Human Rights & Economics in Latin America I

In the late 1980s, U.S. General John R. Galvin, former commander-in-chief of the American Southern Command, commented that there was no strong basis for democracy in Latin America (Manwaring & Prisk, 1988). It was General Galvin's opinion that while every country is different and South America is not a homogenous unit or organization, the revolutions of Latin America in the struggle for independence were revolutions of a Spanish elite to free themselves from Spain in order that they could do whatever they wanted to do in running their governments. The neglect of indigenous people or for the vast majority of the poor and the campesinos that emerged during the struggles for independence has continued to the present day. As General Galvin put it, "the Spanish Conquistador outlook is still reflected in the elitism that continues to characterize much of Latin America - which, in combination with weak governmental infrastructures and slow to develop economic systems, created a potential for economic injustice and human rights violations (in Manwaring & Prisk, 1988).

Historically, John D. Martz (1971) suggests, the evolution of culture throughout South America produced by the mid-1970s, a system in which government and the military apparatus played an increasingly prominent and powerful role. This role was generally authoritarian and created a dichotomous social system in which extreme stratification became chara