Michael Dodson

Liberation Theology and Christian Radicalism in Contemporary Latin America

For the past decade and a half, Latin American Catholicism has been a focal point of extraordinary religious change and political activism. Although the first visible signs of religious renewal in the traditionally conservative Latin American church did not appear until the early Ig6os,1 a mere decade later, in 1972, Christians for Socialism had held an international meeting of radical Christians in Santiago, Chile. Today, Latin American bishops and Christian base communities throughout the continent are deeply involved in the struggle to preserve human rights against the encroachments of authoritarian regimes. One of the most controversial aspects of the changing Latin American church has been the emergence of organized movements of Christian radicals who sought to use religion as a base from which to transform society through political action. Sizeable priest movements of the left appeared in such countries as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, where they had a notable impact on national politics. Acting from the premise that Christian faith must be linked to social action to be meaningful, radicalized Christians joined a dialogue with Marxism, denounced social injustices, provided leadership to politically marginal groups and struggled to change the very nature of the Latin American Catholic Church. The rationale and justification of such action was provided in the collection of writings known as the theology of liberation.2

The Politics of Religion in Revolutionary Nicaragua

The Popular Insurrection in Nicaragua is examined against the backdrop of the grass-roots mobilization and protest that built up between 1968 and 1978. Particular attention is given to the linkages between grass-roots religious change and political mobilization. It is argued that the democratization of religious experience in the decade following the 1968 meeting of the Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellín greatly facilitated the participation of the poor in the Nicaraguan Revolution, but that it also sowed the seeds of intrachurch conflict after the Triumph of the Revolution. Post-Triumph conflict between church and state and between the church hierarchy and the so-called popular church are then examined, with a view to showing that the major religious issue in revolutionary Nicaragua is not Marxism versus the church, but democratization in the church and in the political order.

Political Bargaining and Democratic Transitions: A Comparison of Nicaragua and El Salvador

This article examines the relationship between pact-making and democratic transitions in Nicaragua (1988–1997) and El Salvador (1990–1997). We argue that the process of elite bargaining about regime change affects the prospects for the consolidation of democracy. We emphasise three factors: (1) the choices key actors make as they bargain about bargaining, (2) their willingness to ‘under-utilise’ their power and (3) the influence of historical and structural contingencies upon the key choices made. Essential to our discussion of historical and structural contingencies is the interrelation of domestic and international actors and the importance of demilitarisation and institutional reform. We argue that these three factors favoured El Salvador more than Nicaragua, although neither nation has overcome the political polarisation characteristic of transitional regimes.

Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala (review)

Part III signals a shift in the focus and development of the book, as the author brings her analysis to bear on revolutionary subjection in Zapatismo and Rigoberta Menchiis famous testimonio, both of which are considered to be critical reevaluations of the revolutionary imagination after the crisis of Cold War developmentalist socialism. Taking on the post-revolutionary discourse of mestizaje Saldana-Portillo observes that Zapatismos active mobilization of indigenous silence provides for consensus building around the idea of Indian difference and for the fabrication of alternative (that is, democratic) models of representation and development. Through the analysis of Menchu and the EZLNs subaltern consciousness in the wake of the Cold War we come face to face with a new threshold in the popular struggle for social justice, as the post-developmentalist revolutionary imagination reconsiders its relation to liberal modernity and its historical regimes of subjection.