Early Liberal Socialism in Latin America: Juan B. Justo and the Argentine Socialist Party

It is common knowledge that, prior to the military coup of 1973, Chile was the only Latin American country to have strong workers' political parties of the European type. Many reasons have been given for this phenomenon, but it is clear that Chile has been the only country in Latin-America to allow the development of Marxist parties with strong appeal and a strong following, within the framework of what could be called liberal, democratic processes. Up to 1970, the electoral force of the Socialist and Communist Parties in Chile oscillated between 20 and 30 per cent of the total national electorate. This rose to more than 40 per cent during 1975.

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Venezuela in Crisis: A Backgrounder

Elements ◽

10.6017/eurj.v14i1.10333 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jorge Steven Mejia

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Source Material ◽

Spanish Language ◽

First Century ◽

Socialist Party ◽

Humanitarian Crisis ◽

Student Protests ◽

Current Instability ◽

Current Student ◽

Hybrid Regime

This essay provides a rigorous and accessible background to what is likely the most pressing geopolitical issue in twenty-first-century Latin America: the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). To this end, it analyzes and connects three distinct political phenomena in Venezuelan history whose interrelated development underpins the country’s current instability: Puntofijismo (1958-1998), Chavismo (1998-2013), and Madurismo (2013-present). It firsts describes the collapse of Puntofijismo, Venezuela’s style of pacted democracy and its oil-dependent petro-state to contextualize the rise of Hugo Chávez’s political project in 1990 known as Bolivarianism. The paper then considers Chávez’s regime and how it continued, yet also departed from, Puntofijismo through clientelism, exclusionary politics, and the creation of an illiberal hybrid regime. Upon this foreground, the paper situates the current student protests, military repression, and humanitarian crisis under President Maduro. Using both English and Spanish-language source material, this paper lays bare the current complex reality that is Venezuela.

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The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x13009850 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 102-129

Author(s):

ALBERTO MARTÍN ÁLVAREZ ◽

EUDALD CORTINA ORERO

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

El Salvador ◽

Early Years ◽

Left Wing ◽

Internal Dynamics ◽

Internal Coherence ◽

The 1960S

AbstractUsing interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

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