History 343 Final

Orlando Letelier

(April 13, 1932 - September 21, 1976) was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende. As a refugee from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Letelier accepted several academic positions in Washington, D.C., where he was assassinated by Pinochet's DINA agents in 1976.

General Paul Aussaresses

A French Army general, who fought during World War II, the First Indochina War and Algerian War. His actions during the Algerian War, and later defense of those actions, caused considerable controversy. Aussaresses provoked controversy in 2000, when in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he admitted and defended the use of torture during the Algerian war.

Revolutionary Warfare

A form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as armed civilians or irregulars use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military. The strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to focus around the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, more unwieldy one. The guerrilla focuses on organizing in small units, depending on the support of the local population, as well as taking advantage of terrain more accommodating of small units. Tactically, the guerrilla army would avoid any confrontation with large units of enemy troops, but seek and eliminate small groups of soldiers to minimize losses and exhaust the opposing force. Not limiting their targets to personnel, enemy resources are also preferred targets. All of that is to weaken the enemy's strength, to cause the enemy eventually to be unable to prosecute the war any longer, and to force the enemy to withdraw.

Contras

A label given to the various rebel groups that were active from 1979 through to the early 1990s in opposition to the Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance. From an early stage, the rebels received financial and military support from the United States government, and their military significance decisively depended on it. After US support was banned by Congress, the Reagan administration covertly continued it. These covert activities culminated in the Iran-Contra affair.

Truth Commissions

A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state actors also), in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. They are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest, civil war, or dictatorship.

Henry Kissinger

American diplomat and political scientist. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with the People's Republic of China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger's Realpolitik resulted in controversial policies such as CIA involvement in Chile.

John F. Kennedy

American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Notable events that occurred during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the establishment of the Peace Corps, the Space Race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and the increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Kennedy sought to contain the perceived threat of communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress, which sent aid to some countries and sought greater human rights standards in the region.[92] He worked closely with Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín for the development of the Alliance of Progress, and began working towards the autonomy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Death Squads

An armed group that conducts extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances of persons for the purposes of political repression, genocide, or revolutionary terror. Death squads may have the support of domestic or foreign governments. security forces in Argentina first started using "death squads" in late 1973. One example was Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, a far-right death squad mainly active during the "Dirty War". By the time military rule ended in 1983 some 1,500 people had been killed directly by "death squads", and over 9,000 named people and many more undocumented victims had been "disappeared"—kidnapped and murdered secretly—according to the officially appointed National Commission on Disappeared People (CONADEP).

Cabinda

An exclave and province of Angola, a status that has been disputed by many political organizations in the territory. Adjacent to the coast are some of the largest offshore oil fields in the world. Cabinda also produces hardwoods, coffee, cacao, rubber, and palm oil products, however, petroleum production accounts for most of Cabinda's domestic product. In 1885, the Treaty of Simulambuco established in Cabinda a protectorate of Portugal and a number of Cabindan independence movements consider the occupation of the territory by Angola illegal. While the Angolan Civil War largely ended in 2002, an armed struggle persists in the exclave of Cabinda, where some of the factions have proclaimed an independent Republic of Cabinda, with offices in Paris.

Contadora Group

An initiative launched in the early 1980s by the foreign ministers of Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela to deal with the military conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, which were threatening to destabilize the entire Central American region. The initiative drew international attention to Central America's conflicts and pressured for a softening of the militarist stance of the United States in the region. Documents that were made in response: -Document of Objectives -Contadora Act on Peace and Co-operation in Central America While the Contadora group ultimately failed to establish a credible peace formula with the backing of all regional governments, it did lay the foundations for such a plan to emerge in subsequent years. Under the leadership of Costa Rican president Óscar Arias, the so-called Esquipulas Peace Agreement emerged from the remains of Contadora in 1986 and led to a fundamental reshaping of Central American politics.

General Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet (Spanish pronunciation: [auˈɣusto pinoˈtʃet];[1] 25 November 1915 - 10 December 2006), was dictator[2][3] of Chile between 1973 and 1990 and Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army from 1973 to 1998. He was also president of the Government Junta of Chile between 1973 and 1981.[4] Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d'état on 11 September 1973

Los Desparecidos

During Argentina's Dirty War and Operation Condor, many alleged political dissidents were abducted or illegally detained and kept in clandestine detention centers where they were questioned, tortured, and sometimes killed. The disappeared ones were people who were considered to be a political or ideological threat to the military junta. The Argentine military justified torture to obtain intelligence and saw the disappearances as a way to curb political dissidence. Eventually, many of the captives were heavily drugged and loaded onto aircraft, from which they were thrown alive while in flight over the Atlantic Ocean in the so-called "death flights" or (vuelos de la muerte), so as to leave no trace of their death. Without any dead bodies, the government could easily deny any knowledge of their whereabouts and any accusations that they had been killed. In addition, the forced disappearances was the military junta's attempt to silence the opposition and break the determination of the guerrillas. People murdered in this way (and in others) are today referred to as "the disappeared" (los desaparecidos).

Doctrine of National Security

During the second half of the twentieth century, large sections of the population were exterminated in various parts of Latin America. Most of these events followed a similar pattern and were the result of what became known as the National Security Doctrine. The practice of systematic annihilation of political enemies in Latin America, which began as early as 1954 with the military coup in Guatemala, continued almost until the beginning of the twenty-first century, spreading throughout practically all of Latin America. James Burnham ideas influential in development of National Security Doctrine.

General Carlos Prats

General Carlos Prats González (February 24, 1915 - September 30, 1974) was a Chilean Army officer, a political figure, minister and Vice President of Chile during President Salvador Allende's government, and commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army. He went into voluntary exile in Argentina immediately after General Augusto Pinochet's September 11, 1973 coup. The following year, he was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina by a car bomb, revealed as committed by the DINA of Chile.

Leonid Brezhnev

General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. During Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation in the Soviet Union. While at the helm of the USSR, Brezhnev pushed for détente between the Eastern and Western countries.

10-Million-Ton Harvest

In 1970, the Cuban government attempted to culminate an economic plan, conceived late in 1963 that aspired to break all historic sugar production records by producing a ten million-ton sugar harvest. The Cuban sugar economy is the principal agricultural economy in Cuba. In two years after World War II, the price of sugar in Cuba went from 4 cents a pound to more than 20 cents a pound. It soon experienced a bust as the European economy reprospered after the war, and its prices went below four cents, causing ruin to many sugar farmers. It was subject of a reciprocal trade pact with the Soviet Union. In 1970 Fidel Castro's panic became the rush for an unattained 10 million ton harvest of sugar cane. Although it was a record, it was not sufficient in sustaining the Cuban economy at a moderate level, it would be years before the Cubans would cease to feel the sting.

Alliance for Progress

Initiated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. The program was signed at an inter-American conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay, in August 1961. The charter called for: -an annual increase of 2.5% in per capita income, -the establishment of democratic governments, -the elimination of adult illiteracy by 1970 -price stability, to avoid inflation or deflation -more equitable income distribution, land reform, -economic and social planning.[2][3] First, the plan called for Latin American countries to pledge a capital investment of $80 billion over 10 years. The United States agreed to supply or guarantee $20 billion within one decade.[3] Second, Latin American delegates required the participating countries to draw up comprehensive plans for national development. These plans were then to be submitted for approval by an inter-American board of experts. Third, tax codes had to be changed to demand "more from those who have most" and land reform was to be implemented.

General Jorge Videla

Jorge Rafael Videla (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxorxe rafaˈel βiˈðela]; 2 August 1925 - 17 May 2013) was a senior commander in the Argentine Army and dictator of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón. Two years after the return of a representative democratic government in 1983, he was prosecuted in the Trial of the Juntas for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or forced disappearance, widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists, political opponents (either real, suspected or alleged) as well as their families, at secret concentration camps.

Manuel Contreras

Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda (born May 4, 1929) is a Chilean military officer and the former head of DINA, Chile's secret police during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. As head of DINA he was the most powerful and feared man in the country, after Pinochet. He is currently serving 25 sentences totaling 289 years in prison for kidnapping, forced disappearance and assassination.[1]

Operation Carlota

Luanda would be taken and that their training missions were in grave danger unless they took immediate action. Neto had requested immediate and massive reinforcements from Havana at the urging of Argüelles.On 4 November Castro decided to launch an intervention on an unprecedented scale, codenaming the mission Operation Carlota. Castro decided to support Angola in all openness, sending special forces and 35,000 infantry by the end of 1976, deploying them at Cuba's own expense and with its own means from November 1975 to January 1976. As on its previous missions all personnel were volunteers and the call-up was extremely popular.

Counterinsurgency

May be defined as 'comprehensive civilian and military efforts taken to simultaneously defeat and contain insurgency and address its root causes'. Counter-insurgency campaigns of duly-elected or politically recognized governments take place during war, occupation by a foreign military or police force, and when internal conflicts that involve subversion and armed rebellion occur. The best counterinsurgency campaigns "integrate and synchronize political, security, economic, and informational components that reinforce governmental legitimacy and effectiveness while reducing insurgent influence over the population. COIN strategies should be designed to simultaneously protect the population from insurgent violence; strengthen the legitimacy and capacity of government institutions to govern responsibly and marginalize insurgents politically, socially, and economically."

Michael Townley

Michael Vernon Townley (born December 5, 1942 in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American professional assassin currently living under terms of the US federal witness protection program. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent[citation needed] and operative of the Chilean secret police, known as the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), Townley confessed, was convicted, and served 62 months in prison in the United States for the 1976 Washington, D.C., assassination of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States. As part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution and was therefore not extradited to Argentina to stand trial for the assassination of Chilean general Carlos Prats and his wife.[1] Townley has also been convicted (1993), in absentia, by an Italian court for carrying out the 1975 Rome murder attempt on Bernardo Leighton.[2] Townley worked in producing chemical weapons for Chilean dictator General Pinochet's use against political opponents along with Colonel Gerardo Huber[3] and the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berríos.[4] His father, John Vernon Townley, was also a CIA agent in Chile and Venezuela.

Cocaine

My favorite type of drug. Nothing beats some bugger sugar. Produced in Columbia and smuggled into the US. Made from the Coca leaf.

Oliver North

Oliver Laurence "Ollie" North (born October 7, 1943) is a political commentator and television host, military historian, New York Times best-selling author, and a former United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.[1] North is primarily remembered for his term as a National Security Council staff member during the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. The scandal involved the clandestine sale of weapons to Iran, supposedly to encourage the release of U.S. hostages then held in Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan, which was to divert proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua, which had been specifically prohibited under the Boland Amendment.[2] He was the host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel.[3]

Operation Condor

Operation Condor (Spanish: Operación Cóndor, also known as Plan Cóndor, Portuguese: Operação Condor) was a campaign of political repression and state terror involving intelligence operations and assassination of opponents, officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America. The program was intended to eradicate communist or Soviet influence and ideas, and to suppress active or potential opposition movements against the participating governments.[1] Due to its clandestine nature, the precise number of deaths directly attributable to Operation Condor is highly disputed. Some estimates are that at least 60,000 deaths can be attributed to Condor,[2] and possibly more.[3] Condor's key members were the governments in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. The United States government provided technical support and supplied military aid to the participants until at least 1978, and again after Republican Ronald Reagan became President in 1981. Such support was frequently routed through the Central Intelligence Agency. Ecuador and Peru later joined the operation in more peripheral roles.[4] These efforts, such as Operation Charly, supported the local juntas in their anti-communist

IAFEATURE

Operation IA Feature, a covert Central Intelligence Agency operation, authorized U.S. government support for Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and Holden Roberto's National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) militants in the Angolan Civil War. It was closely linked with parallel efforts by South Africa (Operation Savannah) and Zaire. President Gerald Ford approved the program on July 18, 1975 despite strong opposition from officials in the State Department and the CIA. The program's discovery shocked Congress into barring further U.S. involvement in Angola's Civil War through the Clark Amendment. The Soviet Union would respond by increasing its involvement in Angola, leading to more violence and negative publicity for the United States.

Panama Canal Treaty

Part of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The second treaty is titled The Panama Canal Treaty and provided that as from 12:00 on December 31, 1999, Panama would assume full control of canal operations and become primarily responsible for its defense. The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the second treaty on April 18, 1978. The treaty laid out a timetable for the transfer of the canal, leading to a complete handover of all lands and buildings in the canal area to Panama. The most immediate consequence of this treaty was that the Canal Zone, as an entity, ceased to exist on October 1, 1979. The final phase of the treaty was completed on December 31, 1999. On this date, the United States relinquished control of the Panama Canal and all areas in what had been the Panama Canal Zone. As a result of the treaties, by the year 2000, 7,000 buildings, such as military facilities, warehouses, schools, and private residences, were transferred to Panama. In 1993, the Panamanian government created a temporary agency, Interoceanic Region Authority, to administer and maintain the reverted properties.

Nikita Khrushchev

Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964.

Salvador Allende

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (Spanish: [salβaˈðoɾ aˈʝende ˈɣosens]; 26 June 1908 - 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and politician, known as the first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.[2]

Agostinho Neto

Served as the first President of Angola (1975-1979), after having led the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the war for independence (1961-1974). Until his death, he led the MPLA in the civil war (1975-2002). Neto met Che Guevara in 1965 and began receiving support from Cuba. He visited Havana many times, and he and Fidel Castro shared similar ideological views. Neto became the nation's ruler after the MPLA seized Luanda at the expense of the other anti-colonial movements. He established a one-party state and his government developed close links with the Soviet Union and other nations in the Eastern bloc and other Communist states, particularly Cuba, which aided the MPLA considerably in its war with the FNLA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and South Africa. However, while Neto made the MPLA declare Marxism-Leninism its official doctrine, his position was to favour a socialist, not a communist model. As a consequence, he violently repressed a movement later called Fractionism which in 1977 attempted a coup d' état inspired by the Organização dos Comunistas de Angola. Tens of thousands followers (or alleged followers) of Nito Alves were executed in the aftermath of the attempted coup, over a period that lasted up to two years.

Alvor Agreement

Signed on January 15, 1975, granted Angola independence from Portugal on November 11, ending the war for independence while marking the transition to the Angolan Civil War. Signed by the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the Portuguese government. The coalition government established by the Alvor Agreement soon fell as the various nationalist factions, each distrustful of the other and unwilling to share power, attempted to take control of the country by force. The parties agreed to hold the first assembly elections in October 1975. The Portuguese government's main goal in negotiations was preventing the mass emigration of white Angolans. The agreement called for the integration of the militant wings of the Angolan parties into a new military, the Angolan Defense Forces.

Parallel State

The "parallel state" is a term coined by American historian Robert Paxton to describe a collection of organizations or institutions that are state-like in their organization, management and structure, but they are not officially part of the legitimate state or government. They serve primarily to promote the prevailing political and social ideology of the state. The parallel state differs from the more commonly used "state within a state" in that they are usually endorsed by the prevailing political elite of a country, while the "state within a state" is a pejorative term to describe state-like institutions that operate without the consent of and even to the detriment to the authority of an established state (such as churches and religious institutions or secret societies with their owns laws and court systems).

September 11, 1973

The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed event in both the Cold War and the history of Chile. Following an extended period of social and political unrest between the conservative-dominated Congress of Chile and the socialist President Salvador Allende, as well as economic warfare ordered by U.S. President Richard Nixon,[2] Allende was overthrown by the armed forces and national police.[3][4] The military abolished the civilian government and established a junta that brutally repressed left-wing political activity both domestically and abroad. Allende's army chief, Augusto Pinochet, rose to supreme power within a year of the coup, formally assuming power in late 1974.[5] The United States government, which had worked to create the conditions for the coup,[6] promptly recognized the junta government and supported it in consolidating power.[7]

Boland Amendment

The Boland Amendment is a term describing three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. The first Boland Amendment was part of the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as a rider to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983, named for the Massachusetts Democrat, Representative Edward Boland, who authored it. The House of Representatives passed the Defense Appropriations Act 411-0 on December 8, 1982 and it was signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1982.[1] The amendment outlawed U.S. assistance to the Contras for the purpose of overthrowing the Nicaraguan government, while allowing assistance for other purposes.[2] Beyond restricting overt U.S. support of the Contras, the most significant effect of the Boland Amendment was the Iran-Contra affair, during which the Reagan Administration circumvented the Amendment, without consent of Congress, in order to continue supplying arms to the Contras.

Caravan of Death

The Caravan of Death (Spanish: Caravana de la Muerte) was a Chilean Army death squad that, following the Chilean coup of 1973, flew by helicopters from south to north of Chile between September 30 and October 22, 1973. During this foray, members of the squad ordered or personally carried out the execution of at least 75 individuals held in Army custody in certain garrisons.[1] According to the NGO Memoria y Justicia, the squad killed 26 in the South and 71 in the North, making a total of 97 victims.[2] Augusto Pinochet was indicted in December 2002 in this case, but he died four years later without having been judged. His trial, however, is ongoing since his and other military personnel and a former military chaplain have also been indicted in this case.

El Mozote massacre

The El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when the Salvadoran Army killed more than 800 civilians[1] during the Salvadoran Civil War.

Iran-Contra affair

The Iran-Contra affair (Persian: ایران-کنترا‎, Spanish: caso Irán-Contra), also referred to as Irangate,[1] Contragate[2] or the Iran-Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[3] They hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of several US hostages and use the money to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.

Kerry Subcommittee

The Kerry Committee report was the result of hearings of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations chaired by Senator John Kerry. The report found the United States Department of State had paid drug traffickers. Some of these payments were after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges or while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. The Kerry investigation lasted two and a half years and heard scores of witnesses; its report was released on April 13, 1989.[1] The final report was 400 pages, with an additional 600-page appendix. The committee stated It is clear that individuals who provided support for the Contras were involved in drug trafficking...and elements of the Contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers.[2]

FNLA

The National Front for the Liberation of Angola, a militant centre-left organization that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence, under the leadership of Holden Roberto. Whilst left leaning, it distinguished itself from the Soviet-Union-backed MPLA, and was sponsored by the USA and Maoist China (which at the time was in a cold war with the Soviet Union). As such MPLA, FNLA and Unita were all pawns in the geopolitical struggles of the super powers of the time. Became a political party in 1992.

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan War for Independence (1961-1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war (1975-2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid from the United States and South Africa while the MPLA received support from the Soviet Union and its allies. Founder: Jonas Savimbi.

MPLA

The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, a political party that has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975. The MPLA was founded in 1956, merged two nationalist organizations and was centred in the country's capital city of Luanda. From 1962 it was led by Agostinho Neto, who eventually became Angola's first president. Often in conflict, with the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). Supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union. Gradual shift in the party from its Marxist-Leninist stance to one more conducive to establishing relations with Western countries.

Joseph Mobutu

The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which Mobutu renamed Zaire in 1971) from 1965 to 1997. Installed and supported in office primarily by Belgium and the United States, he formed an authoritarian regime, amassed vast personal wealth, and attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence while enjoying considerable support from the United States due to his anti-communist stance. Mobutu established a single-party state in which all power was concentrated in his hands. He also became the object of a pervasive cult of personality. During his reign, Mobutu built a highly centralized state and amassed a large personal fortune through economic exploitation and corruption, leading some to call his rule a "kleptocracy." The nation suffered from uncontrolled inflation, a large debt, and massive currency devaluations. By 1991, economic deterioration and unrest led him to agree to share power with opposition leaders, but he used the army to thwart change until May 1997, when rebel forces led by Laurent Kabila expelled him from the country. Mobutu became notorious for corruption, nepotism, widespread human rights violations, and embezzlement.

FARC

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People's Army (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP and FARC) is a guerilla movement[9] involved in the continuing Colombian armed conflict since 1964. It has been known to employ a variety of military tactics[10] in addition to more unconventional methods including terrorism.[11][12][13][14] The FARC-EP have a claim to be an army of peasant Marxist-Leninists with a political platform of agrarianism and anti-imperialism. The operations of the FARC-EP are funded by kidnap to ransom, illegal mining, extortion and/or taxation of various forms of economic activity and the production and distribution of illegal drugs.[15][16]

Sandinistas

The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)` is today a democratic socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States' occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s. Sandinistas overthrew President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending 46 years of dictatorship by the Somoza family and established a revolutionary government in its place. They instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality. The Sandinistas governed Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990. A militia, known as the Contras was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency. After revising the constitution in 1987 and after years of resisting the United States-supported Contras the FSLN lost the election in 1990 to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, but they retained a plurality of seats in the legislature. The FSLN remains one of Nicaragua's two leading parties.

Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research.

SADF

The South African Defense Force, comprised the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, which was established by the Defence Act (No. 44) of 1957. The SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994. The SADF was organised to perform a dual mission: to counter possible insurgency in all forms, and to maintain a conventional military arm which could defend the republic's borders, making retaliatory strikes as necessary.

School of the Americas

The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the US Army School of the Americas,[1][2] is a United States Department of Defense Institute located at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia, that provides military training to government personnel in US-allied Latin American nations. The school was founded in 1946 and from 1961 was assigned the specific goal of teaching "anti-communist counterinsurgency training," a role which it would fulfill for the rest of the Cold War.[3] In this period, it educated several Latin American dictators, generations of their military and, during the 1980s, included the uses of torture in its curriculum.[4][5] In 2000/2001, the institute was renamed to WHINSEC.[6][7]:233

Détente

The easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of the geo-political tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States which began in 1969, as a foreign policy of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford called détente; a "thawing out" or "un-freezing" at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. The period was characterized by the signing of treaties such as SALT I and the Helsinki Accords. Another treaty, SALT II, was discussed but never ratified by the United States. There is still ongoing debate amongst historians as to how successful the détente period was in achieving peace.

Ato Institucional 5

The fifth of seventeen major decrees issued by the military dictatorship in the years following the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil. Institutional Acts were the highest form of legislation during the military regime, given that, issued on behalf of the "Supreme Command of the Revolution" (the regime's leadership) they overruled even the Nation's Constitution, and were enforced without the possibility of judicial review. AI-5, the most infamous of all Institutional Acts, was issued by President Artur da Costa e Silva on December 13, 1968. It resulted in the forfeiture of mandates, interventions ordered by the President in municipalities and states and also in the suspension of any constitutional guarantees which eventually resulted in the institutionalization of the torture commonly used as a tool by the State. Written by then Minister of Justice ,Luís Antônio da Gama e Silva. It also aimed to consolidate the ambitions of a group inside the military, known as "hardline", unwilling to give the power back to the civilians anytime soon.

Dirty Wars

The name used by the Argentine Military Government for a period of state terrorism in Argentina from roughly 1974 to 1983 (some sources date the beginning to 1969), during which military and security forces and right-wing death squads in the form of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A) hunted down and killed left-wing guerrillas, political dissidents, and anyone believed to be associated with socialism. The victims of the violence were 7,158-30,000 left-wing activists and militants, including trade unionists, students, journalists and Marxists and Peronist guerrillas and their support network in the Montoneros.

Peaceful Coexistence

Theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points during the Cold War in the context of primarily Marxist-Leninist foreign policy and was adopted by Soviet-influenced "Socialist states" that they could peacefully coexist with the capitalist bloc (i.e., non-socialist states). This was in contrast to the antagonistic contradiction principle that Communism and capitalism could never coexist in peace. The Soviet Union applied it to relations between the western world, particularly between the United States and NATO countries and the nations of the Warsaw Pact. Khrushchev solidified the concept in Soviet foreign policy in 1956 at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The policy arose as a temptation to reduce hostility between the two superpowers, particularly in light of the possibility of nuclear war. The Soviet theory of peaceful coexistence asserted that the United States and USSR, and their respective political ideologies, could coexist together rather than fighting one another. *****One of the most outspoken critics of peaceful coexistence during the early 1960s was Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. As a leader in the Cuban government during the October Missile Crisis, Guevara believed that a repeat invasion by the United States (after the Bay of Pigs) would be justifiable grounds for a nuclear war. In Guevara's view, the capitalist block was composed of "hyenas and jackals" that "fed on unarmed peoples."*****

War on Drugs

War on Drugs is an American term commonly applied to a campaign of prohibition of drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the stated aim being to define and reduce the illegal drug trade.The term was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference given on June 18, 1971, by United States President Richard Nixon—the day after publication of a special message from President Nixon to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control—during which he declared drug abuse "public enemy number one". Tied together with Colombia and cocaine smuggling.

Rettig Report

he Rettig Report, officially The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, is a 1991 report by a commission designated by then-President Patricio Aylwin (from the Concertación) encompassing human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in Chile during the years of military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, which began on September 11, 1973 and ended on March 11, 1990. They found that over 2,000 people had been killed for political reasons, and dozens of military personnel have been convicted of human rights abuses.

Archbishop Óscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 - 24 March 1980)[2] was a bishop of the Catholic Church in El Salvador, and declared a martyr by Pope Francis on 3 February 2015. He became the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.[3] His spiritual life drew much from the spirituality of Opus Dei.[4][5] In 1980, after attending an Opus Dei recollection, Romero was assassinated while offering Mass.[6]