle’ were the impoverishment of theBrazilian people. Between 1960 and 1970 the 20 [percent] of the population with thehighest income increased its share of the national income from 54.5 [percent] to 64.1[percent], while the remaining 80 [percent] saw its share reduced from 45.5 [percent]to 36.8 [percent]. . . . In the same period the 1 [percent] of the population that repre-sents the richest group increased its share of the national income from 11.7 [percent]to 17 [percent].”

—Latin American Civilization: History and Society, 1492 to the Present,Benjamin Keen, 1996

The countries of South America shared in the economic, political, and social prob-lems that plagued Latin America after 1945. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, andPeru provide examples of these problems.

ArgentinaArgentina is Latin America’s second largest country. For years, it had been

ruled by a powerful oligarchy whose wealth was based on growing wheat and

Voices from the Past

CHAPTER 29 Latin America 911

Brazilian city, 1971

Main Ideas• South American nations have experi-

enced economic, social, and politicalproblems.

• Democracy has advanced in SouthAmerica since the late 1980s.

Key Termscooperative, Shining Path

People to IdentifyJuan Perón, Salvador Allende, AugustoPinochet, Juan Velasco Alvarado

Places to LocateArgentina, Falkland Islands

Preview Questions1. What obstacles does the new demo-

cratic government in Brazil face?2. What factors have been the greatest

causes of South American instability?

Reading StrategyCategorizing Information Use a tablelike the one below to describe the factorsleading to the change from military ruleto civilian rule in Argentina, Brazil, andChile.

Argentina Brazil Chile

raising cattle. Support from the army was crucial tothe continuing power of the oligarchy.

In 1943, in the midst of World War II, a group ofarmy officers overthrew the oligarchy. The new mili-tary regime was unsure of how to deal with theworking classes until one of its members, JuanPerón, devised a new strategy.

Using his position as labor secretary in the mili-tary government, Perón sought to win over the work-ers, known as the descamisados (the shirtless ones).He encouraged them to join labor unions. He alsoincreased job benefits, as well as the number of paidholidays and vacations.

In 1944, Perón became vice president of the mili-tary government and made sure that people knew hewas responsible for the better conditions for workers.As Perón grew more popular, however, other armyofficers began to fear his power, and they arrestedhim. An uprising by workers forced the officers toback down.

Perón was elected president of Argentina in 1946.His chief support came from labor and the urbanmiddle class, and to please them, he followed a pol-icy of increased industrialization. At the same time,he sought to free Argentina from foreign investors.The government bought the railways and took overthe banking, insurance, shipping, and communica-tions industries.

Perón’s regime was authoritarian. He created Fascist gangs modeled after Hitler’s Brownshirts.The gangs used violent means to terrify Perón’sopponents.

Fearing Perón’s power, the military overthrewthe Argentinian leader in September 1955. Perónwent into exile in Spain. Overwhelmed by prob-lems, however, military leaders later allowed Perónto return. He was reelected as president in 1973 butdied a year later.

In 1976, the military once again took over power.The new regime tolerated no opposition. Perhaps36,000 people were killed.

At the same time, economicproblems plagued the nation.To divert people’s attention,the military regime invadedthe Falkland Islands, off thecoast of Argentina, in April1982. Great Britain, which hadcontrolled the islands since thenineteenth century, sent shipsand troops and took theislands back. The loss discred-ited the military and opened the door to civilian rulein Argentina.

In 1983, Raúl Alfonsín was elected president andworked to restore democratic practices. The Peró-nist Carlos Saúl Menem won the presidential elec-tions of 1989. This peaceful transfer of power gaverise to the hope that Argentina was moving on ademocratic path.

Explaining How did Juan Perón freeArgentina from foreign investors?

BrazilLike other Latin American countries, Brazil expe-

rienced severe economic problems following WorldWar II. When democratically elected governmentsproved unable to solve these problems, the militarystepped in and seized control in 1964.

The armed forces remained in direct control of thecountry for the next 20 years. The military set a neweconomic direction, reducing government interfer-ence in the economy and stressing free market forces.Beginning in 1968, the new policies seemed to beworking. Brazil experienced an “economic miracle”as its economy grew spectacularly.

Ordinary Brazilians benefited little from this eco-nomic growth, however. The gulf between rich andpoor, which had always been wide, grew even wider.

Reading CheckEva Perón1919–1952—Argentine first lady

Eva Perón, known as Evita to herfollowers, was the first lady ofArgentina from 1946 to 1952. Raisedin poverty, Eva dreamed of being anactress. At 15, she moved to BuenosAires, Argentina’s largest city, where sheeventually gained fame as a radio performer.

Eva met Juan Perón in 1944 and became his wife ayear later. She was an important force in her husband’srise to power. Together, they courted the working-classpoor with promises of higher wages and better workingconditions. As first lady, Eva Perón formed a charitableorganization that built hospitals, schools, and orphan-ages. She campaigned for women’s rights. The massesadored her. To this day, monuments and street names inArgentina keep her memory alive. The American musicaland movie Evita are based on her life.

912 CHAPTER 29 Latin America

ATLANTICOCEAN

PACIFICOCEAN

ARGENTINAFalklandIslands

U.K.

SOUTHAMERICA

Buenos Aires

Furthermore, rapid development led to an inflationrate of 100 percent a year. Overwhelmed, the gener-als retreated and opened the door for a return todemocracy in 1985.

The new democratic government faced enormousobstacles—a massive foreign debt, increasinglysevere inflation (it was 800 percent in 1987), and alack of social unity. In the 1990s, however, a series ofdemocratically elected presidents managed to restoresome stability to Brazil’s economy.

Evaluating What factors led to thereturn to democracy in Brazil in 1985?

ChileIn elections held in 1970, Salvador Allende

(ah•YEHN•day), a Marxist, became president ofChile. Allende tried to create a socialist society byconstitutional means. He increased the wages ofindustrial workers and nationalized the largestdomestic and foreign-owned corporations.

Allende’s policies were not popular with every-one. Nationalization of the copper industry, Chile’smajor source of export income, angered the coppercompanies’ American owners, as well as the Ameri-can government. Wealthy landholders were angrywhen radical workers began to take control of theirestates and the government did nothing to stop thesetakeovers.

In March 1973, new elections increased the num-ber of Allende’s supporters in the Chilean congress.Afraid of Allende’s growing strength, the Chileanarmy, under the direction of General AugustoPinochet (PEE•noh•CHEHT), moved to overthrowthe government. In September 1973, military forcesseized the presidential palace and shot Allende. Themilitary then set up a dictatorship.

The Pinochet regime was one of the most brutal inChile’s history. Thousands of opponents were impris-oned. Thousands more were tortured and murdered.The regime also outlawed all political parties and didaway with the congress. While some estates andindustries were returned to their owners, the copperindustries remained in government hands.

The regime’s horrible abuses of human rights ledto growing unrest in the mid-1980s. In 1989, freepresidential elections led to the defeat of Pinochet,and Chile moved toward a more democratic system.

Explaining Why did the armedforces of Chile overthrow the government of Salvador Allendein 1973?

Reading Check

Reading Check

PeruThe history of Peru has been marked by instabil-

ity. Peru’s dependence on the sale abroad of its prod-ucts has led to extreme ups and downs in theeconomy. With these ups and downs have comemany government changes. A large, poor, and land-less peasant population has created an additionalsource of unrest.

A military takeover in 1968 led to some change.General Juan Velasco Alvarado sought to help thepeasants. His government seized almost 75 percent ofthe nation’s large landed estates and put ownershipof the land into the hands of peasant cooperatives(farm organizations owned by and operated for thepeasants’ benefit). The government also nationalizedmany foreign-owned companies and held food pricesat low levels to help urban workers.

Economic problems continued, however, andPeruvian military leaders removed General Alvaradofrom power in 1975. Five years later, unable to copewith Peru’s economic problems, the militaryreturned Peru to civilian rule.

New problems made the task of the civilian gov-ernment even more difficult. A radical guerrillagroup with ties to Communist China, known asShining Path, killed mayors, missionaries, priests,and peasants. The goal of Shining Path was to smashall authority and create a classless society.

913CHAPTER 29 Latin America

Salvador Allende had lost the Chilean election?

In 1973, Salvador Allende beat Jorge Alessandri,former president of Chile, by 40,000 votes out ofalmost 3 million cast in the general election. SinceAllende won by a plurality rather than a majority(over 50 percent of the vote), the election wasreferred to the Chilean National Congress for afinal decision. The Congress chose Allende, bring-ing the Western world its first democraticallyelected Marxist president.

Consider the Consequences What ifAlessandri had been reelected to continue hisregime? Explain why the United States wouldnot have had the same incentives to opposeAlessandri as it had to oppose Allende.

In 1990, Peruvians chose Alberto Fuji-mori as president. Fujimori, the son of aJapanese immigrant, promised reforms.Two years later, he suspended the constitu-tion and congress, became a dictator, andbegan a campaign against Shining Pathguerrillas. Corruption led to his ousterfrom power in 2000. In June 2001, Alejan-dro Toledo became the first freely electedpresident of Native American descent.

Identifying How didGeneral Juan Velasco Alvarado earn the support ofmany Peruvian peasants?

ColombiaColombia has long had a democratic political sys-

tem, but a conservative elite led by the owners of cof-fee plantations has dominated the government.

After World War II, Marxist guerrilla groupsbegan to organize Colombian peasants. The govern-ment responded violently. More than two hundredthousand peasants had been killed by the mid-1960s.Violence remained a constant feature of Colombianlife in the 1980s and 1990s.

Peasants who lived in poverty turned to a newcash crop—coca leaves, used to make cocaine. Thedrug trade increased, and so, too, did the number ofdrug lords. Drug lords formed cartels (groups ofdrug businesses) that used bribes and violence toforce government cooperation in the drug traffic and

Reading Check

eliminate competitors. Attempts to stop the traffic indrugs had little success and drug traffickers thrived.Currently, Colombia supplies the majority of cocaineto the international drug market. The governmenthas begun an aerial eradication program.

High unemployment (around 20 percent in 2000)continues to hamper Colombia’s economic growth.Colombia’s leading exports, coffee and oil, are sub-ject to price fluctuations. However, President AndresPastrana has a well respected economic team work-ing to keep the economy on track.

Explaining Why have some Colom-bian peasants turned to the production of coca leaves?

Reading Check

914 CHAPTER 29 Latin America

Checking for Understanding1. Define cooperative, Shining Path.

2. Identify Juan Perón, Salvador Allende,Augusto Pinochet, Juan VelascoAlvarado.

3. Locate Argentina, Falkland Islands.

4. Explain why the Argentine militaryinvaded the Falkland Islands. What wasthe impact of this invasion on the gov-ernment of Argentina?

5. List the obstacles Brazil’s new demo-cratic government faced in 1985. Howdid economic conditions help this dem-ocratic government come to power?

Critical Thinking6. Analyze Why is it often easier for the

military to seize power in a nation thanit is for the military to rule that nationeffectively? Which countries discussed inthis chapter seem to support this theory?

7. Organizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to show howdemocracy has advanced in SouthAmerica since the late 1980s.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photograph of a Brazilian

city shown on page 911 of your text.How does this photograph reflect theproblems created by the Brazilian “economic miracle”?

9. Informative Writing Pretend youare an American journalist sent toArgentina to cover Perón’s presi-dency. Write an article based onyour interviews with the workersand government officials. Include the pros and cons of living under the Perón regime.

Drug lords often use terrorism to threaten thosepeople who try to stop the flow of illegal drugs.

How Democracy Advanced

Developing a Database

Practicing the SkillFidel Castro is one of the Latin American leaders

discussed in this chapter. Follow these steps to builda database of the political events that have takenplace during his years as Cuba’s leader.

1 Determine what facts you want to include inyour database.

2 Follow the instructions in the DBMS that youare using to set up fields.

3 Determine how you want to organize the factsin the database—chronologically by the date ofthe event, or alphabetically by the name of theevent.

4 Follow the instructions in your computer program to place the information in order of importance.

Why Learn This Skill?Do you have an address book with your friends'

names; addresses; and phone, fax, pager, and cellnumbers? Do you have to cross out informationwhen numbers change? When you have a party, doyou address all the invitations by hand? If youraddress book were stored in a computer, you couldfind a name instantly. You could update youraddress book easily and use the computer to printout invitations and envelopes.

When you collect information in a computer file,the file is called an electronic database. The data-base can contain any kind of information: listsdetailing your CD collection; notes for a researchpaper; your daily expenses. Using an electronic data-base can help you locate information quickly andorganize and manage it, no matter how large the file.

Learning the SkillAn electronic database is a collection of facts that

is stored in a file on the computer. Although youcan build your own database, there is special soft-ware—called a database management system(DBMS)—that makes it easy to add, delete, change,or update information. Some popular commercialDBMS programs allow you to create address books,note cards, financial reports, family trees, and manyother types of records.

A database can be organized and reorganized inany way that is useful to you.

• The DBMS software program will usually giveclear instructions about entering and arrangingyour information.

• The information in a database is organized intodifferent fields. For example, in an address book,one field might be your friends’ names andanother could be their addresses.

• When you retrieve information, the computerwill search through the files and display theinformation on the screen. Often it can be organ-ized and displayed in a variety of ways, depend-ing on what you want.

Fidel Castro with farmers

915

Applying the Skill

Research and build a database that organizes informa-tion about current political events in Latin Americancountries. Explain to a partner why the database is organized the way it is and how it might be used inthis class.

916

Using Key Terms1. Corporations with headquarters in several countries are

called .

2. The anti-Communist forces that fought the Sandinistas inNicaragua were called .

3. A style of literature that combines elements of the real worldwith imaginary events is called .

4. Selling government-owned companies to individuals or tocorporations is called .

5. The refusal to import or export goods to or from anothercountry is a .

6. The Communist guerrilla movement in Peru is called the.

7. Farms owned and operated by groups of peasants are called___________.

Reviewing Key Facts8. History What is the purpose of the Organization of Ameri-

can States?

9. Economics What did Fidel Castro do in 1960 that probablycontributed to the decision of the United States to sponsoran invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961?

10. Culture Who is considered the most famous of the LatinAmerican novelists?

11. History How was the U.S. involved in El Salvador?

12. History What happened that ended Manuel Noriega’s con-trol of Panama in 1989?

13. Government Why was President Carter unwilling to con-tinue support of the Somoza family?

14. Government What was the goal of the guerrilla groupknown as Shining Path?

15. Economics What effect does the wide gap between the richand the poor have in Latin American countries?

16. Government Why was Castro able to maintain control ofCuba even after he lost his foreign support?

Critical Thinking17. Compare and Contrast Compare the policies of the United

States toward Latin American countries to those of the SovietUnion toward countries in Eastern Europe.

18. Drawing Inferences Analyze why the United States used itsmilitary power to arrest Manuel Noriega after ignoring manyother dishonest and corrupt leaders in Latin America.

Writing about History19. Expository Writing Analyze how Cuba’s revolution affected

the United States and the Soviet Union. Explain the back-ground and context of the revolution. How were theseevents particular to the time period?

Cuba

Corruption and canceledelections create unrest.

Castro ousts Batista. Castro improves socialwelfare system butsuspends elections.

Castro allows limited foreigninvestment, improvingrelations with Canada andother countries.

NicaraguaRepressive Somozaregime owns a quarter of the country’s land.

Social movement led bySandinistas overthrowsSomoza in 1979.

Sandinistas initiate socialreforms but are hamperedby contras.

Sandinista regime agrees tohold free elections in 1990;Chamorro is elected president.

MexicoPRI dominates. University students protest

government policies.PRI allows new politicalparties and more freedoms.

Mexico elects non-PRIcandidate as president.

ArgentinaEconomy is poor. Argentine military

overthrows Perón.Economy recovers;many citizens lose livesto death squads.

Democracy is graduallyrestored after FalklandIslands disaster.

El SalvadorElites control mostwealth and land.

Leftist guerrillas andright-wing groups battle.

U.N.-sponsored peace agree-ment ends civil war in 1992.

Economy grows; ties withneighbors are renewed.

Country Conflict Revolution Change Cooperation

Several Latin American countries have moved from conflict to cooperation.

Self-Check QuizVisit the Glencoe World History Web site at

and click on Chapter 29 Self-CheckQuiz to prepare for the Chapter Test.wh.glencoe.com

HISTORY

Directions: Choose the best answer to thefollowing question.

Why are Latin American countries economically importantto the United States?

A American banks need countries such as Brazil and Mexico to default on their loans.

B Latin American countries are popular destinations forAmerican tourists.

C Latin American countries are colonies of Europeannations.

D America imports raw goods such as oil, coffee, and cop-per from Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, and Chile.

Test-Taking Tip: Read test questions carefully becauseevery word is important. This question asks why LatinAmerica is economically important. Therefore, you caneliminate any answer choices that do not offer explanationsabout their economic importance.

CHAPTER 29 Latin America 917

Analyzing SourcesRead the following excerpt from Nancy Donovan, a Catholic mis-sionary in Nicaragua:

“It is not easy to live in a war zone. The least of itwas my being kidnapped by contras early this year. The hardest part is seeing people die and consolingfamilies. . . . In those eight hours I was held, as I walkedin a column of 60 or so men and a few women—all in uniform—I could hear shooting and realized thatpeople I knew were being killed. Earlier I had seen bodies brought back to town, some burned, some cutto pieces.”

20. Why did the United States finance the contras?

21. What role do you think the United States should play in Central America? Should the United States have supportedrebels capable of the type of warfare described in thispassage?

Applying Technology Skills22. Create a Database Research the major political events in

South America since 1945. Include the following informationin your database:

• Year

• Country

• Event

Making Decisions23. Identify one of the challenges faced by the countries of

Latin America today. Create a poster that illustrates theissue you have selected. Include a clear statement of theissue, information you have gathered about the backgroundof the challenge, and key individuals or countries involvedwith the issue. Identify options, predict consequences, andoffer possible solutions.

Analyzing Maps and ChartsUsing the map above, answer the following questions:

24. Which South American country has the largest geographicarea? Which countries have the largest populations?

EQUATOR

60°W100°W 80°W 20°W

0°

20°S

40°S

20°N

40°W120°W

Caribbean Sea

Pacific

Ocean

Atlantic

Ocean

BRAZIL

MEXICO

COLOMBIA

VENEZUELA

BOLIVIA

PERU

ECUADOR

PARAGUAYCHILE

URUGUAY

ARGENTINA

CUBA DOMINICANREPUBLICHAITI

GUYANA

SURINAME

FRENCHGUIANAFr.

GUATEMALA

EL SALVADOR

BELIZE

HONDURAS

NICARAGUACOSTA RICA

PANAMA

Lambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

1,000 kilometers

1,000 miles0

0

N

S

EW

Population of Latin America, 2000

StandardizedTest Practice

Under 15million

Over 100million

30–100million

15–30million

Population:

25.How do the populations of Central American countries com-pare to the populations of other Latin American countries?

26. Which South American countries are landlocked? Betweenwhat degrees of latitude and longitude are they located?