Arthur Schmidt

Latin America in the 21st Century: Toward a New Sociopolitical Matrix (review)

Although it contains only 100 pages of text, this book covers a surprising amount of ground in its analysis of contemporary Latin American political life in the context of economic globalization. It constitutes the product of a decade of discussion among its five authors: three political scientists (Marcelo Cavarozzi of the Universidad Nacional de San Martin in Buenos Aires; Peter Cleaves from the Swiss foundation AVINA; and Jonathan Hartlyn of the University of North Carplina at Chapel Hill) and two sociologists (Manuel Antonio Garreton from the Universidad de Chile; and Gary Gereffi of Duke University). Its six chapters exhibit an unusually consistent focus for a work that resulted from so many pairs of hands at the keyboard.

Building the Fourth Estate: Democratization and the Rise of a Free Press in Mexico (review)

Some episodes from the book are better know, such as the engineering of the 1903 revolt against Colombia, the 1960s plans to excavate a new sea-level canal using nuclear explosives, and the School of the Americas’ training of the Latin American military. However, the author also uncovers truly “hidden” crimes, partly through exclusive interviews. It turns out that the U.S. military endangered not only the environment but also the people of Panama and its own personnel by secretly testing chemical weapons for nearly five decades starting in 1923. Early on, the idea was to protect the Canal by bombing the beaches and inland routes with chemicals. One self-described “guinea pig” in the 33rd Infantry Regiment recalled that he and others were exposed to tear gas and mustard gas and were rushed to the hospital after they developed breathing problems (he still had problems a half-century later, and his hospital records had been destroyed in the meantime) (p. 50). On San José Island, the military conducted more than 130 tests, throughout which the soldiers, many of them Puerto Ricans, were told little about what was being done to them. Many suffered severe burns and chronic illnesses. After 1946, Panama became a stand-in for all tropical environments, hosting Agent Orange tests even after the Pentagon’s chemical program ended in 1968.