When states kill : Latin America, the U.S., and technologies of terror / edited by Cecilia Menjivar and Nestor Rodriguez.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Menjívar, Cecilia.

Rodriguez, Néstor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

State-sponsored terrorism--Latin America.

State-sponsored terrorism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (389 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since the early twentieth century, technological transfers from the United States to Latin American countries have involved technologies of violence for social control. As the chapters in this book illustrate, these technological transfers have taken various forms, including the training of Latin American military personnel in surveillance and torture and the provision of political and logistic support for campaigns of state terror. The human cost for Latin America has been enormous—thousands of Latin Americans have been murdered, disappeared, or tortured, and whole communities have been terrorized into silence. Organized by region, the essays in this book address the topic of state-sponsored terrorism in a variety of ways. Most take the perspective that state-directed political violence is a modern development of a regional political structure in which U.S. political interests weigh heavily. Others acknowledge that Latin American states enthusiastically received U.S. support for their campaigns of terror. A few see local culture and history as key factors in the implementation of state campaigns of political violence. Together, all the essays exemplify how technologies of terror have been transferred among various Latin American countries, with particular attention to the role that the United States, as a "strong" state, has played in such transfers.

Contents:

State terror in the U.S.-Latin American interstate regime / Cecilia Menjivar and Nestor Rodriguez

Operation Condor as a hemispheric "counterterror" organization / J. Patrice McSherry

"The blood of the people" : the Guardia Nacional's fifty-year war against the people of Nicaragua, 1927-1979 / Richard Grossman

The culture and politics of state terror and repression in El Salvador / Aldo A. Lauria-Santiago

Caught in the crossfire : militarization, paramilitarization, and state violence in Oaxaca, Mexico / Kristin Norget

Bloody deeds/hechos sangrientos : reading Guatemala's record of political violence in cadaver reports / M. Gabriela Torres

U.S. militarization of Honduras in the 1980s and the creation of CIA-backed death squads / Joan Kruckewitt

"No hay rosas sin espinas" : statecraft in Costa Rica / Annamarie Oliverio and Pat Lauderdale

The Colombian nightmare : human rights abuses and the contradictory effects of U.S. foreign policy / John C. Dugas

The path of state terror in Peru / Abderrahman Beggar

Turning on their masters : state terrorism and unlearning democracy in Uruguay / Jeffrey J. Ryan

Producing and exporting state terror : the case of Argentina / Ariel C. Armony

New responses to state terror / Cecilia Menjivar and Nestor Rodriguez

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-292-79670-6

OCLC:

62240572