1. Mexico, Cuba, and Central
America
14.2-3

2. The Mexican Way
• 1960’s students in Mexico began to protest
the 1 party government
• 1968 University students in Mexico City
gathered to challenge government policies
– Police opened fire and killed hundreds
• Official party of the Mexican Revolution was
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)

3. New Economic Policies
• 1970’s oil was discovered in Mexico
– Oil prices dropped in 80’s and Mexico couldn’t pay
its foreign debts
• Privatization: the sale of government-owned
companies to private firms
• Vicente Fox- first person elected president
from an opposing party since 1910
• Cesar Chavez-founder of the United Farm
Workers Union

4. Cuban Revolution
• Fidel Castro seized Havana in 1959
– Many Cubans who disagreed with Castro fled to
the U.S.
• 1960 U.S. declared a trade embargo against
Cuba- prohibited trade
• Castro started guerrilla wars and encouraged
peasants to overthrow old regimes in other
parts of Latin America

5. Upheaval in Central America
• El Salvador: Civil war broke out in 1970-80’s
– U.S. provided weapons and training for Salvadoran army to
defeat Marxist guerrillas- peace in 1992
• Nicaragua: U.S. supported the Somoza regime
– Used their position to enrich themselves and when
opposed, used murder and torture to silence it
– Jimmy Carter refused to support them
• Panama: U.S. helped Panama become a nation in 1903-
gave us permission to build canal
– Manuel Noriega took control in 1983 and by 1989 Bush
sent U.S. troops to Panama because of Noriega’s
involvement with the drug trade

6. The Nations of South America

7. Brazil, the Colossus of Latin America
• Brazil faced many economic problems
– Foreign debts, massive inflation, and uneven
distribution of wealth
• Luiz Inacio (Lula) da Silva became president
and tried to make Brazil more independent in
global trade
– Social problems remained severe
– 15% of people in cities unemployed in 2003

8. Argentina and Chile
• Juan Peron: member of military regime
– Used his position to gain support of the workers
by improving working conditions and unions
– Became VP and then President of Argentina
– Followed a policy of increased industrialization
and tried to free Argentina from foreign investors
– Created fascist gangs that used violence to terrify
Peron’s opponents
– Eventually overthrown and sent into exile

9. Argentina Cont
• Military was defeated at the Falkland Islands
and was discredited
• New presidents worked to restore democracy
• Inflation and foreign debt have been a
handicap, but growth still continues

10. Chile
• Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Marxist
president Salvador Allende
• Pinochet’s regime was brutal
– Thousands of opponents were tortured,
murdered, or imprisoned
– Outlawed all political parties
– Desaparecidos “The Disappeared”