bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Narcos and Politicos: The Politics of Drug Trafficking in Honduras
Authors: Rosenberg Mark B.
Published: March 2007

Honduras Has Emerged as a cocaine transshipment point between Colombia and the United States. One informed source suggests that as much as fifty tons of cocaine have moved through the country during the last fifteen months. This paper examines the politics of drug trafficking in Honduras. Special attention is given to the relations between drug trafficking and the Honduran political environment, the emergence of a new “powder elite, ” and the manner in which US and Honduran authorities are addressing these problems.

One of the hemisphere's poorest countries by almost all standards of development, Honduras has a population of about 4.5 million people and an area the size of Tennessee. Unlike neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador where a national oligarchy has enhanced its wealth through an extensive coffee industry, Honduras first emerged in the international economy through its foreign-owned banana enterprises which still are a leading source of foreign exchange.
Prospects for Revolution in Post-Castro Cuba
Authors: Mazarr Michael J.
Published: March 2007

Last January marked the 30th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, and it could be that, within a decade, that small islandnation will be transformed once again. Since 1959, Castro's Cuba has remained a politically repressive, economically stagnant, militarily adventuristic state. The legitimacy of the Cuban regime depends, in many ways, on the persona of Fidel Castro; when he dies, the government will face by far its severest test to date and, most probably, at a time when a potentially deadly economic and systemic crisis continues to threaten the Cuban polity. Revolutionary or reformist elements will almost certainly emerge to demand change.
Political Ascent of Bolivia's Peasant Coca Leaf Producers
Authors: Healy Kevin
Published: March 2007

During the Past Decade, Bolivia's peasant coca-leaf growers have made impressive strides in political development. This development is demonstrated by their almost mercurial ascent within the national political system, a climb which parallels the upward economic mobility of many growers. Organized through a network of unions (sindicatos), and determined to resist state policies and programs which threaten their local economies, Bolivia's peasant coca-leaf producers have learned to improve their political skills, including the building of alliances with other key political actors.

The thesis advanced here holds that not only has the peasant sindicato movement blocked attempts of the state to both reduce coca production and control coca-leaf marketing, but that those same state policies have actually strengthened the Left-of-Center labor unions and opposition political parties. Moreover, while the international war on drugs has thus far proved only minimally effective in curbing the flow of drugs from the Andean region, it has succeeded in antagonizing the sindicato organization of cocaleaf growers to the point that anti-US sentiment is widespread throughout the Bolivian countryside.
Post-Revolutionary Mexico: The Salinas Opening
Authors: Pastor Robert A.
Published: March 2007

Americans have been so transfixed by the fall of the Berlin Wall — and subsequently riveted to the Persian Gulf crisis — that they have failed to notice the crumbling of the walls that have segmented Mexico and separated it from the United States. Yet Mexico's opening may be more significant for the United States because of its potential for infusing both economies and reshaping the two societies. Challenging a long tradition of state control and anti—Americanism, Carlos Salinas de Gortari is leading this change, transforming Mexico and US-Mexican relations more profoundly and positively than any president in this century.

Not yet one-third into his term, he has already moved decisively to wrestle control from union bosses and drug traffickers; he has sold off state corporations, de-regulated large sectors of the economy, lowered trade and investment barriers, and began, grudgingly, to democratize. Yet his most daring gamble is his proposal for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, and he is ready to sell the idea in both countries.
Guatemala in Search of Democracy
Authors: Frundt Henry J.
Published: March 2007

In the political debate which swirls around “democratization” Guatemala must be counted. The policies of its first civilian government since the 1960s, now completing its term, have been important for the success of regional peace. Yet a new wave of violence surrounds the preparation for elections and is testing the government's fragile accomplishments. Underlying such phenomena is Guatemala's struggle to discover what democracy really means in the Latin context where elected officials often serve as a façade for ongoing military control.The contest extends the debate beyond bourgeois and popular conceptions of democracy, especially when Guatemala's civilian-military government is characterized as a “permanent counter-insurgency state” (see Anderson and Simon, 1987; exchange of letters in The Nation, 1989; Guatemalan Church in Exile, 1989). Such a portrayal effectively reduces the nation's democratic manifestations to a charade.
Panama's First Post-Transition Election
Authors: Scranton Margaret E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to provide, for specialists as well as those who do not follow Panamanian politics, an account of the 1994 election and an assessment of its significance in terms of the consolidation of democracy in Panama. Panama held its first post-transition national election on 8 May 1994, in which not only presidential and legislative, but also local, offices were contested.

This analysis addresses both the electoral process and its product, i.e., which parties and candidates won. These two aspects are assessed separately because they (1) reflect different political dynamics and (2) have different implications for democratic consolidation. As a process, Panama's 1994 election reflected the substantial progress made toward institutionalizing an independent, nonpartisan Electoral Tribunal and building the public's confidence that their votes cast will determine who wins.
The Issue of Drug Traffic in Colombian-US Relations: Cooperation as an Imperative
Authors: García-Peña Rodrigo Pardo
Published: March 2007

The objective of this article is to offer a brief commentary, within a theoretical and conceptual framework, on the drug traffic (which could equally apply, for that matter, to any issue of worldwide import, such as the environment or human rights) that could serve as a point of reference in the relationship between the countries of Latin America (like Colombia) or the Third World and those of the industrialized North, such as the United States.

This article will argue that, in dealing with global issues, like that of the narcotraffic, it is necessary to take into account two components with close links to one another. The first of these arises from the fact that global issues require global politics to deal with them.
Securing Central America Against Communism: The United States and the Modernization of Surveillance in the Cold War
Authors: Holden Robert H.
Published: March 2007

The US.-sponsored programs of military and police collaboration with the Central American governments during the Cold War also contributed to the surveillance capacity of those states during the period when the Central American state formation process was being completed. Guatemala is used as a case study. Washington’s contribution was framed by the conventional discourse of “security against communism” but also by an underlying technocratic ethos in which “modernization” and “security” were higher priorities than democratization.
Getting to Peace in El Salvador: The Roles of the United Nations Secretariat and ONUSAL
Authors: Montgomery Tornmie Sue
Published: March 2007

During 1995, the 50th anniversary year of the United Nations (UN), news of the failure of its peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda dominated the media and political rhetoric. In El Salvador, however, a UN mission with a legitimate claim to success was able to close its doors on 30 April 1995. How is this remarkable achievement to be explained? And, what are the lessons — positive and negative — that can be learned from the 45 months during which the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (Misión de Obseruadores de las Naciones Unidas en El Salvador or ONUSAL) oversaw a transition from war to peace and verified a lengthy set of peace accords?

The success of ONUSAL was anything but assured when it began in July 1991, some six months before there was even a cease-fire.
The Clinton Administration and the Americas: The Postwar Rhythm and Blues
Authors: Pastor Robert A.
Published: March 2007

For 40 years, the United States was so fearful of a thermonuclear bang that it barely noticed the whimper when the Cold War ended. There was not even any agreement on the date of the war’s end. Still, the people of the United States sensed its eagle had completed a great adventure and was returning to its nest, and that’s where they wanted it.

President George Bush was more sensitive to the shift in the balance of power in the Persian Gulf than to the swing in US mood. His quick success in the Persian Gulf lifted his popularity to a zenith, making his reelection defeat the next year all the more painful and seemingly inexplicable.
Democratic Disequilibrium in Venezuela
Authors: McCoy Jennifer L. , Smith William C.
Published: March 2007

Venezuela's contemporary politics poses a problematic different from those predominating in the literature on democratization. Scholarly research in the last decade focused first on the crisis of authoritarian rule and the ensuingtransitionto civilian governments, with the reestablishment of electoral procedures, and, more recently, on the problems of theconsolidationof a democratic regime, including alternation in power, universal acceptance of the rules of the game, and generation of a democratic political culture.

The challenges confronting Venezuela are not those of transition or consolidation but, rather, the decomposition — ordeconsolidation— of an established democratic regime. In other Latin American countries in recent decades, longstanding models of statist development developed crises that led, in turn, to complex transformations in the economy and in society. One consequence of these changes was that authoritarian regimes began a transition to more democratic forms of governance.
Lessons to Build On: The 1994 Mexican Presidential Election
Authors: Scherlen Renee G.
Published: March 2007

The 1994 presidential election presents a paradox for students of Mexican politics in particular and democratization in general. The year witnessed many numerous and far-reaching changes, both planned and unplanned. An uprising in the state of Chiapas; the assassination of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio; a sweeping electoral reform; and a hotly contested presidential race marked the unprecedented year in Mexican politics. The election results, however, were the same as in every previous presidential election for more than sixty years: a victory by the PRI candidate, in this case Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León. How to explain this? What significance does the outcome have for understanding the process of regime democratization?
Democratization Through Peace: The Difficult Case of Guatemala
Authors: Jonas Susanne
Published: March 2007

The Guatemalan peace process provides an excellent opportunity to revisit a number of discussions about political democratization and social justice in Latin America. It is the premise of this article that fulfillment of the peace accords, particularly on demilitarization, is the necessary precondition for full development of political democracy in Guatemala. The article first summarizes how, beyond ending the war, the peace process has contributed to Guatemala’s democratization, and then analyzes the Guatemalan experience since the early 1980s as a means to address some of the broad theoretical debates.
Some Sources of Income Inequality in Latín America
Authors: Reynolds Lloyd G.
Published: March 2007

This paper considers the deep-seated roots of income inequality in the structure of Latin American economics. These include unequal distribution of land ownership, the “Kuznets effect” of rapid industrialization, regressive tax systems, and failure of governments to pursue aggressively income equalization policies. While examples are drawn from the experience of Brazil and Mexico, similar conclusions hold for other countries of the region.
NAFTA Coalitions and the Political Viability of Neoliberalism in Mexico
Authors: Thacker Strom C.
Published: March 2007

The process of political coalition building surrounding trade reform in Mexico had implications for the 1994-95 peso crisis. This article traces the formation of a free trade coalition between state and business elites across several episodes of trade opening, focusing on the NAFTA negotiations. The consolidation of this powerful but narrow coalition helped to cement the Salinas government’s neoliberal reform agenda, boost investor confidence, and restore moderate levels of low-inflation growth in the early 1990s, but it also gave rise to the macroeconomic imbalances and political instability that led to the 1994 crisis. Since then, the economic basis of the neoliberal coalition may have recovered, but its political viability may be questionable.
On the Road to Southern Cone Economic Integration
Authors: Cason Jeffrey
Published: March 2007

The integration process as developed in MERCOSUR has been largely a success, albeit led (and often aggravated) by Brazil. Three cases illustrate Brazil’s dominant role: the dispute over the automobile regime that began in 1995, the import-financing conflict of 1997, and the recent negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Brazil’s behavior pattern does not threaten MERCOSUR’s stability, however, or the all-but-irreversible progress of regional integration.
Delegative Democracy in Peru? Fujimori’s 1995 Landslide and the Prospects for 2000
Authors: Schmidt Gregory D.
Published: March 2007

The decisive victory of Alberto Fujimori and his congressional list in 1995 did not reflect a delegative view of democracy among the Peruvian electorate. Instead of uncritically supporting their reelected president, as a delegative model would predict, Peruvians have rejected the illiberal and possibly unconstitutional policies of his second administration. Relying on public opinion poll data, this study argues that the same issues that facilitated Fujimori’s 1995 landslide will probably work against him in 2000.
Peru-Ecuador Border Conflict: Missed Opportunities, Misplaced Nationalism, and Multilateral Peacekeeping
Authors: Palmer David Scott
Published: March 2007

The Peru-Ecuador boundary issue is the oldest continuing border dispute in the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore,

[it] has caused more trouble than any other in America .... baffl[ing] repeated attempts at settlement by direct negotiation and repeated efforts at mediation on the part of other friendly nations.... (McBride, 1949: 1).

In 1942, four such friendly nations brought Peru and Ecuador together, after a short but bitter war between them, to settle their differences once and for all by signing a treaty of “Peace, Friendship, and Boundaries,” known as the Rio Protocol. These four countries were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States. Their representatives also signed that treaty, “as guarantors that the Protocol would be faithfully executed....” (McBride, 1949: 2-3).
The Future of the Hemisphere
Authors: Gaviria César
Published: March 2007

Today, the discourse among the countries of our Hemisphere is motivated by a new set of realities, and yesterday’s concerns have emerged as priorities for today’s policymakers. Education, social development, the environment, tourism, sustainable development, culture, and a number of other like-minded issues have all joined trade as priorities. Furthermore, as these have been added to the international agenda, they have tended to push aside, with relative ease, those preoccupations that we were so accustomed to hearing our leaders debate in the past.
United States Strategic Interests in Latin America: An Assessment
Authors: Coll Albert R.
Published: March 2007

As of 1997, the United States faces an unprecedented degree of security, stability, and economic prosperity in its relations with Latin America. Never before have US strategic interests in Latin America been as well-protected or have its prospects seemed, at least on the surface, so promising. Yet while the US strategic interests are in better shape — militarily, politically, and economically — this decade than at any time since the end of the Second World War, some problems remain. Over the long run, there is also the risk that old problems, which today seem to have ebbed away, will return. Thus, the positive tone of any contemporary assessment must be tempered with an awareness of remaining areas of concern as well as of possible future crises.
Confronting Corruption in the Hemisphere: A Sociological Perspective
Authors: Maingot Anthony P.
Published: March 2007

The free-lance writer Claire Sterling has done what academics have so far failed to do: document the fact that corruption and the violence which so often accompanies it, represent a real security threat to the nations of this world (see Sterling, 1984, 1990, 1994). In three data-packed books, Sterling has exposed the ugly, dark side of the waves of money which flow through many major financial systems and, quite literally, flood some of the small states. Even the most jaded student of the Caribbean, for instance, has to take seriously some of her most recent revelations, not the least of which is the following startling assertion:

The world's first independent Mafia state emerged in 1993. The sovereign island of Aruba . . . proved to belong to the Mafia in fact if not in name. Small islands are not so hard to acquire (Sterling, 1994: 21).

While Sterling errs in calling Aruba a sovereign state - its defense and foreign policy are still under control of The Netherlands - her account of how the Caracas-based Cuntrera brothers had managed to penetrate Aruba and buy everything “from hotels . . . to the prime minister . . . ” found partial corroboration in the massive investigation of the Sicilian Mafia launched in Italy in the early 1990s.
The Miami Summit and Drugs: A Placid, Innocuous Conference?
Authors: Tokatlián Juan G.
Published: March 2007

The Western Hemisphere summit, which has been called by President Bill Clinton and is scheduled to be held in Miami (FL) in December 1994, will no doubt prove to be yet another major milestone along the evolving path of inter-American relations. Nevertheless, the significance of this meeting has been muted by the scanty information and limited signals given out by the host country regarding the meeting's purpose and agenda. In some ways, the upcoming summit projects a double image: of an event that is both transcendental and superficial at one and the same time. At least two elements point in this direction. On the one hand, much like similar previous conferences in history, not all members of the Hemisphere will attend, since some nations - like Cuba - have not been invited, an aspect that will affect the nature, spirit, and scope of this long-awaited assemblage of the Americas.
The Image of Christ in Spanish America As a Model for Suffering: An Exploratory Note
Authors: Richardson Miles , Pardo Marta Eugenia , Bode Barbara
Published: March 2007

Holy Week in San Pedro, Colombia, a small town near the bustling city of Cali, begins with a procession that commemorates Jesus’ triumphal march into Jerusalem. The week climaxes on Holy Friday with processions and rites which act out Christ's crucifixion and death. The remaining days of Saturday and Sunday, days that ostensibly glorify Christ's victory over death, evoke little enthusiasm; only the priest and a few hard-core faithful trudge through the rites necessary to terminate the week.

The events which lead to the agony of Christ (his march into Jerusalem and the Last Supper), most of all the agony itself (the struggle up Calvary), are the events that the townspeople celebrate.
The Brazilian Novel: Some Paradoxes of Popularity
Authors: Vincent Jon S.
Published: March 2007

“Popular literature” is a term that appears in serious literary context most often as a means of disparaging the unremitting yokelism of the larger reading public and the cynical but uninspired writers who prey on the pocketbooks of yokeldom. The term may also appear in contexts in which its meaning is altogether different, as in the sober studies carried out by anthropologists and folklorists in which the literary manifestations of folk culture are studied. In the latter instance, the term loses its burden of vague antagonism and assumes a scholarly respectability based on the tested relevance and importance of primitive, preliterate, or peasant societies. In literate societies such as ours, the large area between this popular literature and the real literature of the truly cultured minority is dealt with gingerly, if at all. It is tacitly taken to represent the same kind of mindless consumerism that makes such an innovation as the electric canopener an overnight commercial success.
On the Viability of Small Countries
Authors: Kirby John
Published: March 2007

The argument advanced by Bordaberry … by the United States and Brazilian embassies, and by the cattle and meat interests, is that Uruguay does not have a viable independent economy. It is smaller, on most terms of reference, than the southernmost state of Brazil–Rio Grande do Sul–and would, they say, be far better off if its economy were “rationalized” and integrated with the more “modern” large-scale Brazilian economy.

Latin America, Vol. VIII, No. 31, August 3 ,1973

Leaving aside the obvious self-interest of the various proponents (although one is tempted to speculate whether President Bordaberry argues on behalf of his country or his own ranching interests), their conclusion follows logically on much of the analysis which has focused on the causes of Uruguay's stagnation. Since the mid-1950s, the growth of the economy has barely kept pace with the small population increase of 1.2 percent per annum.
Rural Unrest and Agrarian Policy in Argentina, 1912-1930
Authors: Solberg Carl
Published: March 2007

From 1912 until the late 1920s Argentina faced an agrarian social and economic crisis of proportions unprecedented in the republic's history. Trapped between unstable prices and the exactions of landlords, thousands of tenant farmers organized, went on strike, and at times sabotaged agricultural production. This unrest swept across the cereal belt, a 160,000,000-acre zone of extremely fertile soil in the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, and Buenos Aires, and in the national territory of La Pampa. After 1919, rural unrest acquired new complexity when tens of thousands of landless workers employed by the tenant farmers began strike movements of their own. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the origins and characteristics of this rural upheaval and then to examine the responses to it formulated by the republic's national political leaders.
Interpersonal Relationships andCaudillismoin Paraguay
Authors: Hicks Frederic
Published: March 2007

Paraguay has a relatively open (for Latin America) class structure, a strong national consciousness, a two-party political system, and mass involvement in national politics, all of which are features that some writers believe should be associated with representative democracy of the North American type. In Paraguay, however, these features are associated with, and in fact reinforce, a political system which for most of the past century has consisted of a series of conservative and unstable dictatorships.

It will be suggested in this paper that this association is made possible by the development of certain kinds of interpersonal relationships which have been called “dyadic contracts” since they bind two individuals in either patron-client relationships or colleague relationships. They take various institutionalized forms in many peasant societies that lack corporate descent groups, having been described for Italy, Spain, and the Philippines, as well as Latin America.
The Functional Elites of Quito
Authors: Nett Emily M.
Published: March 2007

When the educated natives of the capital city of Ecuador are questioned about social class and the power structure of their country, the answer comes unhesitatingly and with little variation. Everyone, and of course the educated are as yet few in number, knows who is who and what is what. The sampler of random opinion concludes that the real power is no longer in Quito but in the port of Guayaquil. This has been documented by Díaz, who claims that the traditional aristocracy today owns only about 50 percent of sierran acreage, most of it impoverished and ruined, and that this class is declining steadily with the growth of various coastal “bourgeoisie” classes which stem from the commercial and banking interests of the coast. Politically, too, according to Lang, the coastal influence is undermining that of the sierra, the deposition of the military junta in 1966 being attributable to pressures from the Guayaquil commercial oligarchy.
Manpower, Labor Absorption, and Employment in Colombia
Authors: Geithman David T.
Published: March 2007

The Zudak paper (1976) restates in the Colombian context, without adding much that is new, some of the difficulties inherent in defining for practical applications the capital, labor, and output variables. He decides that the output-to-capital ratio in the case of Colombia is about .6 rather than .5 as suggested by Geithman and Landers in an earlier article in this journal (1973). Zudak concludes that the Colombian unemployment problem might best be managed by (1) improving the operation of the labor market, which Geithman-Landers advocated earlier, and (2) reducing the length of the work week. The latter suggestion, he apparently argues, is preferable to other possible policy responses to the employment situation recommended by Geithman-Landers. These consist primarily of (a) the development of additional labor-using production processes in the modern sector to expand the range of technical substitutability in that sector; (b) an active policy of income redistributton in the direction of greater equality in order to spur the demand for traditional sector output and dampen the demand for modern sector goods; and (c) a serious move toward land redistribution and reform as one available means of loosening the country's capital constraint.
Cityward Migration in the Nineteenth Century: The Case of Recife, Brazil
Authors: Cowell Bainbridge
Published: March 2007

From early colonial times to the end of the nineteenth century, urban life in Brazil centered in half a dozen coastal enclaves, each containing an area of export-oriented agriculture, focused on a single dominant port city. Three such capitals topped the urban hierarchy—Salvador (Bahia), Rio de Janeiro, and Recife (Pernambuco; see Figure 1). All arose on an economic base of sugar plantations, producing for an international market; Rio added gold exports in the eighteenth century and coffee in the nineteenth. Until just before independence, the Portuguese colonial capital at Salvador held first rank in size, political importance, and commercial wealth. Rio de Janeiro, seat of the central government after 1763, became the national metropolis under the Empire (1822-1889) and the Old Republic (1889-1930); its hegemony was challenged only in the twentieth century by the rise of industrial São Paulo (Conniff et al., 1971; Cowell, 1973).
Urban Growth in Colombia
Authors: McGreevey William Paul
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the importance of patterns of urbanization and migration in Colombia for the design of appropriate policies for regional, urban, and intermediate-city development. An opening section reviews the growth of the nineteen major municipios over the period 1918 through 1964, the date of the most recent available census. When these cities are ranked by size from largest to smallest, one observes a high degree of stability of rankings over the fifty-year period considered. This stability supports the hypothesis that an articulated hierarchy and system of cities has developed. That development in turn owes much to the flow of migrants into these cities. Largely as a result of the intensive migration into the four largest cities, their share of the total population of the 19 urban municipios rose from 46 percent in 1918 to 62 percent by 1964.
Government Expenditures and Political Change in Brazil, 1880-1899: Who Got What
Authors: Graham Richard
Published: March 2007

The establishment of a republican form of government in Brazil in 1889—to replace the Empire—has long been considered an important turning point in Brazilian history. Historians once saw it as important in itself, for they thought of history as past-politics and were content to debate such issues as the relative importance of civilians and military officers within the republican movement. More recently, as scholars have turned their attention to social and economic aspects of the past, that event has been seen as a symptom of deeper change, a product of altering class relationships, a sign of shifting centers of economic power, or a reflection of tfre growth of new interest groups.
Fertility Decline and Socioeconomic Change in Venezuela
Authors: Edmonston Barry , Oechsli Frank Wm.
Published: March 2007

Venezuela has experienced significant economic development during recent decades, although rapid population growth has partially offset economic gains. During the five-year period 1969-1973, the gross national product increased at an annual rate of 5.0 percent, which, coupled with population growth, yielded real per capita increases of 2.6 percent annually. Relatively smooth transition in the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry in 1976 presents a favorable assessment for the economy during the next decade. Yet while there has been notable progress in conventional economic indicators, there have been less rapid improvements in education, nutrition, and health. This paper examines past trends in Venezuelan population growth within the context of general social and economic development. Because of the importance of fertility in affecting population growth, particular attention is paid to fertility trends.
The Columbus to Castro Course in Latin American History
Authors: Edwards S. F.
Published: March 2007

The introductory survey is the single most important course we offer in Latin American history. What we attempt to achieve, how we go about it, and the interest we generate among our students will determine our success or failure in opening to them what Lewis Hanke rightly calls “a significant segment of world history.” Course organization is an intensely personal matter, yet formal and informal discussions at recent conferences have convinced me that an airing of some thoughts on the matter is needed.

A declaration of faith is necessary before proceeding. I do not agree with those who would abolish the introductory survey and substitute a “problems” course or an assortment of country histories. A problems course tends to distort the richness and diversity of the area's historical growth unless the student has some foundations such as those provided by an introductory survey. I do not dismiss a problems course for undergraduates.
The University Student Tradition in Brazil
Authors: Myhr Robert O.
Published: March 2007

Almost every day our newspapers feature accounts of student ferment on one or another of the university campuses in both the “developed” and “developing” nations around the globe. University students appear to have become extremely active in recent years in attempting to influence policy decisions taken by both administrators of higher education and government officials. In Brazil, however, such student political activism is clearly not just a recent phenomenon. While Brazilian university students have played an increasingly important role in national politics since World War II, most recently in their outspoken opposition to the military-dominated governments of the late Castello Branco and that of President Artur Costa e Silva, they enjoy an important tradition of student political activism that cannot be overlooked. In fact, accepting the suggestions made with real insight by E. Wight Bakke regarding the causes of student activism, we find that an examination of the student tradition in Brazil helps to explain current student agitation.
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Interamerican System
Authors: LeBlanc Lawrence J.
Published: March 2007

The human rights proclaimed and affirmed in the various international declarations, conventions, and covenants adopted since World War II fall into two broad categories: civil and political; and economic, social, and cultural. The former includes the traditional rights of man, such as the rights to life and liberty; the latter includes such rights as the right to work, to social security, and to the preservation of one's health and well-being.

International agreement in principle on most civil and political rights as human rights has been relatively easy to achieve; disagreement has occurred—and is likely to continue to occur-primarily over their precise meaning. Virtually everyone endorses, for example, a right to life; not everyone agrees, however, that capital punishment or abortion must therefore be prohibited by law.
Housing and the Urban Poor: The Case of Bogotá, Colombia
Authors: Gauhan Timothy O'Dea
Published: March 2007

In a setting as complex as the modern city we can expect that a number of diverse factors wil combine to influence the urban environment and the quality of life and well being of those who reside in it. In the major cities of the developing world, where change is typically rapid, economic and social relationships are diverse, and the patterns of development are often different and in some ways more complex than those of the cities of industrialized nations, and the forces which shape the character of urban life are particularly numerous and often confusing.

The present paper examines a single component of the total environment of the Latin American city of Bogotá, Colombia: the low-income housing market. We begin by looking at some of the more important environmental, socioeconomic, and political factors that have shaped the character of the low-income housing market of the city, with an emphasis on the impact of public policy.
Family Life of Latin American Urban Migrants: Three Case Studies in Bogotá
Authors: Flinn William L.
Published: March 2007

It is estimated that approximately 40 percent of the Colombian population now lives in cities of 100,000 or more. Although the pattern of urbanization in Colombia is more dispersed than in most Latin American countries, the proportion of the urban population living in the four largest cities has steadily increased. Over the last 13 year period, this rate of growth ranged between 4.4 and 7.0 percent (Agency for International Development, n.d.: 17). For example, Bogotá had a population in 1950 of approximately 500,000, but estimates indicate that by 1975 it will have a population of 3,605,000.
Imperialism and Dependency in Latin America: A View of the New Reality of Multinational Investment
Authors: Moore Russell Martin
Published: March 2007

The fundamental reality of Latin America during the 1970s will be the efforts of governments to reduce their countries' dependence on the developed world and thereby increase their autonomy within the international system. A salient aspect of this effort is and will be a redefinition of the role multinational corporations play in Latin American societies. Foreign investment will continue to play an important part in the economic life of the region, but the acceptable characteristics and behaviors of multinational corporations will differ substantially from those which were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s.

The rationale for a restructuring of the relationship of Latin American economies with the system of international trade and investment is found in the writings of “dependence theorists” such as Theotonio Dos Santos (1970) and Osvaldo Sunkel (1972). In a sense, their approach can be seen as a development of the Prebisch thesis of the 1950s, which held that Latin American economies were being systematically diverted from attaining their true potential through the workings of the international trade mechanism.
The Political Role of the Dominican Armed Forces: A Note on the 1963 Overthrow of Juan Bosch and on the 1965 Dominican “Revolution”
Authors: Lowenthal Abraham F.
Published: March 2007

Several years ago, in a general essay on Dominican politics, I wrote a few pages about the political role of the Dominican Armed Forces. I argued that “the history of the past few years in the Dominican Republic may best be viewed as a constant struggle among changing alliances, not in terms of confrontation between civilian authority and the military establishment” (Lowenthal, 1969: 40). I suggested that “far from being a professional institution dedicated to certain principles that impel its occasional entry into politics, the Dominican Armed Forces have never had any significant function beyond politics, except for plunder” (Lowenthal, 1969: 40). Painting a picture of constant struggle within the Dominican Armed Forces, for power and a chance at the spoils, I played down the importance, for understanding the political role of Dominican military officers, of institutional and ideological considerations.
Community Integration and Policies among Elites in Two Border Cities
Authors: Sloan John W. , West Jonathan P.
Published: March 2007

A number of excellent studies of the U.S.-Mexican border have indicated that the border is occasionally a barrier but more often a permeable membrane through which goods, services, and people can filter. Employment practices and reciprocal trade across the border, together with tourism, have increased the need for policy cooperation among the jurisdictionally distinct but functionally integrated border communities. Our study represents an exploratory effort to find out how border cities are responding to this imperative of greater policy cooperation despite the presence of an international boundary. We selected the cities of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo for our first analysis of policy cooperation because our preliminary investigations of twin cities had persuaded us that relations between the Laredos were numerous, complex, and friendly. The two cities were obviously interdependent; the incentives to achieve a cooperative community appeared to be strong.
A Work of Combat: Mulatto Historians and the Haitian Past, 1847-1867
Authors: Nicholls David
Published: March 2007

One of the striking facts about the social and political history of Haiti from independence in 1804 to the present is the deep gulf separating the largely mulatto elite groups from the predominantly black masses. The war of the South in 1799 between Toussaint and Rigaud, and the conflicts between Christophe and Pétion, while not primarily caused by color factors, were reinforced by suspicions and hostilities between black and mulatto, with each group accusing the other of prejudice and discrimination. Politics in the rest of the nineteenth century can generally be seen as a tussle between a mulatto elite centered in the capital and in the cities of the South, on the one hand, and a small black elite often in alliance with army leaders and peasant irregulars, on the other. In the years following 1867 these groups formalized themselves into a largely mulatto Liberal Party, and a preponderantly black National Party.
Investment Behavior and Elite Social Structures in Latin America
Authors: Aubey Robert , Kyle John , Strickon Arnold
Published: March 2007

This paper is an attempt at an interdisciplinary analysis of some of the problems relating to financial activities, decisionmaking, and social structure among elite Latin American kin and business groups. It represents a cooperative effort by two economists and an anthropologist that results, we believe, in a view of these problems that is of significance to both disciplines.

As Kaplan (1965) has pointed out, the great difficulty in developing true interdisciplinary research arises in translating the concepts and theories of one field into those of the other, or in developing a new common conceptual framework. What this paper does, very briefly, is to take the basic Tobin-Markowitz model, which is an attempt to describe the decision-making process of an investor putting together a portfolio in a risky world, and modify it to allow for the difficulty of obtaining accurate information about the economic environment in Latin America.
Problems of Innovation in Higher Education: The University of Brasília, 1961-1964
Authors: O'Neil Charles
Published: March 2007

In the literature on Latin America, any increase in the number of people attending schools is usually considered economically and socially beneficial and a sign of progress. Any increase in the population attending universities is viewed as an especially important change and bound to help economic development. Rarely will any person or group argue that an increase in the number of university students is a drag on the economy and socially pernicious.

Yet this is precisely the position taken by a small group within Brazil's Ministério de Educação e Cultura (MEC). Playing the role of a loyal but disgusted opposition, the Instituto Nacional de Estudes Pedagógicos (INEP) continuously attacked the educational policies of the federal and state governments during the 1950s, especially those relating to higher education.
The Hidden Indian in Cortazar's “Axolotl”
Authors: Knight Thomas J. , Krull Alice H.
Published: March 2007

The Argentines, especially the artists, have long tilted at that psychological phantom of any pluralistic society, the cultural identity crisis. The jousting of civilization with barbarism in Sarmiento's Facundo and of civilized barbarity with barbarous civility in Martín Fierro wove a tangled maze into Argentine consciousness. Was the “true Argentine” the outward-looking porteño of Buenos Aires or the introverted gaucho of the Pampas? Should the Argentines send out feelers toward European culture or roots into the indigenous heritage? Because of such cosmic soul-searching, the labyrinthine images of Julio Cortázar's Rayuelo fit naturally into his hero Oliveira's hopscotching toward “home,” first in Paris, then in Argentina. But the Argentines, like the Chileans and Venezuelans, have not generally had a lot to say about the central theme of the Mexican and Andean artists of the twentieth century, the interaction of European and Indian identities.
The Comparative Focus in Latin American History
Authors: Genovese Eugene D.
Published: March 2007

There are at least two reasons for United States and Latin American historians to bring their work together in a comparative thesis, the first being the need to maximize control of generalizations, and the second being the need to write the history of the social process by which a single world community has been developing since the sixteenth century. Recently, considerable progress with the first task has been made in the study of slavery and race relations, but little progress can yet be reported with the second.

One result of the work on slavery and race relations ought to warn and encourage us. Without entering here into a discussion of the specific points of view advanced by Frank Tannenbaum, Marvin Harris, Sidney Mintz, Stanley Elkins, Gilberto Freyre, Herbert Klein, and so many others, it could be demonstrated that the comparisons of slavery in the United States, South America, and the Caribbean have so far proven enormously important in clarifying issues and stimulating new research and yet have failed to yield some of the most sought-after generalizations.
Enhanced transmission through arrays of subwavelength holes in gold films coated by a finite dielectric layer
Authors: Xiao Sanshui , Mortensen Niels Asger , Qiu Min
Published: March 2007

Enhanced transmissions through a gold film with arrays of subwavelength holes are theoretically studied, employing the rigid full vectorial three dimensional finite difference time domain method. Influence of air-holes shape to the transmission is firstly studied, which confirms two different resonances attributing to the enhanced transmission: the localized waveguide resonance and periodic surface plasmon resonances. For the film coated with dielectric layers, calculated results show that in the wavelength region of interest the localized waveguide resonant mode attributes to sensing rather than the periodic gold-glass surface plasmon mode. Although the detected peak is fairly broad and the shift is not too pronounced, we emphasize the contribution for sensing from the localized waveguide resonant mode, which may opens up new ways to design surface plasmon based sensors.
Intramolecular Reactions of Diazocarbonyl Compounds
Authors: Burke Steven D. , Grieco Paul A.
Published: March 2007

Since the demonstration by Stork and Ficini in 1961 that unsaturated diazoketones undergo intramolecular cyclization to form cyclopropanes the intramolecular reactions of α‐diazocarbonyl compounds have been extensively studied under thermal, catalytic, and photochemical conditions. Intramolecular cyclization of α‐carbonyl carbenes and carbenoids has found widespread application to the synthesis of theoretically interesting compounds such as bullvalene, twistane, bridged annulenes, and barbaralone, as well as syntheses of natural products such as sabinene, sirenin, α‐chamigrene, and phyllocladene. The reaction has also allowed the construction of several intriguing polycyclic systems that were unattainable by alternative methods.

A recent review has covered the reactions of diazoacetic esters with alkenes, alkynes, heterocyclics, and aromatic compounds. Unsaturated alkoxycarbonyl carbenes (:CHCO
2
R) and unsaturated carbonyl carbenes (:CHCOR) (where R contains either aromatic or olefinic groups), which are considered to be intermediates in the absence of catalyst, have been the subject of several other reviews. A review concerning photochemically, thermally, and catalytically induced Wolff rearrangements of α‐diazocarbonyl compounds has recently appeared. However to date no comprehensive review has appeared which demonstrates the synthetic potential of α‐diazocarbonyl insertion and addition reactions.

In reviewing the reactions of α‐diazocarbonyl compounds chosen not to include certain peripheral topics such as intermolecular reactions, intramolecular dimerization of bis(α‐carbonyl carbenoids) to give diacyl cycloolefins and intramolecular trimerizations of tris(α‐keto carbenoids), affording triacylcyclopropanes are not included. Also excluded are base‐catalyzed reactions of α‐diazocarbonyl compounds and certain ring‐contraction reactions involving CC bond insertion of intermediate α‐ketocarbenes.

The topics included in this report are the intramolecular reactions of α‐carbonyl carbenes and carbenoids with olefinic and aromatic unsaturation, with CH bonds, and with CC and NH single bonds. Also included are acid‐catalyzed cyclization reactions of α‐diazoketones.