A Brief History of Post-Conquest Latin America - Part 7 The Cold War Dictatorships

While many countries were experiencing left-wing insurgencies during the cold war decades, some were also coming under the rule of dictators. Of these, some waged 'dirty wars' on their populations to either combat the guerillas or stifle any chance of them emerging.

To finish our look at the cold war, we tie up some of the loose ends. We discuss a couple of exceptions to the dictatorship phenomenon - the so called 'perfect dictatorship' of Mexico where power was concentrated in a party rather than a person and elections were still held, and Panama where a left-wing dictator did things slightly differently but who's successor provoked a US invasion. Finally, we outline a couple of unique political ideas which developed in Latin America at the time - Dependency Theory and Liberation Theology - and which still influence thinking in the region today.