Abstract, The Latin American Challenge to U.S. Scholarship in Latin America

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The Latin American Challenge to U.S. Scholarship in Latin America
by Ronald H. Chilcote


[Ronald H. Chilcote, a founder and the managing editor of Latin American Perspectives since its beginning, has concentrated his fieldwork on Latin America, especially Brazil, and its ties to the Iberian Peninsula and in 1960 and 1961 studied at the University of Lisbon and University of Madrid. In Lisbon he wrote journalistic pieces on the Portuguese opposition to the Salazar dictatorship and made contacts with African students who fled to Paris and eventually joined liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies. Eventually he wrote a book, Portuguese Africa (1967), and was elected a fellow of the African Studies Association (ASA). His African work led to a Portuguese ban on his work and any return to Portugal. Thus he turned to Brazil and became involved in the early formation of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). With Martin Legassick (1971) he published a critique of the elitism and biases of the ASA after disruptions at its 1969 international conference in Montreal.

In 1973 he published the following critique of LASA, which includes coverage of its founding in 1966, its first national conference in 1968, and the significant changes after its 1970 national conference in Washington, DC. This critique originally appeared in URLA Newsletter just prior to the third LASA conference in Madison in May 1973 and after the conference in the LASA Newsletter (June 1973). We reproduce it here because it reflects the generational conflict among Latin Americanists and the changes since 1966 that were shaping LASA at the time.]

Abstract, The Cold War and the Transformation of Latin American Studies in the United States

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The Cold War and the Transformation of Latin American Studies in the United States
by Ronald H. Chilcote


The Cold War assumptions of mainstream Latin American studies in the United States were challenged in the 1960s by a new generation of academics that opened up the field to progressive thinking, including Marxism. West Coast intellectuals played a major role in this transformation. These new Latin Americanists rejected the university-government-foundation nexus in the field and emphasized field research that brought them into close relationships with Latin Americans struggling for change and engaging with radical alternatives to mainstream thinking. In the course of this work, they confronted efforts to co-opt them and to discourage and even prevent their field research. Despite this they managed to transform Latin American studies into a field that was intellectually and politically vibrant both in theory and in practice.

Abstract, Migrant Smuggling on Mexico’s Gulf Route: The Actors Involved

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Migrant Smuggling on Mexico’s Gulf Route: The Actors Involved
by Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios


Migrant flows crossing Mexican territory into the United States along the Gulf route are mainly driven by a demand for cheap labor. The decrease in the number of migrants wishing to cross the border to escape the violence in Mexico has turned undocumented migrants into a rare and valuable commodity. The increasing costs of migrant smuggling as a result of organized crime and the activities of the immigration authorities have prompted employers to finance this activity to ensure that they receive enough workers. In-depth interviews with 70 migrant smugglers shed light on the function and participation of the different actors involved in migrant smuggling.

Abstract, Migrant Smuggling on Mexico’s Gulf Route: The Actors Involved

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Migrant Smuggling on Mexico’s Gulf Route: The Actors Involved
by Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios


Migrant flows crossing Mexican territory into the United States along the Gulf route are mainly driven by a demand for cheap labor. The decrease in the number of migrants wishing to cross the border to escape the violence in Mexico has turned undocumented migrants into a rare and valuable commodity. The increasing costs of migrant smuggling as a result of organized crime and the activities of the immigration authorities have prompted employers to finance this activity to ensure that they receive enough workers. In-depth interviews with 70 migrant smugglers shed light on the function and participation of the different actors involved in migrant smuggling.

Abstract, Low-Intensity Democracy and Peru’s Neoliberal State: The Case of the Humala Administration

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Low-Intensity Democracy and Peru’s Neoliberal State: The Case of the Humala Administration
by William Aviles and Yolima Rey Rosas   

The election of Ollanta Humala in 2011 did not lead to a radical break from neoliberalism as many expected. His administration continued and deepened Peru’s conservative political and economic regime, its “low-intensity democracy.” His lack of a shift has been attributed to electoral dynamics, his leadership style, and the weakness of political parties. However, these readings overlook the structural impediments to any left government in Peru and Humala’s readiness to adapt his politics to this neoliberal reality. The power of Peru’s neoliberal political elite, the United States, economic groups, and transnational capital have all helped to constitute a structure of elite rule strong enough to prevent a radical shift.

Abstract, Coercive Inclusion in the Mexican War on Drugs: A Field Study of Human Rights and the State in Michoacán

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Coercive Inclusion in the Mexican War on Drugs: A Field Study of Human Rights and the State in Michoacán
by Philipp Wolfesberger

Qualitative ethnographic study of the human rights violations committed in the course of the militarized combat against drug trafficking organizations in rural Michoacán unmasks state practices of coercive inclusion. The violation of human rights and the subsequent processing of human rights claims paradoxically bind the marginalized population to the formal state and foster its subordination. The practical configuration of the current arena of human rights is not the lever for a democratic, inclusive Mexico but a curtain that conceals the repressive practices that it makes possible. In the processing of human rights complaints, the legal rights of physical integrity and private property become moral rights with no effect of legal justice.

Abstract, Societies in Movement vs. Institutional Continuities? Insights from the Zapatista Experience

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Societies in Movement vs. Institutional Continuities? Insights from the Zapatista Experience
by Diana Guillén        

In Latin America and other parts of the world, the social volatility of the past two decades has focused attention on the traditional concepts of what political structures and practices should be, highlighting what might be characterized as an empirical bursting at the seams of the classic normative frameworks. In this context it is of interest to analyze the proposal of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation—EZLN) to establish a political-social organization parallel to the institutional framework recognized by Mexican law and contribute to the debate that has arisen about this kind of experiment and its transformational potential.

Abstract, The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices

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The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices
by Corinna Hölzl                                         


In 2010, some 13,000 people occupied the second-largest park in Buenos Aires, located in the most deprived area of the city. The city and state governments reacted with violent repression leading to three deaths. After government officials promised that a housing program would be provided, the problem was viewed as “solved.” However, four years later not a single home had been built. Interpretive frames and political practices in Buenos Aires were influenced by the conflict, and this ultimately strengthened the positions of the national and local governments. This, in turn, intensified structural discrimination against lower-income groups in Buenos Aires. Thus, far from bringing about sustainable housing solutions, the occupation reinforced policies of security and sanction.

Book Review, "Mystifying the Brazilian Northeast" by Ronald H. Chilcote

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Mystifying the Brazilian Northeast 
by Ronald H. Chilcote

Durval Muniz de Albuquerque Jr. "The Invention of the Brazilian Northeast."
Foreword by James N Green.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.

Abstract, Building Citizenship: The Struggle for Housing in Eastern Mexico City

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Building Citizenship: The Struggle for Housing in Eastern Mexico City

by Luisa F. Rodríguez Cortés                                


Urban social organizations have played a crucial role in the definition of political relations and the transformation of urban space. The practices established by a social organization working under conditions of poverty and vulnerability in the dispute over access to housing in eastern Mexico City produce an urban citizenship that is both weak and precarious, marked by tensions between autonomous practices and bargaining with state institutions, a rift between leaders and the grassroots, and targeted struggles that prevent the development of a shared sense of citizenship on a larger scale.

Abstract, The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices

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The Occupation of the Parque Indoamericano in Buenos Aires: Discourse Dynamics and Stakeholder Practices
by Corinna Hölzl                                         


In 2010, some 13,000 people occupied the second-largest park in Buenos Aires, located in the most deprived area of the city. The city and state governments reacted with violent repression leading to three deaths. After government officials promised that a housing program would be provided, the problem was viewed as “solved.” However, four years later not a single home had been built. Interpretive frames and political practices in Buenos Aires were influenced by the conflict, and this ultimately strengthened the positions of the national and local governments. This, in turn, intensified structural discrimination against lower-income groups in Buenos Aires. Thus, far from bringing about sustainable housing solutions, the occupation reinforced policies of security and sanction.

Abstract, Urban Mobility and Politics in Mexico City The Case of the Frente Amplio contra la Supervía

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Urban Mobility and Politics in Mexico City
The Case of the Frente Amplio contra la Supervía
by Oscar Sosa López


Study of the struggle of a social movement, the Frente Amplio contra la Supervía, to stop the construction of an urban toll road in the southwestern end of Mexico City reveals that investments in transportation assumed to benefit the larger public are in fact creating new landscapes of infrastructural and democratic exclusion. Examination of the forms of citizen mobilization, alliances among diverse actors, and the role of accountability institutions as spaces for democratic experimentation suggests that struggles against large infrastructure projects allow citizens and the state to redraw the limits of authoritarianism and the meaning of sustainability and democracy in the city.

Abstract, Urban Policy, Social Movements, and the Right to the City in Brazil

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Urban Policy, Social Movements, and the Right to the City in Brazil
by Abigail Friendly


Brazilian urban social movements have played a key role in bringing about change in urban policy since the 1980s and in light of the widespread protests across the country in June 2013. This insurgency and the urban reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s exemplify waves of mobilization and demobilization, signaling positive change at the level of praxis. More recent events have highlighted challenges for Brazil’s political left.

Abstract, Everyday Crafting of the Bolivarian State Lower-level State Officials and Grassroots Activism in Venezuela

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Everyday Crafting of the Bolivarian State
Lower-level State Officials and Grassroots Activism in Venezuela
by Iselin Åsedotter Strønen


Venezuela’s communal councils are legally sanctioned organs for popular participation implemented mostly in poor communities since 2006. The promotores integrales, lower-level state employees who assist the communal councils in their everyday work, serve as mediators between state policies and community politics, and study of their roles and perspectives provides important insights into the complexities of implementing policies of popular participation and transforming state practices in the context of radical social change. While the cultural politics and knowledges of the popular sectors have become imprinted on the Venezuelan state, attempts to change the state in accordance with Bolivarian ideology are subject to intense contestation and struggle.

Book Review, "Mystifying the Brazilian Northeast" by Ronald H. Chilcote

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Mystifying the Brazilian Northeast 
by Ronald H. Chilcote

Durval Muniz de Albuquerque Jr. "The Invention of the Brazilian Northeast."
Foreword by James N Green.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014.

Abstract, Communal Currencies The Chavista Experiment with Noncapitalist Money

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Communal Currencies
The Chavista Experiment with Noncapitalist Money
by Kristofer Dittmer


Venezuela’s communal currencies are unique worldwide as a central government initiative. However, efforts to establish significant currency systems have failed so far. Their lack of success can be interpreted in terms of the experiment’s foundation on strong cultural optimism and confused concepts of the nature and origins of money. Government support has been limited to a single model of isolationist-egalitarian “barter” systems. Some form of local currency may be relevant to ecosocialist transition in Venezuela, but the current spatial organization of the systems is wasteful of transport fuel, suggesting that a transition to ecosocialism cannot postpone addressing structural challenges.

Abstract, Oil and the Chávez Legacy

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Oil and the Chávez Legacy
by Daniel Hellinger


In the final 15 years of the Punto Fijo era (1958–1998), as state institutions and socioeconomic conditions deteriorated, the executive class of Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. broke free from state control. In his 15 years as president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez reasserted the state’s control over the company and reestablished a fiscal regime that brought the country enormous financial benefits. It is a legacy, however, that has an uncertain future.

Abstract, The Contribution of Hugo Chávez to an Understanding of Post-Neoliberalism

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The Contribution of Hugo Chávez to an Understanding of Post-Neoliberalism
by Anthony Petros Spanakos and Dimitris Pantoulas


When Hugo Chávez was president, he pronounced the death of many things—the constitution, the old “partyarchy,” Venezuela’s “Fourth Republic,” and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, among others. Since his own death in 2013, scholars, activists, and citizens have contributed to a rich discussion of his legacy. Part of that legacy is an understanding of post-neoliberalism that recognizes its competing and contradictory components, some of them seeking to complement, improve, and reverse neoliberal policies or overcome neoliberal logics and others constituting important remnants of neoliberalism.

Abstract, From System Collapse to Chavista Hegemony The Party Question in Bolivarian Venezuela

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From System Collapse to Chavista Hegemony
The Party Question in Bolivarian Venezuela
by Gabriel Hetland                                                                 


During the 14 years Hugo Chávez was in office, Venezuela’s party system experienced a 180-degree shift. When Chávez was elected in 1998, Venezuela’s party system had collapsed because of a two-decade-long economic-cum-political crisis. His initial appeal was built, in large part, on his antiparty message, a stance that continued through the first half of his time in office. A series of factors, principally the need for a more cohesive organization to combat an intransigent opposition, led to the creation of the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (United Socialist Party of Venezuela—PSUV) in 2007. The PSUV quickly became Venezuela’s largest party and the linchpin of a new hegemonic system. The contradictions of that system are manifested in the split between the PSUV’s right and left wings, and the hegemony of Chavismo is now in doubt.

Abstract, Reconstructing the Collective Memory of Mexico’s Dirty War: Ideologization, Clandestine Detention, and Torture

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Reconstructing the Collective Memory of Mexico’s Dirty War: Ideologization, Clandestine Detention, and Torture
Jorge Mendoza García                                                                 


A silenced and forgotten period of the Mexican past is that of the dirty war unleashed by the state against social movements in the second half of the twentieth century, especially the guerrillas and suspected guerrillas of the 1960s and 1970s. The dirty war is an unresolved issue in terms of memory, acknowledgment, and justice for those who suffered violence at the hands of those in power. An account of part of this period that reconstructs the ideologization, clandestine detention, and torture suffered by victims of this dirty war from the perspective of collective memory contributes to filling the gap in knowledge about this period.