Author: WILLIAM WONG

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Research project 4: Latin America in the media

Is President Bukele a contemporary caudillo of the 21st century?

The "World's Coolest Dictator" Nayib Bukele.

Cabezas, Jose. 2021. “Allies of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, including his Cabinet chief, included in US list of corrupt officials.” Photograph. In Al Jazeera, May 18. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/five-of-salvadoran-presidents-allies-accused-of-corruption-us.

In Latin America, caudillos played a significant role emerging from 19th century as leaders who held strong regional influence, usually running an authoritarian style of governance. They often came in to fill the vacuum left by weak or fragmented governments, with a combination of charismatic leadership and populism with military backing. So, can the El Salvadorian President, Nayib Bukele be viewed as a contemporary caudillo? As Wood states, “We often see the word caudillo appear in U.S. journalistic articles about Latin American politicians who use fiery rhetoric about ‘the people’ and demonstrate some capacity to command a popular following.” 1 Although he does not have fiery rhetoric about ‘the people’ in this New York Post article, President Bukele is able to command such populism through his crackdown on gangs from a news story by the BBC, which led him to “winning [his bid for reelection by] 83% of the votes.” 2 His tough stance against crime, echoes the characteristics of traditional Latin American caudillos who favored the use of centralized power and authoritarian tactics to secure and maintain order. Like many other caudillos, Bukele’s narrative of restoring safety through harsh measures presents himself as the decisive leader willing to take extreme actions for the perceived greater good, even at the cost of human rights.

According to a New York Post article titled, New photos reveal mega-prison in El Salvador built to hold 40k inmates-with no prisoner ever freed, shows us the results of President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown and his human rights violations. The New York Post’s coverage of El Salvador’s Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism reflects a complex narrative that juxtaposes the brutal conditions inside the mega-prison with the political implications of President Nayib Bukele’s aggressive anti-gang crackdown. It highlights disturbing images of bound and confined semi-naked male prisoners that are packed into these cramped spaces, living in inhumane conditions. Prisoners are forced to consume their meals without utensils and can only use their body weight to exercise. 3 These decisions were made under the sentiment that utensils, weights, and barbells can be used as a weapon against other prisoners or the authorities. The conditions of the mega-prison are fueling criticisms from human rights advocates that liken the facility to a “black hole” of human rights abuse. 4 As Janoski states, “Activists compare the facility with Hitler’s concentration camps, and a report by human rights group Cristosal found that 174 inmates had been tortured and killed this year, the outlet [the Daily Mail] added.” 5 The graphic depictions and characterization of the mega-prison emphasize the severe dehumanization and overcrowding within the prison, as a symbol of President Bukele’s harsh methods towards criminals.

However, the New York Post article also presents Bukele’s narrative, which frames the prison and his broader security measures as a necessary part of combatting the rampant violence of gang organizations like MS-13 and Barrio 18 that have plagued the country for years. The government’s stance is that the prisoners’ conditions are acceptable and that the crackdown has made a positive impact on public safety. Janoski states that “The country’s homicides dropped nearly 57% in 2022 — a significant improvement for a nation often considered the murder capital of the world.” 6 This stark contrast between human rights violations and the government’s claims of success in reducing crime creates both moral and political tension in U.S. media coverage, such as those who support a ‘tough on crime’ approach versus measures that are more humane. Lastly, the coverage of this matter pushes readers to grapple with the dilemma of whether the drastic measures taken to address gang violence can be justified by the results they produce, even when the cost in terms of human rights is too high.

Footnotes

  1. James A. Wood and Anna Rose Alexander, Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations (Latin American Silhouettes, 2019), 101. ↩︎
  2. BBC News, “El Salvador’s President Bukele Wins Re-election by Huge Margin,” February 5, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68196826. ↩︎
  3. Steve Janoski, “New Photos Reveal Mega-prison in El Salvador Built to Hold 40K Inmates — With No Prisoner Ever Freed,” New York Post, June 12, 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/06/12/world-news/new-pictures-reveal-savage-mega-prison-in-el-salvador/. ↩︎
  4. Janoski, “New Photos Reveal Mega-Prison in El Salvador Built to Hold 40K Inmates — With No Prisoner Ever Freed.” ↩︎
  5. Janoski, “New Photos Reveal Mega-Prison in El Salvador Built to Hold 40K Inmates — With No Prisoner Ever Freed.” ↩︎
  6. Janoski, “New Photos Reveal Mega-Prison in El Salvador Built to Hold 40K Inmates — With No Prisoner Ever Freed.” ↩︎
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Research project 3: Latin America in the Cold War

Excerpt from the Testimony of Oliver L. North on July 8, 1987 

Page 6 out of 10

Link to the document within the National Security Archive: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16597-document-09-excerpt-oliver-north

After World War II, U.S. foreign policy was heavily shaped by the Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union and the spread of Communism. The U.S. viewed many Latin American countries as key battlegrounds in the ideological war against Communism. This led to intervention by the U.S. in the region, often supporting authoritarian regimes, military dictatorships, and rebel groups that aligned with U.S. interests, even when they were not democratic. The Contras were one of these rebel groups, that had been backed by U.S. support in Nicaragua fighting against the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas, who came to power in 1979 after overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship, were seen by the U.S. as being sympathetic to socialist and communist movements, and thus a threat in the Cold War context. The Reagan administration, under the banner of containing communism, sought to overthrow the Sandinistas and supported the Contras with covert military and financial assistance. However, this support was controversial, especially after Congress passed the 1984 Boland Amendment in response to reports of human rights violations and the Contras’ violent tactics. The Boland Amendment made U.S. aid to the Contras illegal since much of the funds were tied to a secret arms sale with Iran, a country that had already been designated by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism. Nevertheless, illegal efforts by members of the Reagan Administration to bypass the restriction had occurred which led into the scandal known as the Iran-Contra Affair. One person in particular who was part of this scandal and eventually convicted for aiding the obstruction of Congress was Oliver North, a former member of the National Security Council under the Reagan Administration.

In the testimony of Oliver North, it reveals how U.S. officials, including those within the Reagan Administration, viewed the Nicaraguan Contras as essential in their broader strategy on containing Communism in Latin America. On Page 135, North states, “There were two sources of moneys for that operational account. One was traveler’s checks from Adolfo Calero and the other one was cash eventually from General Secord. My recollection is that the very first traveler’s checks came either very late ’84 or certainly early 1985 and that the sum total of traveler’s checks was probably in excess of $100,000 or there-abouts.”1 North had relied on a operational account since it was one method of being able to finance these rebels especially since the money is coming from illegal arm sales with Iran. North and other U.S. officials knew that they would not get funds from Congress, especially after the Boland Amendment had passed which made the overthrowing of the Nicaraguan government by federal agencies and entities in the United States illegal. It is through this allocation of funds that shows how essential the Contras were in the plans of the U.S., since the purpose behind the checks were to finance these Latin American movements. As North continues at the bottom of the same page, “Money was mailed from this [operational] account to addresses in Caracas, San Jose, Tegucigalpa, and San Salvador, among other places, to support activities inside Managua. The Indian movement, the Atlantic Coast Indian movement was supported from this account and meetings with the Atlantic Coast Indians, both the Misurasata and the Miskito movement itself, were supported from this account.”2 A little earlier within the same page in North’s testimony, he states, “The fact that I had those funds available was known to Mr. McFarlane, to Admiral Poindexter, to Director Casey, and eventually to Admiral Art Moreau over at the Pentagon. It was also-came to be known to others, some of whom you have had testify here.”3 Oliver North’s testimony underscored the willingness of many U.S. officials to bypass democratic processes and legal restrictions to achieve Cold War objectives. It also shows how North’s involvement in funding the Contras through arms sales to Iran as part of U.S. Cold War strategy was often, and at times contradictory to its own values such as democracy, by making alliances like the Contras to counter perceived Communist threats like the Sandinistas who were democratically elected to run the government in 1984.

  1. Oliver L. North, Testimony of Oliver L. North (Joint Hearings before the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition and the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, 100th Congress, First Session July 7-10, 1987), 100-7, part 1, 1987, p. 135. ↩︎
  2. Ibid, 135. ↩︎
  3. Ibid, 135. ↩︎
Categories
Research project 2: Images of Latin America in the late 1800s and early 1900s

Building of the United Fruit Company

Tulane University Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of Early Images of Latin America Collection, Source: Box 10, Album 12, Costa Rica_03above, Building of the United Fruit Company.

This image depicts the construction of the United Fruit Company’s infrastructure in the Costa Rican port city of Limon. The archival description indicates that the image was created in 1890s. Within the picture, there are some buildings and trees in the background with a lot of land in front and center. At the center, there is a track or railroad that curves, with one end going left and the other pointed south. The construction of the railroad is part of an exchange made between the United Fruit Company and Costa Rica in 1880 for land that will be used to setup the production and export of bananas. The track is surrounded by construction materials, showing the beginning of the United Fruit Company process in building its infrastructure. At the bottom of the picture, there is text both in Spanish and English, stating that the construction of this company is at Limon. Limon is a province located in Costa Rica.

The United Fruit Company was created in a merger of the Boston Fruit Company and the companies held under Minor C. Keith. This newly formed merger aimed to capitalize on the growing demand for banana as a staple food in the United States. The United Fruit Company quickly expanded its operations in Central America, acquiring vast tracts of land to establish banana plantations in countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. The company developed a comprehensive infrastructure including ports and railroads like the one in the picture. Both port and railroad were used to facilitate the export of bananas overseas, effectively creating a profitable industry that would dominate the region’s economy for decades. However, the business practices of the United Fruit Company had negative impacts on the marginalized workers and the environment. “ The dynamic created by the epidemic [of plant-based pathogens led to] accelerated rates of deforestation in humid, lowland tropical regions, destabilized local economies, and indirectly heightened the incidence of malaria among plantation workers.”1 Still these issues were not of any concern to the United Fruit Company, until these plant-based diseases started ravaging their banana plantation. From that point onward, the United Fruit Company focused on developing a banana that is both disease-resistant and maintains its quality, while acquiring new land in Central America to make more banana plantations.

The United Fruit Company can be seen as a case study of the expansion of Latin America’s export-oriented economy, neo-colonialism with liberal ideas such as the promotion of free trade and minimal government intervention in the economy. The United Fruit Company minimize government involvement on their business by collaborating with local governments in Central America and manipulating U.S. foreign policy to protect its interests. “ In 1911, United Fruit sold its interests in three companies not under its direct management in an effort to placate U.S. government officials who were increasingly concerned about its business practices.”2 “In Central America, United Fruit and its main competitors-Standard Fruit and Cuyamel Fruit-used their economic muscle to gain political favors by hiring influential lobbyists, providing loans to cash-strapped governments, and, on more than one occasion, backing armed insurgents and/or military governments.”3 Minimal involvement in the business practices of the United Fruit Company led to massive control over the land, to the extent that made these countries dependent on the corporation. “ In 1926, United Fruit controlled around 650,000 hectares of land including 70,000 hectares of active banana plantations in the Caribbean and Central America. The fruit companies also financed the construction of hundreds of kilometers of railroad; employed tens of thousands of people; and operated stores, hospitals, schools, radio stations, breweries, and banks.”4 According to Standley, both a botanist and a critic of the United Company describes his observations from the Ulua River, Honduras in 1927-28: “Practically all of the land within this area that is fit for the purpose is covered with banana plants, which, however beautiful when standing alone or in moderate quantities, become exceedingly monotonous when massed in plantations many miles in extent.”5 Standley’s observations illustrates how the United Fruit Company’s export-oriented economy, transforms the geography of Honduras with the vast amount of the banana plantations.

Works Cited (Footnotes)

  1. John Soluri, “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” Environmental History 7, no. 3 (2002): 386. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985915.
    ↩︎
  2. Ibid, 390. ↩︎
  3. Ibid, 390. ↩︎
  4. Ibid, 391. ↩︎
  5. Ibid, 394. ↩︎

Work Cited (Bibliography)

Soluri, John. “Accounting for Taste: Export Bananas, Mass Markets, and Panama Disease.” Environmental History 7, no. 3 (2002): 386–410. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985915.  

    Categories
    Research project 1: Visualizing Latin American independence

    The Retreat of Lieutenant Brady

    JCB Archive of Early American Images, accession number 05684, The Retreat of Lieutenant Brady.

    This image depicts a conflict in one of the many sugar slave plantations in the British colony of Demerara, one of the many slave plantations in Latin America. The archival description indicates that the image was created in 1824, one year after the Demerara Rebellion of 1823. Within the picture, most of the individuals were enslaved African slaves wielding different types of weapons in their hands. These weapons range from curved bladed swords to polearms and rifles. Their access to these weapons suggests that they had pillaged the British arms. Many of these Africans are spread out, which showcases the disarray, desperate attempt to rebel and force a retreat of the British. As for the British in the center of the image, they appear to be resisting in uniform with the use of their rifles. As a result, some Africans slaves who participated in the revolt appeared to be dead, lying on the ground by the hands of the British.

    In August of 1823, the Demerara rebellion was caused by two main factors: the misinterpretation that slavery was abolished, and maltreatment from slave owning planters. An abolitionist figure by the name of Reverend John Smith in his letter to the Secretary of the London Missionary Society address the maltreatment of the slaves in the Demerara colony. “Ever since I have been in the colony, the slaves have been grievously oppressed . . . When sick, they have been commonly neglected, ill-treated, or half-starved. Their punishments have been frequent and severe.” [1] In addition, author Sheridan writes “the revolt broke out among the slaves because they believed they had been granted rights by the Parliament that their masters were withholding.” [2] Now from the perspective of the slaves, there was reason to believe that such rumor was legitimate as the British were in the path of ending slavery with the conclusion to the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807. Such discussions about putting and end the slavery existed within the British political sphere. An English member of Parliament by the named of Thomas Fowell Buxton had argued in May of 1823 that slavery should be abolished because it is “repugnant to the principles of British constitution and of the Christian religion” in the House of Commons. [3] Within three to four months, the Demerara uprising erupted, led by Jack Gladstone in the slave plantation Success. Approximately, 13,000 African slaves joined in on the revolt from different neighboring plantations. However, this uprising was quickly suppressed within the year, with many rebels “tortured to death and decapitated, their heads speared on to poles as a warning to others.” [4] While the rebellion would become suppressed by the British, this event did accelerate the process of slavery emancipation with the Slavery Abolition Act in 1834.

    The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 is connected to the Tupac Amaru rebellion in Peru and the Haitian Revolution in Saint Domingue by the sense that all these three events were part of an anti-colonial and abolitionist wave in the Americas. The Tupac Amaru was a collective resistance of different groups ranging from the Creoles and every other group underneath them in the Spanish caste system against Spanish colonial rule driven by discontent and a desire for more autonomy. “Peru also exhibited the necessary conditions for revolt: increasingly oppressed Indian masses, disaffected ‘middle sectors,’ and elites divided over changes emanating from Spain.” [5] Similarly, the Haitian Revolution had sought to liberate themselves as France was dealing with their own civil war, unable to address the problems of slavery. “If the slaves themselves had no taken revolutionary initiative in Saint Domingue, there is no reason to assume that the Convention would have seen the necessity, or even the political expediency, seriously confronting the issues of slavery in the colonies and of abolishing slavery.” [6] In closing, these three rebellions illustrate an interconnected struggle against colonial domination and oppression.

    Works Cited (Bibliography):

    Fick, Carolyn E. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and The Greater Caribbean, edited by David B. Gaspar and David P. Geggus, 51-75. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003.

    Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 243–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.

    Smith, Jonathan, and Paul Lashmar, “‘A huge human drama’: how the revolt that began on the Gladstone plantation led to emancipation,” The Guardian, August 19, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/how-revolt-gladstone-plantation-led-to-emancipation-demerara-rebellion.

    Walker, Charles F. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Cambridge: Belnap Press, 2014.

    Works Cited (Footnotes):

    [1] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.

    [2] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 248. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.

    [3] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.

    [4] Jonathan Smith and Paul Lashmar, “‘A huge human drama’: how the revolt that began on the Gladstone plantation led to emancipation,” The Guardian, August 19, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/how-revolt-gladstone-plantation-led-to-emancipation-demerara-rebellion.

    [5] Charles F. Walker, The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2014), 38.

    [6] Carolyn E. Fick, “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and The Greater Caribbean, ed. David B. Gaspar and David P. Geggus (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003), 69.