Caesarism, Fujimori and the Transformation of Peru Into a Neoliberal Order

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Caesarism, Fujimori and the Transformation of Peru Into a Neoliberal Order Caesarism, Fujimori and the Transformation of Peru into a Neoliberal Order By Peter McKenzie Atack B.A. M.A. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Department of Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Canada ©Peter McKenzie Atack 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-18207-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-18207-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract: Caesarism, Fujimori and the Transformation of Peru into a Neoliberal Social Formation. During the government of President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), Peru undertook a radical shift in its economic policies from state-led industrialization toward neoliberalism. The research question of this thesis is: what was the effect of imposing neoliberal economic policies on Peru? How was it that a political outsider like President Fujimori succeeded in imposing structural adjustment when previous attempts had failed? This thesis utilizes Gramsci’s theory of Caesarism to understand how an outsider like Fujimori was able to dismantle the previous order based on state- led industrialization. The campaign of Sendero Luminoso had created a security crisis that undermined the political elite and decimated grass roots organizations Peru had imploded in hyperinflation, corruption and economic disaster. This led to a crisis in representation that destroyed support for all of the political parties and disarticulated civil society organizations like unions. Fujimori was thus able to dissolve the old while imposing new neoliberal relations of production. These relations were articulated through labour code reforms that made labour subject to market forces by making unions ineffective. Instead of looking for the genesis of a transformation in relations of production or structures of the state or the ideologies that legitimate them, this thesis explores and utilizes the theory of structural affinity to explore the interdependence of all three. Orders are not the outcome of dialectical progress or economic effectiveness or moral superiority, instead they are only a reflection Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of a moment of stability when the state reproduces its characteristic social relations of production and both are legitimated by an ideology. Therefore this thesis examines how neoliberal changes to the state reinforce changes in the economy and how these changes then prove to be politically useful by dismantling sites of resistance. Neoliberal theory also plays a role by providing arguments that invert the moral case for collective action, arguments that are articulated and used by neoliberal technocrats as they impose market reforms. Transformation involves more than slight changes in government policies, it requires an entirely new ethos for state-society relations and state that reproduces the new neoliberal relations of production. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Chapter One: Crisis and the Context of Change--------------------------------65 Chapter Two: The Political Consequences of Neoliberal Ideology---------------------------------------------------------------------------------125 Chapter Three: Fujimori and the Technocrats---------------------------------- 169 Chapter Four: Hegemony and Enforcement------------------------------------ 215 Chapter Five: Washington Consensus: A New Ideology, A New Global Economic Order and a New State--------------------245 Chapter Six: The Disarticulation of Labour---------------------------------------281 Conclusions------------------------------------------------------------------------------------343 Appendix A------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 367 Bibliography------------------------------------------------------------------------------------368 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction From the 1980's onwards, nations adopted structural adjustment programs to reform their economies in the hope that they could resolve their debt crises and escape hyperinflation and economic collapse. These reforms required more than a simple change in government policy. They required a fundamental alteration to the institutions of the state, in the relationship between state and society to support a new dominant form of the social relations of production, plus a new ideology to legitimate these new relations. What was involved in structural adjustment, then, was the creation of a new order. This thesis utilizes the term order to denote the overarching combination of political, economic and ideological spheres that together define a society. An order is organized through the articulation of ideas that legitimate a specific kind of state structure whose institutions reproduce certain relations of production in the economy. State institutions reproduce both the ideology that legitimates and validates this order as well as it enforces and regulates its characteristic relations of production. Each order’s economy produces the resources that are utilized to reproduce its characteristic form of the state and the institutions in civil society that articulate the ideology that validates the specific class relations characteristic of this order. Every order can be characterized and described by its own set of state institutions, dominant mode of the social relations of production and ideology. An order is defined by its particular combination between these areas or spheres. Thus, change to one area of an order will then result in 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 changes to the other areas. However, while the changes involved under structural adjustment did involve transforming state institutions, the economy and ideology, this was not the epoch shattering transition from feudalism to capitalism. Instead we are examining a switch between types of capitalism, between an order that was organized around state-led industrialization and the capitalism of neoliberalism. The question is: how much was changed in the transformation from one order to another? The case selected for this study was the structural adjustment undertaken during the government of President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). Fujimori was a political outsider who had neither previous political experience nor the support of pre-existing political parties nor a system of beliefs nor even any clear program for reform. At this conjuncture Peru was faced by a triple crisis: a security crisis caused by Sendero Luminoso (a brutal and destructive guerrilla movement), and an economic crisis marked by both hyperinflation and collapse, which in turn sparked a political crisis, specifically a crisis of representation (see Chapter One for details). The previous President, Alan Garcia (1985-1990), had attempted to reflate the economy by limiting payments to international creditors and boosting domestic demand. These measures resulted in hyperinflation and an economic collapse which exacerbated the crisis caused by Sendero. Alberto Fujimori was elected on a vague platform that ruled out shock policies to end hyperinflation, shock policies
Recommended publications
  • Economic Policy Toward Chile During the Cold War Centered on Maintaining Chile’S Economic and Political Stability
    Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses 2013 An Analysis Of U.S.- Economic Policy Toward Chile During The oldC War Frasier Esty Bucknell University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Recommended Citation Esty, Frasier, "An Analysis Of U.S.- Economic Policy Toward Chile During The oC ld War" (2013). Honors Theses. 153. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/153 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. iv Acknowledgements I could not have finished this Thesis without the help of a variety of people. First and foremost, my advisor, Professor William Michael Schmidli proved to be an invaluable asset for me throughout the planning, writing, and revising processes. In addition, I could not have been able to complete the Honors Thesis project without the love and support of my family. Specifically, I dedicate this Thesis to my grandmother, Sally Murphy McDermott. Your consistent love and encouragement helped me throughout this process and I simply could not have done it without you. Thank you. -Frasier Esty v Table of Contents 1. Thesis Abstract 2. Introduction 3. Chapter 1: American Economic Policy Toward Chile Resulting In The Rise and Fall of Salvador Allende 4. Chapter 2: Pinochet’s Neoliberal Experiment 5. Chapter 3: The Reagan Years: A Changing Policy Toward Chile 6. Conclusion 7. Bibliography vi Abstract This examination of U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Jóvenes Construyendo Ciudadanía: Hacia Un Enfoque Participativo De Las Políticas De Juventud En El Perú
    1 JÓVENES CONSTRUYENDO CIUDADANÍA: HACIA UN ENFOQUE PARTICIPATIVO DE LAS POLÍTICAS DE JUVENTUD EN EL PERÚ Comité Editorial Carolina Herrera (Huancayo), Claudia Barrueto (Chiclayo), Patricia Correa (Ica), Liz Huamonte (Arequipa), Gonzalo Valdera (Cajamarca), Enrique Gómez (Piura) Misael Vera (Puno). Jorge Chávez Granadino (compilador) Luis Fernán Cisneros (compilador) Lima, agosto del 2000 2 AGENDA: Perú Apartado postal 18–1194 Miraflores Lima-Perú. Correo electrónico: [email protected] Este texto se encuentra disponible en Internet en la dirección: www.agendaperu.org.pe 1er. edición: 2000 Tiraje 1000 ejemplares Impreso en el Perú AUSPICIA USAID 3 CONTENIDO NOTA PRELIMINAR 7 PREFACIO 13 CAPITULO I La construcción de un futuro compartido: el Perú del año 2020 según los jóvenes 17 Política y participación 19 Economía, producción y empleo 20 Educación 22 Sociedad y cultura 23 Población y medio ambiente 24 CAPITULO II: Ser joven hoy: un diagnóstico participativo 27 Educación y problemática social de los jóvenes 28 Problemas afectivos y de autoestima 29 El ámbito económico y laboral 30 Política y participación ciudadana 31 CAPITULO III: Juventud y Ciudadanía 35 Gestionando conceptos 36 4 Los jóvenes y su potencial como ciudadanos 37 La democracia 38 Diversidad, tolerancia y pluralismo 40 Los jóvenes y la globalización 41 Construyendo un nuevo paradigma de liderazgo 42 Ciudadanía: iniciativa, organización y valores 44 CAPITULO IV: La promoción de la juventud en el Perú. Los ciudadanos jóvenes proponen. 51 Participación política y ciudadana
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of the IMO in the Maritime Governance of Terrorism
    World Maritime University The Maritime Commons: Digital Repository of the World Maritime University World Maritime University Dissertations Dissertations 2002 The role of the IMO in the maritime governance of terrorism Lucio Javier Salonio Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.wmu.se/all_dissertations Recommended Citation Salonio, Lucio Javier, "The role of the IMO in the maritime governance of terrorism" (2002). World Maritime University Dissertations. 1265. https://commons.wmu.se/all_dissertations/1265 This Dissertation is brought to you courtesy of Maritime Commons. Open Access items may be downloaded for non-commercial, fair use academic purposes. No items may be hosted on another server or web site without express written permission from the World Maritime University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. &EMM WORLD MARITIME UNIVERSITY Malmo, Sweden THE ROLE OF THE IMO IN THE MARITIME GOVERNANCE OF TERRORISM By LUCIO JAVIER SALONIO Argentina A dissertation submitted to the World Maritime University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In MARITIME AFFAIRS (Maritime Administration) 2002 © Copyright Lucio Salonio, 2002. DECLARATION I certify that all the material in this dissertation that is not my own work has been identified and that no material is included for which a degree has previously been conferred on me. The contents of this dissertation reflect my own personal views and are not necessarily Supervised by: Robert McFarland LCDRU.S. Coast Guard Assessor: Dr. John Liljedhal World Maritime University Co - Assessor: Dr. Gotthard Gauci University of Wales Swansea II DEDICATION My dedication goes to all those minds that in one way or another believe in the confluence of people and the role that International Organizations have in giving to each part of society, even if it be the sole individual, the chance to be included in all our affairs.
    [Show full text]
  • SECOND OPEN LETTER to Arnold Harberger and Muton Friedman
    SECOND OPEN LETTER to Arnold Harberger and MUton Friedman April 1976 II Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger: You will recall that, following Harberger's first public visit to Chile after the military coup, I wrote you an open letter on August 6, 1974. After Harberger's second visit and the public announcement of Fried- man's intention to go to Chile as well, I wrote you a postscript on February 24, 1975. You will recall that in this open letter and postscript I began by reminis- cing about the genesis, during the mid-1950's, when I was your graduate student, of the "Chile program" in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, in which you trained the so-called "Chicago boys", who now inspire and execute the economic policy of the military Junta in Chile. I then went on to summarize the "rationale" of your and the Junta's policy by quoting Harberger's public declarations in Chile and by citing the Junta's official spokesmen and press. Finally, I examined with you the consequences, particularly for the people of Chile, of the applica- tion by military .force of this Chicago/Junta policy: political repression and torture, monopolization and sell-out to foreign capital, unemployment and starv- ation, declining health and increasing crime, all fos- tered by a calculated policy of political and economic genocide. 56 ECONOMIC GENOCIDE IN CHILE Since my last writing, worldwide condemnation of the Junta's policy has continued and increased, cul- minating with the condemnation of the Junta's violation of human rights by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution approved by a vast majority including even the United States and with the Junta's condemnation even by the Human Rights Committee of the US-dominated reactionary Organiz- ation of American States.
    [Show full text]
  • Peruvian Impeachment and Unrest: Situation Report Peru Lima
    Peruvian Impeachment and Unrest: Situation Report 11/17/2020 Presidential tumult likely to impede COVID response Peru On 9 Nov, a politically expedient vote to impeach Martin Vizcarra, the country’s most Past 60 Days popular politician, led to protests exacerbated by COVID-19; restive protests are very likely to continue. After acting president Manuel Merino resiGned on 15 Nov in response to protests, centrist Francisco SaGasti was promoted to president on 17 Nov. Demonstrations are almost certain to continue, especially in the Lima metropolitan area and larGer cities such as Arequipa and Trujillo, where conFrontations with the security Forces remain probable. Any perceived police repression is expected to increase the intensity oF protests and number oF protesters. As the pandemic surGes on, leadership turnover at the highest level can be expected to remain an obstacle For any sort oF cohesive COVID-19 response plan in a country where Government proGrams may be necessary in order to stave ofF participation in the country’s massive inFormal economy. Hyperion Analytics: Over the past 60 days, Hyperion has shown a marked downward trend in Pulse stability For Peru, with health and crime as primary drivers oF instability. The Pulse stability ratinG has dropped since the start oF the protest movement on 9 Nov, From a hiGh point oF 55 on 6 Nov to a low oF 38 by 13 Nov, a total drop oF 17 points in seven days. Over the past seven days, Lima unrest and crime have been the primary drivers oF instability – Hyperion has taGGed 167 Past 60 Days unrest events durinG this timeFrame, 100 oF which were in Lima, accountinG For nearly 75% of total unrest events in the past 60 days.
    [Show full text]
  • Presentación De Powerpoint
    Peru: Restitution of assets. Regulation, Actions and Cases Ana Teresa Revilla Vergara Head of the General Office of Legal Affairs Addis Ababa, May 8, 2019 Index 1. Background 2. International Agreements 3. Cases of restitution of money from Switzerland and the USA 4. LavaJato case in Peru. 5. Political, Legislative and Institutional Evolution 1. Background • 2000: Public disclosure of videos of corrupt practices during the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). • Money from political corruption and other crimes, deposited abroad, begins to be localized and repatriated from Switzerland, USA, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Luxembourg and Panama. • After year 2000, more cases: • Grand corruption: Lava Jato . • Illegal Mining, Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime. • Corruption in Callao Court of Justice. 2. International Agreements • 22 International Bilateral Cooperation Agreements in criminal matters signed by Peru: • Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay. • In addition, among other agreements: • 2003: MOU Peru - UNODC. For Technical Assistance • 2003: MOU Peru - Panama. Exchange of financial information on money laundering. • 2004: MOU Peru - El Salvador. Exchange of financial information on money laundering and terrorism financing. • 2004: MOU Peru-USA for transfer of assets seized by US / 20'275.911.02 2. International Agreements Perú is part of the following multilateral treaties: • United Nations Convention against Corruption. • United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime. • United Nations Convention against the trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. • Inter-American Convention against Corruption. • Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
    [Show full text]
  • Competing Visions of the 1986 Lima Prison Massacres: Memory and the Politics of War in Peru
    Vol. 11, No. 3, Spring 2014, 1-40 Competing Visions of the 1986 Lima Prison Massacres: Memory and the Politics of War in Peru Tamara Feinstein Carleton College In the bleak, grey winter of June 1986, the streets of Lima teamed with international dignitaries. Journalists, politicians and foreign heads of state filled the local hotels and restaurants, in eager anticipation of the Socialist International. All eyes rested on a freshly minted Alan García, one year into his first presidency. García was a rising star within the APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) party, one of the strongest and longest standing parties in Peru. Despite APRA’s age, numerical strength and populist appeal, García’s election in 1985 represented APRA’s first presidential win. Promising a return to APRA’s center-left roots, García saw the hosting of the Socialist International as a platform to announce his own brand of social democratic policies. This was a moment of great expectations for the young Peruvian president.1 Then, with unprecedented ferocity, the bitter war with the Maoist Shining Path insurgent group, Sendero Luminoso, previously relegated to 1 I would like to thank Steve Stern, Jaymie Heilman, Michele Leiby, Julie Gibbings and Yesenia Pumarada Cruz, as well as this journal’s anonymous readers, for their helpful comments on various incarnations of this article. Feinstein 2 the remote Andean highlands in the pages of the national press, violently exploded onto the Lima stage. Shining Path militants incarcerated in three separate Lima prisons staged simultaneous riots, took prison guards hostage and made vocal demands of the government.
    [Show full text]
  • Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Annual Report October 31, 2020
    Annual Report | October 31, 2020 Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund See the inside front cover for important information about access to your fund’s annual and semiannual shareholder reports. Important information about access to shareholder reports Beginning on January 1, 2021, as permitted by regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper copies of your fund’s annual and semiannual shareholder reports will no longer be sent to you by mail, unless you specifically request them. Instead, you will be notified by mail each time a report is posted on the website and will be provided with a link to access the report. If you have already elected to receive shareholder reports electronically, you will not be affected by this change and do not need to take any action. You may elect to receive shareholder reports and other communications from the fund electronically by contacting your financial intermediary (such as a broker-dealer or bank) or, if you invest directly with the fund, by calling Vanguard at one of the phone numbers on the back cover of this report or by logging on to vanguard.com. You may elect to receive paper copies of all future shareholder reports free of charge. If you invest through a financial intermediary, you can contact the intermediary to request that you continue to receive paper copies. If you invest directly with the fund, you can call Vanguard at one of the phone numbers on the back cover of this report or log on to vanguard.com. Your election to receive paper copies will apply to all the funds you hold through an intermediary or directly with Vanguard.
    [Show full text]
  • Friedrich Hayek and His Visits to Chile
    Bruce Caldwell and Leonidas Montes Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Caldwell, Bruce and Montes, Leonidas (2015) Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile. The Review of Austrian Economics, 28 (3). pp. 261-309. ISSN 0889-3047 DOI: 10.1007/s11138-014-0290-8 © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/63318/ Available in LSE Research Online: August 2015 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Friedrich Hayek and his Visits to Chile By Bruce Caldwell, Duke University and Leonidas Montes, Adolfo Ibáñez University Abstract: F. A. Hayek took two trips to Chile, the first in 1977, the second in 1981. The visits were controversial. On the first trip he met with General Augusto Pinochet, who had led a coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in 1973.
    [Show full text]
  • ED323556.Pdf
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 323 556 CS 212 512 AUTHOR Zeni, Jane TITLE WritingLands: Composing with Old and Net; Writing Tools. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5903-6 PUB DATE 90 NOTE 212p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 59036-3020; $9.95 members, $12.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Reports - Research/Technical (143) -- Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Classroom Environment; Computer Centers; *Computers; Computer System Design; *Cooperative Learning; Design Requirements; Intermediate Grades; Secondary Education; Teacher Administrator Relationship; Teaching Methods; Writing Improvement; *Writing Instruction; Writing Research; *Writing Workshops IDENTIFIERS *Collaborative Writing; Discourse Communities; Teacher Researchers ABSTRACT Designed to help teachers, grade six through high school, overcome misgivings about computers for writing and make the most of the new technology, this book offers answers to an urgent question in language arts: how can computers be woven into the human fabric of a writina workshoo? The book is based on a five-year study of computers for writing in actual school settings and presents what skilled teachers know about using computers to enhance the teaching of writing in the less than perfect conditions of ordinary clas7;rooms. The book describes classroom environments called "Writing Lands" where computers enhance a process approach to teaching writing and makes the point that what students do with any writing tool depends less on the power of the technology than on the power of the teacher. The book also shows how teachers in the vanguard are using computers to foster collaborative writing and teacher-student dialogue, and explains how these teachers cope with the knotty practical questions computers pose in the average school.
    [Show full text]
  • Pinochet Paper
    Ding 1 Augusto Pinochet Interlake High School 19 June 2013 Chunyang Ding Word Count: 1867 Ding 2 Although General Augusto Pinochet is commonly seen by Americans as the stereotypical dictator, bent on dominating his country and killing innocent civilians without just cause, his actual rise and rule was ridiculed with holes in his power. Although he is hated today for his crimes against humanity, under him Chile became a powerful economy in South America, and he succeeded in accomplishing a peaceful transition to a democratic government once again. Chile before Pinochet had a republican government, but under the democratically elected Salvador Allende, the nation headed towards socialism. Allende, as part of the Unidad Popular party, had a distinct goal of manipulating companies and labor to approach the “Chilean way to Socialism” (Zapata 85). Through this type of manipulation, there was a marked increase in the number of strikes in the country, and as the Marxist government under Allende clashed with the traditionally strong labor movement within Chile, tensions arose. Eventually, this culminating in opposing political powers through their strength behind supporting strikes, such as the El Teniente copper strike, which was able to help discredit the Allende government (Zapata 94). This type of economic failure resulted in waves of unrest within the general population, as well as a growing politically unease throughout the area. Due to his economic policies, Allende was not particular popular within Chile, but he was just as hated within the United States. Although there were Chilean solidarity groups within the United States that supported the democratic socialism that Allende pursued, the United States media still continued to view Allende as a tyrant, with Newsweek publishing articles of “Chile under the Gun”, referring to Allende (Power 51).
    [Show full text]
  • Explaining the Turmoil of the Peruvian Democracy
    > Corruption, Congress and COVID: Explaining the turmoil of the Peruvian democracy Hippolyte Cailleteau Master en science politique, spécialisation Relations internationales Sciences Po Décembre 2020 Shifting back to democracy in 2000, the Peruvian political success amazed many observers. Free and fair elections took place regularly, with political alternation. The country's Growth National Income tripled over 15 years, between 2000 and 2015. Overall, the country triumphantly managed to go through the first fifteen years of the 21st century and appeared to have made its way towards a durable and liberal transition. The November 2020’s events depict a diametrically opposed situation; the Andean nation has known no less that three presidents in the span of a week. In the month of December 2020, the situation has become increasingly tenser, with massive demonstrations taking place in Lima, overtly opposing Congress-led destitution of President Martin Vizcarra. Journalists even labelled it "the worst crisis the South American nation has faced since the downfall of authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori", as two young adults died of police assault while demonstrating. How can a country which has been praised for its transition get to this point? Enduring corruption at the helm of the State Accusations of corruption are hardly a new phenomenon in Peru. All of the 21st century-elected presidents were either put on trial or even convicted of these charges. Three of them are currently still entangled in the corruption scandal involving the Brazilian Odebrecht construction company. This is what eventually led President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) to resign, in order to avoid a shameful impeachment trial, and leave the way to his vice president.
    [Show full text]