Paul J. Dosal

Sacrificio: Who Betrayed Che Guevara? (review)

For serious scholars and individuals interested in the period, Jack Binns The United States in Honduras: An Ambassadors Memoir (2000) offers a superior perspective on U.S. diplomacy in Latin America at the brink of the Reagan era. Similarly, older studies by Robert Pastor offer a much better perspective on the policy process during this transitional time. The recent works of Katherine Hoyt or Timothy C. Brown will also prove more useful for readers pursuing historical analysis of internal Nicaraguan politics.

The Latinamericanization of American Foreign Policy

The foreign policies of the George W. Bush administration, constructed by neo-conservative architects like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, have their ideological antecedents in United States policy toward Latin America. Although the neo-conservatives are not schooled in Latin American diplomatic history, the Bush Doctrine draws so extensively on previous Latin American policies and practices that it represents the Latin Americanization of American foreign policy. The neo-conservatives take inspiration from the policies and practices of Theodore Roosevelt, who applied his big stick policy preemptively in the Caribbean region. While the doctrine of preemption has its roots in the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, it goes beyond that policy by asserting a right to police not just Latin America, but Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as well. Unfortunately, the neo-conservatives ignored the nationalistic rebellions that American interventions produced in Latin America, exuding such confidence in their own moral superiority that they neglected obvious historical lessons from Latin America as well as the Middle East. They convinced themselves that the Iraqis would welcome American troops as liberators, apparently unaware that interventions in Latin America regularly produced militant and strongly nationalistic rebellions against United States occupation.

Dictating Democracy: Guatemala and the End of Violent Revolution (review)

Rachel M. McCleary, professor of international studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a newcomer to the field of Guatemalan studies, seeks to explain Guatemala’s transition from authoritarian to democratic government. Intrigued by President Jorge Serrano Elías’s autogolpe in May 1993, McCleary initiated her research with a Fulbright grant in 1994, determined to discover how Guatemalans engineered a transition from authoritarianism to democracy. McCleary concluded that “an elite settlement took place among the organized private sector, the military, and the leaders of some popular organizations” (p. 3). This rare political occurrence established the basis for political stability and the consolidation of a democratic government.

Recent Work on U.S. Relations with Costa Rica

Kyle Longley. The Sparrow and the Hawk: Costa Rica and the US during the Rise of Jose Figueres Aviva Chomsky. West Indian Workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870–1920