State violence and genocide in Latin America : the Cold War years / edited by Marcia Esparza, Henry R. Huttenbach, and Daniel Feierstein.

"First published in 2010. This pbk. ed, 2011"

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : globalizing Latin American studies of state violence and genocide / Marcia Esparza -- US hemispheric hegemony and the descent into genocidal practices in Latin America / Luis Roniger -- Political violence in Argentina and its genocidal characteristics / Daniel Feierstein -- Genocide in Chile? An assessment / Maureen S. Hiebert and Pablo Policzer -- Understanding the 1982 Guatemalan genocide / Marc Drouin -- "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America / J. Patrice McSherry -- The United States and torture : lessons from Latin America / Jennifer K. Harbury -- State violence and repression in Rosario during the Argentine dictatorship, 1976-83 / Gabriela Aguila -- US-Colombian relations in the 1980s : political violence and the onset of Union Patriotica genocide / Andrei Gomez-Suarez -- Political violence, justice, and reconciliation in Latin America / Ernesto Verdeja -- Vicious legacies? State violence(s) in Argentina / Guillermina S. Seri -- Courageous soldiers (valientes soldados) : politics of concealment in the aftermath of state violence in Chile / Marcia Esparza -- Bringing justice to Guatemala : the need to confront genocide and other crimes against humanity / Raul Molina Mejia -- Conclusions : unfinished business : in search of the next agenda / Henry R. Huttenbach.

This edited volume explores political violence and genocide in Latin America during the Cold War, examining this in light of the United States{u2019} hegemonic position on the continent. Using case studies based on the regimes of Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay, this book shows how U.S foreign policy {u2013} far from promoting long term political stability and democratic institutions {u2013} has actually undermined them. The first part of the book is an inquiry into the larger historical context in which the development of an unequal power relationship between the United States and Latin American and Caribbean nations evolved after the proliferation of the Monroe Doctrine. The region came to be seen as a contested terrain in the East-West conflict of the Cold War, and a new US-inspired ideology, the {u2018}National Security Doctrine{u2019}, was used to justify military operations and the hunting down of individuals and groups labelled as {u2018}communists{u2019}. Following on from this historical context, the book then provides an analysis of the mechanisms of state and genocidal violence is offered, demonstrating how in order to get to know the internal enemy, national armies relied on US intelligence training and economic aid to carry out their surveillance campaigns. This book will be of interest to students of Latin American politics, US foreign policy, human rights and terrorism and political violence in general.