Political developments in Latin America (1945–1980)

Fulgencio Batista's military coup, which cancelled elections he was set to lose.

A political style where a charismatic leader claims to represent "the people" against elites, mixing nationalism, welfare reform and personal control.

The Granma.

Castro's revolutionary organisation, named after the 1953 Moncada Barracks attack, that led the guerrilla war from the Sierra Maestra.

Sugar monoculture causing seasonal unemployment, and heavy US ownership of the economy.

A nationwide drive to teach reading and writing that cut illiteracy from around 25% to under 4%.

In response to Castro's nationalisation of US-owned businesses (sugar mills, banks, utilities) without full compensation.

Juan Perón's ideology blending nationalism, state-led growth and social welfare, positioned as an alternative to both capitalism and communism.

Getúlio Vargas's "New State" (from 1937), an authoritarian regime that banned parties and censored the press while modernising the economy.

Perón won a genuine 1946 election after building union support; Vargas took power in an 1930 revolt and later ruled as an outright dictator under the 1937 Estado Novo.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, when Castro allowed Soviet nuclear missiles to be based in Cuba, causing a tense US–USSR standoff.

He tried to spark a guerrilla revolution in Bolivia and was captured and killed there in 1967.

About 36% — a narrow plurality, not a majority, ahead of two other candidates.

The 'Chilean road to socialism' — Allende's plan to build socialism through legal, democratic means rather than armed revolution.

Truck owners and landowners, hit by land reform and price controls, went on strike, paralysing the transport of food and goods nationwide.

A December 1971 protest where Chilean women banged empty pots in the streets to protest food shortages under Allende's government.

Nixon and Kissinger ordered the CIA to make Chile's economy 'scream' by funding opposition media and parties and cutting off loans — covert pressure, not direct action.

The armed forces launched a coup; air force jets bombed La Moneda palace and Allende died as troops closed in, bringing General Pinochet to power.

Chilean economists trained at the University of Chicago, given control of economic policy under Pinochet; they privatised industries, deregulated markets and cut state spending.

Chile's secret police under Pinochet, which ran repression at home (e.g. the National Stadium detention centre) and abroad, including the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington DC.

A brutal civil conflict (1948-1958) between Liberal and Conservative supporters that killed around 200,000 people, setting the stage for later guerrilla movements.

After the Colombian army attacked the peasant community at Marquetalia in 1964, survivors led by Manuel Marulanda regrouped and formally founded the FARC in 1966.

A commitment made by Latin American bishops at the 1968 Medellín Conference, calling the Catholic Church to actively side with the poor against unjust structures.

A Peruvian priest whose 1971 book 'A Theology of Liberation' named and shaped the liberation theology movement across Latin America.