Contemporary revolution in Latin America Struggle for democracy
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The following program is produced by a University of Florida school of journalism
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and communications under a grant from the National Educational Television and
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Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational
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broadcasters struggle for the marketing Lampe Americans very complicated by the
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fact that Latin American as a whole has never
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gotten over the inheritance of the colonial period you know just
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to mention the commie that it.
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May have been if
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they give anything
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away.
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The University of Florida presents the struggle for democracy the third in a
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series of recorded documentary reports on the contemporary revolution in Latin
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America. Your reporter is the distinguished American journalist and
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editor of the question Science Monitor. Oh indeed can.
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The struggle for democracy in Latin America began with the wars of independence during the
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first quarter of the 19th century the struggle continues today.
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The United States can no longer sit back and view this struggle for self-government
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by its neighbors with the same old indifference
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for the specter of the Cold War has permeated the issues and the
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failure of democracy in Latin America may well mean the loss of most of
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Central and South America and the Caribbean to the communist bloc.
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Western democracy is on trial in Latin America.
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The real problem of Latin America is a lot of our kids to try to stop
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progress. There has to be economic development and there has to be social justice
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and this will not be done by the present day or a dark age with
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whom the U.S. U.S. has been playing ball. It will either be done by the liberal
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parties that are democratic and pro west or it will be done by the
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International Communist movement. They should be brought to every day. A
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pessimistic report from the former president of Costa Rica who say figures we
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believe and by women we mean I mean the Liberal Party is a Latin America. We believe
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that it can be done and must be done. The transformation of lack of
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Latin America has to take place in our time. The difference is that other
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people want to do it in alliance with the Russians and the Chinese and
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still other people the oligarchies do not want it done at all. That's where we are in the middle.
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I'm sure that the net balance will be much more favorable
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for our peoples. It will follow the democratic line. Well that makes sure that we can
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at the present moment. I think that the international forces that
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work against us have become too strong and unless there is a concerted effort
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by all the Latin American republics and especially by the United States as a leader of the Western world
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I don't believe that we can stop the tide. Latin America incredibly is
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going the size of Russia and China. No matter how what
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we have with them graphical historical sounds
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preposterous but as a way things are going I'm very sorry to report.
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Most students of Latin American affairs blame the influence of colonial Spain for
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establishment of conditions unfavorable to the flowering of democracy.
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The struggle for the Marxist scene left Americans very complicated by the fact that
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Latin American. As a whole has never gotten over the
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inheritance of the colonial period and its history.
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Eric Cantor is a political scientist at the University of Florida who talked the past
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academic year in San Jose Costa Rica.
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Unfortunately for Latin America when the Spaniards came to the area
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they overcame the military opposition of the Indians and
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set up a society in which a small group of
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basically Spaniards ruled a vast mass of Indians
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through the generations in the centuries used have passed since then.
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This idea that the small group an
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aristocracy is entitled to dominate the political social economic
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religious life of the people has song permeated certain sections of
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society at the micro CS had a very very hard struggle to become
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established.
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Latin American scholars are quick to point out a relationship in certain countries between the rate of
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illiteracy and the existence of dictatorships. Director of Hispanic Studies at
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Stanford University Ronald raised this point at the tenth conference on the
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Caribbean.
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And this is a relationship between literacy and dictatorship.
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The struggle going on today in Latin America between dictatorship and democracy
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is closely related to the problem of literacy and it's not surprising to
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find that the countries where you find dictatorships
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are precisely the countries where you find illiteracy.
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I wouldn't suggest that literacy immediately brings democracy and there's not kind of a
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correlation but Rizzi other correlation I mean more or less convinced permanent
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secretary of the superior Council on Education at the University of Puerto Rico is my
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old Rodriguez book elaborates the you know what part of the
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world are not Claudio's for the meager ness of their
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budgets for education and the lavishness of their expenditures
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for instruments of war and operation the commanding
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general of a military establishment. Why almost all the
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souldiers wear elite parades. His answer
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was prompt. When we want souldiers we go out of the rural
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areas and recruit them. The more elite that
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polish the better. When we order them to shoot
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they fly without questioning.
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Fortunately I think the ship is over by now
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although there's still undecided. Few things
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hurt the relationship between the United States left in
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America more than the diplomatic warm of
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course and the cold believe it also.
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Well the first thing I don't think there's a government is in any position to be criticized
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because we have not broken our relationships with some of these dictatorships.
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Florida's junior senator George Smilers.
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So I think it's unrealistic dreamy visionary and completely
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impractical for a lot of people. Dreamy people who
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get the idea that you can add the kind of a democracy in Haiti that we have in
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Florida when you stop to remember that the per capita income in Haiti today is less than
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forty seven dollars per year per person. The illiteracy rate is
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87 percent of the people. And I do value does not run a
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dictatorship but it you have to have a strong man because you just cannot
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operate a government on a democratic basis not you have a high level of education.
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So I think it's a matter of being realistic what are the facts and the facts are
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there. They're making progress in Nicaragua the facts are the destruction there and
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I presume is making progress there I've never been in that country I don't know him but I hear that
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most of his people are direct Indian descent. They are
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an educated they have not had any opportunity and he's trying to bring about a slowly
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developing economy for them and give them more opportunities than they have previously
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had.
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This is just a broad Latin American correspondent of The Chicago Tribune. Well Senator
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Smothers has a right to his opinion no matter how erroneous it may be. I do
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not agree with him that the Stroh's know for example is a
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necessary evil because of illiteracy and power while
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some of the Smothers probably overlooks the fact that there are 400000 Paraguayans in
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exile across the river and in Argentina and a
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large number of them in Buenos Arias. And they surely are not illiterates.
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The same holds true in other places Haiti for example. A new
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value is not a necessary evil because of the illiteracy of the
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Haitian people. The Haitian people have lived good lives
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better lives under better government.
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If indeed a country's illiteracy rate is a strong indicator of the prevalence of a dictatorship
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then probably guy fits the formula. Illiteracy among the people
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mostly Indians on mixed bloods hovers around 80 percent. In a country where
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political democracy has been virtually unknown conditions in part why
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in recent years have been an open invitation to the military to take over the reins of
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government. This has been done in the traditional pattern of called Yes Mo
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boss is the rule of a military backed strongman.
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A pomegranate pot German descent general Alfredo stressor is
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such a strong man. He seized power in 1954 with the aid of the army
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garrison in Iceland the capital. Despite growing opposition from
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all sides he has ruled firmly ever since.
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What are conditions like in Powerglide under stress in his regime recorded
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somewhere in Central America an exile from one of hundreds of
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thousands who have fled the regime of General Alfredo stress or the
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constant question commie bio I am one in the kept going
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young and one even if I'm not going to try and concentration
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camp for me to Politico and
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one between us. You keep going to pick up you tell
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you that you can name the situation in the
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unthinking commie that they may have
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a hard labor. Then they they give you
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fish you go running one of these away
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I think that the night that they didn't battle early he
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can now investigate that maybe he can inform the
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State Department. Well I don't know if both of you to.
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We have one million in
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hundred thousand population and by the way an
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outside power we have four hundred
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thousand. People in exciting.
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In Argentina. Four hundred thousand
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people in power.
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The often wide divergence between the principles of constitutional democracy
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and the day to day practice of this most sophisticated of all forms of government has
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resulted in a certain cynicism in Latin America as well as in this country. In all
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fairness the Latino's if one reads their constitutions are committed in theory
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to democracy. And besides the road to true democracy has never been known to be a
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smooth one. Disaster may lie just around the next bend. Despite
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all obstacles however democratic forces in Latin America do drive forward
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the case in point is Colombia. Here is a country that within the past decade has put to an
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end a disastrous bloody civil war has overthrown a dictator
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restored order for the most part and is leading the people toward the goal of full or
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constitutional democracy. Storm clouds however are gathering over the
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Republic. The next presidential election could lead to a crisis for democracy
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and to the collapse of the National Front.
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President Al better let us come out or go preside over a unique coalition government. A
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strange precarious alliance of the two traditional political praties the conservatives
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and the liberals.
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Just look at the
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Capitol map and you think it was just but it was a
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leader of the Liberal Party of Colombia. Cameron say now that the United
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Nation explains how this unique experiment in bipartisan government came about.
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He seemed actually yes Christiane and the reason for this
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getting together of the parties was first of all to ease the political
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tension political strife which had become acute even to get together
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all of the best brains of the country and get them to put aside for a moment the
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extremes of their political positions and reach agreement
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on the basic questions facing the country. The Liberal Party
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took part in the preparation of this agreement.
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No PRESIDENT Yes. So he had been head of the Liberal
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Party and the Liberal Party
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today supports this government of national unity. But there is
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one within the Liberal who still do not agree
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particularly in relation to the alternation of the presidency.
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This minority holds that the people should be free to choose the president that they want
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without regard to party and not be obliged to choose first a
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liberal and then a conservative and so on.
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One of the liberals who does not want to see the principle of alternation between the parties
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continue and is not willing to have the presidency automatically revert in
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1062 to the conservatives is the son of a former Colombian president
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Dr. Alfonso Lopez may Kelson represents a new breed of Latin American
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politician a man of wealth who contrary to his background champions left
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dinged courses. Some observers see in Dr. Lopez Mikkelson
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a demagogue who seeks to gain politically if and when he can topple the National Front.
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In turn he sees himself as representing a group who regard this
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alternation of parties as a negation of democracy. This absence of a
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real choice at the ballot box and the turning over of the presidency to the conservatives Lopez
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told American news men may cause the extreme left to turn to violence.
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I very much fear that in the long run this
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system if it works out we can it was a crisis.
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Very first year of the next president. I mean I
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believe that if we call back to the democratic
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procedure and we'd let those flight in
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favor of Castro. Frankly in favor of Castro
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seek their vote on their own ground.
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I believe that De Castro 3 if we did would disappear.
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But if there is no reefer then we need a democratic life.
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Yeah I very much fear that I only speak going to be
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one of the alternatives facing Colombia if the coalition fails would be the return of a totalitarian
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movement in August 1962 a liberal president here ASCO Margaux will
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step down and a conservative will take over. Whether this can be accomplished
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smoothly and peacefully is the test. Meantime democracy hangs in
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the balance in Colombia. Observers who are optimistic over the
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struggle for democracy in Latin America. I quick to point to the impressive string of
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dictators who have been toppled since the end of World War Two virus in
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Brazil appeared on in old reel in Peru. Roy
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P. Nino in Colombia there is he main is in Venezuela but he
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still in Cuba. And this year saw the 31 year old dictatorship of General
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ECMO Trujillo of the Dominican Republic and in a blaze of machine gun fire.
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We still must see of course whether his son carries out promises of free elections by May of
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1962. Not only a few old style dictators still
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survive in Latin America. These So most are brothers in Nicaragua stressing or in power
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guy and Dubai DA in Haiti. The last days of the
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Battista dictatorship in Cuba rank among the most cruel and violent of 20th century
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tyrants in Latin America save perhaps Trujillo and Paris He minutes. And
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so it was natural that Cuban people welcomed the bearded liberators who came down
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from the Sierra Maestra the overthrow of the Batista regime may be regarded as
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unique in the annals of revolution in Latin America. It was one of the few times that a force
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of armed civilians has defeated a tyrant whose power rested upon a well equipped army.
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Thus at start the Castro revolution appeared to represent a real victory
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for democracy in Latin America. Later came the sad awakening.
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In September of 1959 I
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came to New York to represent as a delegate
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to the United Nations. Keeping my rank.
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From time to time during our very year. I
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went several times to Cuba. And I
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saw how things where I was changing from
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worst to worst.
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Dr. Teresa cuss who saw former Castro diplomat one of about 100000
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Cubans living in the United States in self-imposed exile.
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There was no brains free them. The prisons was where feel like were
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prisoners. Everything I had defended
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I had back in. Universities in a trip I
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took all over South America. Everything was torn
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to pieces and had become a monstrous monstrous
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lie.
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Shortly after the abortive invasion of Cuba by a small army of exiles equipped and
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aided by the United States. Castro described his regime in Cuba as
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socialist in the Soviet sense of the word. Almost
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immediately after Castro came to power tough zealous well paid Castro agents
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began operations in almost all of Latin America. Their aim by
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fomenting riots labor dispute spreading communist propaganda to soften up other
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countries for takeover by Castro type governments.
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I regard feet at least grow as more dangerous than
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communism to the interests of the United States in
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Latin America. Four feet at least is the most
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clear cut expression we have had of the rising tide of
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continental nationalism
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populism a Blanda made all the more pleasing to many Latin
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American palates bite strong flavor of anti
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imperialism and Yankee 4B which of flourished
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again. In those countries since the passing of
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Franklin Roosevelt and his good neighbor policy one of the
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foremost historians of Latin America University of Pennsylvania professor author P. Whitaker
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feet ellys model is already aroused a highly favorable response in many Latin
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American countries despite the handicap obviates
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communist. Yes but I am convinced that the response
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would be even more favorable if either least mon could divest itself
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of this communist Association which a family
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ingrained almost instinctive Continental ism
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or Latin American ism felt by most of the people
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of the countries to the south of us.
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Professor quicker sees the democratic system of the United States on trial in Latin
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America particularly in countries where we have poor and in large amounts of money to
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bail the government out of financial and political troubles.
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Bolivia is such a country despite a substantial and steady
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flow of aid from the United States. But Livio is
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nevertheless today on the verge of bankruptcy.
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The ill success of our experiment in Bolivia
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has faded skepticism in Latin America about the
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viability of their of the whole system both
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economic and political represented by the United States.
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This skepticism in turn has rendered Latin Americans more
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responsive to one of the two main features of feed
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El Castro's type of nationalism namely its exile
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Tasia. All the all thought really Terry I'm a nation state
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which sacrifices freedom to frost draft
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economic development and social reform.
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Castro as well as the communists consider members of the Democratic left as
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bitter enemies. One has only to look at Venezuela to see a prime example. They're
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the extreme left has joined with the extreme right in an attempt to topple the left of
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center government of President Rummy Lobaton cook a student of the Liberal
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Party movement in Latin America. Dr. Harry Kendall believes the popular
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Democratic parties are stealing the communists thunder.
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One thing about the congressman is. Agreed to by everybody was
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steady. That is that the communist movement has spent a tremendous
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amount of money in math America. For this they have
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gotten very little results. The reason that the Communist
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Party has not had too much success is because in most of the
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countries of Latin America indigenous referenced movements have
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sprung up which have managed to win the support of majority of the population.
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Now the Communist Party who whose slogan is that it has a
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monopoly on reform never admits that any other ever missed
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movement can be on the right track. And therefore in those countries where the
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strong buffer Myst movements have sprung up the communist have allied
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themselves with the most conservative and reactionary forces in
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society in an attempt to gain a foothold amongst the masses of
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democratic of Venezuela. The national liberation party of Costa Rica
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the priest the movement of Peru these groups
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have tried to combine. The ideas
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of European democratic socialism with
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ideas about what America or Latin America needs
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to create something new a political ideology. And
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with New Year's Eve seemed to grow stronger and stronger in all the land America.
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One of the bright spots in the struggle for democracy in Latin America is located some
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15 kilometers outside of San Jose Costa Rica. They're in a building formerly
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occupied by a nightclub and restaurant is what has come to be known as a school for
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democracy.
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The Labor Party's over Latin America with a U.S. France house
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founded in Costa Rica. A school for training young political leaders and
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young labor leaders on the Democratic camp. It is a belated
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effort but value might need it.
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One of the school's founders who say figures.
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We expect to have our three groups of 50 boys from all countries
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living together for 90 days on their intensive course on democracy on history and
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economics and political organization around the Democratic
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Labor movement. We hope to large this is core. As we get
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more funds we will and larger the groups. These boys from many countries
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will become an international fraternity of democracy. The fact that they living
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together working together during 90 days on the good sound
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teachers seems to start a very interesting and vigorous movement for
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the future. I'm sorry we answer late but the least we have already started the
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first course is already working.
[26:17 - 26:23]
The struggle for democracy in Latin America is not over. Only a few dictatorships
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remain.
[26:23 - 26:28]
However the picture has been complicated by the introduction of the cult of Fidel Castro
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Seeley's Mo and by communist inroads the success of the
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struggle depends on whether this hemisphere can muster the courage the spunk
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as well as the spiritual strength to meet the new challenge. In any event
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the United States must lead the way from the foreign minister of Costa Rica
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Gonzalo Fessio sums up the role of the United States in the struggle for democracy
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in Latin America.
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The countries that believe in freedom respect the
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United States to lead in the part the United States didn't
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exercise at all that leadership that created a
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great disappointment. I think that if
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the trend that had beene to take form
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during the last year and that being
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increased if we're pretty in Kennedy is going to live up
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to what he promised in the campaign we will have
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a real strong Democratic leadership and that will be
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one of the best things to do to improve the
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United States not in American pressure.
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For the past half hour we've been reporting on the struggle for democracy a
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prot of the contemporary revolution in Latin America.
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The struggle for democracy is the third in a series of weekly documentary reports on
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the contemporary revolution in Latin America. The program is narrated by the
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distinguished American journalist and editor of The Christian Science Monitor
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Wendy Kant. The series is produced in collaboration with the University of Florida
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school of into American studies.
[28:47 - 28:52]
You may receive without charge the text of today's program by writing this station.
[28:52 - 28:57]
This program was prepared and recorded by us for Radio Center
[28:57 - 29:03]
school of journalism and communications University of Florida Gainesville
[29:03 - 29:07]
under a grant from the National Educational Television and Radio Center and is being
[29:07 - 29:12]
distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters.
[29:12 - 29:16]
This is the NOAA E.B. Radio Network.
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This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.