Latin America: Church, US Intervention, and Dictatorships

Church Targeting

• In El Salvador and Guatemala, church members who spoke out against the government were targeted.
• Bishop Juan Haradi in Guatemala was assassinated, similar to the archbishop in El Salvador.
• Membership in the church did not guarantee safety from government targeting.

Chile and US Intervention

• The video discussed Salvador Allende's socialist government in Chile and the US opposition to it.
• The US supported Augusto Pinochet's rise to power in 1973 to prevent the spread of communism.

Operation Condor

• The US supported right-wing military dictatorships in South America during the 1970s and early 1980s through Operation Condor.
• This support involved training, equipping, and aiding governments in Chile (Pinochet), Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
• US support enabled massive human rights abuses in these countries.

Human Rights Abuses in Chile

• "Caravans of Death" were used in Chile where paramilitary groups abducted and disappeared individuals perceived as government opponents.
• Victims were called "desaparecidos" (the disappeared) and were often never found; mass graves were occasionally discovered.

Pinochet's Trial

• Pinochet was put on trial in Chile and Spain for human rights abuses.
• The trial was halted due to his illness, and he died in December 2006 before a verdict was reached.

Argentina and Nationalism

• The lecture transitions to Argentina, with a reading assigned on nationalism and dictatorship in Latin America.