When States Kill

by Menjivar, Cecilia; Rodriguez, Nestor

• ISBN13: 9780292706798
• ISBN10: 0292706790
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-30
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Since the early twentieth century, technological transfers from the United States to Latin American countries have involved technologies of violence for social control. As the chapters in this book illustrate, these technological transfers have taken various forms, including the training of Latin American military personnel in surveillance and torture and the provision of political and logistic support for campaigns of state terror. The human cost for Latin America has been enormous--thousands of Latin Americans have been murdered, disappeared, or tortured, and whole communities have been terrorized into silence. Organized by region, the essays in this book address the topic of state-sponsored terrorism in a variety of ways. Most take the perspective that state-directed political violence is a modern development of a regional political structure in which U.S. political interests weigh heavily. Others acknowledge that Latin American states enthusiastically received U.S. support for their campaigns of terror. A few see local culture and history as key factors in the implementation of state campaigns of political violence. Together, all the essays exemplify how technologies of terror have been transferred among various Latin American countries, with particular attention to the role that the United States, as a "strong" state, has played in such transfers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
PART ONE INTRODUCTION
1. State Tenor in the U.S.-Latin American Interstate Regime
Cecilia Menjivar and Néstor Rodriguez	3	(25)
2. Operation Condor as a Hemispheric "Counterterror" Organization
J. Patrice McSherry	28	(31)
PART TWO CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO
3. "The Blood of the People": The Guardia Nacional's Fifty-year War against the People of Nicaragua, 1927-1979
Richard Grossman	59	(26)
4. The Culture and Politics of State Terror and Repression in El Salvador
Aldo A. Lauria-Santiago	85	(30)
5. Caught in the Crossfire: Militarization, Paramilitarization, and State Violence in Oaxaca, Mexico
Kristin Norget	115	(28)
6. Bloody Deeds/Hechos Sangrientos: Reading Guatemala's Record of Political Violence in Cadaver Reports
M. Gabriela Torres	143	(27)
7. U.S. Militarization of Honduras in the 1980's and the Creation of CIA-backed Death Squads
Joan Kruckewitt	170	(28)
8. "No Hay Rosas Sin Espinas": Statecraft in Costa Rica
Annamarie Oliverio and Pat Lauderdale	198	(29)
PART THREE SOUTH AMERICA
9. The Colombian Nightmare: Human Rights Abuses and the Contradictory Effects of U.S. Foreign Policy
John C. Dugas	227	(25)
10. The Path of State Terror in Peru
Abderrahman Beggar	252	(26)
11. Turning on Their Masters: State Terrorism and Unlearning Democracy in Uruguay
Jeffrey J. Ryan.	278	(27)
12. Producing and Exporting State Terror: The Case of Argentina
Ariel C. Armony	305	(30)
PART FOUR CONCLUSION
13. New Responses to State Terror
Cecilia Menjivar and Néstor Rodriguez	335	(12)
About the Contributors	347	(4)
Index	351