This volume showcases new research on the global reach of Latin American revolutionary movements during the height of the Cold War, mapping out the region’s little-known connections with Africa, Asia, and Europe. Toward a Global History of Latin America’s Revolutionary Left offers insights into the effect of international collaboration on the identities, ideologies, strategies, and survival of organizers and groups. Featuring contributions from historians working in six different countries, this collection includes chapters on Cuba’s hosting of the 1966 Tricontinental Conference that brought revolutionary movements together; Czechoslovakian intelligence’s logistical support for revolutionaries; the Brazilian Left’s search for recognition in Cuba and China; the central role played by European publishing houses in disseminating news from Latin America; Italian support for Brazilian guerrilla insurgents; Spanish ties with Nicaragua’s revolution; and the solidarity of European networks with Guatemala’s Guerrilla Army of the Poor. Through its expansive geographical perspectives, this volume positions Latin America as a significant force on the international stage of the 1960s and 1970s. It sets a new research agenda that will guide future study on leftist movements, transnational networks, and Cold War history in the region. Contributor:s José Manuel Ágreda Portero | Van Gosse | James G. Hershberg | Gerardo Leibner | Blanca Mar León | Eduardo Rey Tristán | Arturo Taracena Arriola | Michal Zourek

This volume departs both from approaches to revolution in Latin America that emphasize interests and those that emphasize socioeconomic and political injustice. Rather, it deals with real life, flesh and bone, revolutionary cadres: their thoughts, backgrounds, mentalities, and behavior. Going beyond cliches about Soviet encroachment in Latin America and "injustice breeds revolution," the contributors address the issue of the relationship between leaders and followers in a revolutionary context, seeing revolutionary leaders as the key to articulating and defining the agenda of the "revolution." In contrast to most theorizing, revolutionary leaders almost invariably come from the privileged, even aristocratic classes. The findings raise the issue of how well these leaders actually represent the peoples for which they claim to speak. They also prompt questions about the democratic nature of guerrilla organizations. If the leaders are so far removed, by social background and education, personal experience and ideological articulation, from their followers, how realistic is it to see the Left as a purveyor of progress? Perhaps it is more correct, say the contributors, to see their claims as manipulative tactics directed to resolving a struggle for power among competing elites. The selection of topics ranges from the historical development of revolutionary struggles since Che Guevara (Halperin and Ratliff) to the more specific application and motivation behind them (Ybarra-Rojas and Tismaneanu). Chapters deal with the attempt to define a typology of revolutionary leaders (Radu) and their Western supporters (Hollander). Some authors (Payne, Horowitz) combine .these approaches. Many issues examined in this volume are new, including an analysis of the gap between the internationalist outlook of the leaders and the parochial views of their followers. The violent organizations of the Left in Latin America are shown to be largely the functional result of upper- and middle-class leaders who combine an appeal to the lumpenproletariat at home with support of alienated Westerners to pursue their own elitist agenda.

Describes the lives and deaths of the seven Liberators, the men who led Latin America's fight for independence and won it in a span of only twenty years after three centuries of Spanish domination.

The Cuban revolution served as a rallying cry to people across Latin America and the Caribbean. The revolutionary regime has provided vital support to the rest of the region, offering everything from medical and development assistance to training and advice on guerrilla warfare. Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America is the first oral history of Cuba’s liberation struggle. Drawing on a vast array of original testimonies, Dirk Kruijt looks at the role of both veterans and the post-Revolution fidelista generation in shaping Cuba and the Americas. Featuring the testimonies of over sixty Cuban officials and former combatants, Cuba and Revolutionary Latin America offers unique insight into a nation which, in spite of its small size and notional pariah status, remains one of the most influential countries in the Americas.

Recounting recent encounters between Latin American and Arab countries this unique volume explores how, despite both geographical and cultural distances, Latin American revolutionaries constructed an image of the Arab World as one sharing their own political views and interests. From the nationalization of the Suez Canal to Latin American perspectives on the Arab Spring Federico Vélez offers a fascinating historical and contemporary analysis on the behaviour of actors on the periphery of the international system. Contributing to debates regarding ideological and political autonomy the book provides a comprehensive historical account of relations between the countries of Latin America and the Middle East alongside new analysis on the ways marginalized states can sometimes build unlikely alliances in their attempts to challenge structures of power.

Revolutions are a commonly studied but only vaguely understood historical phenomenon. Now updated to include the perspectives of grassroots revolutionary movements and biographies of often marginalized voices, this clear and concise text extends our understanding with a critical narrative analysis of key case studies: the 1910–1920 Mexican Revolution; the 1944–1954 Guatemalan Spring; the 1952–1964 MNR-led revolution in Bolivia; the Cuban Revolution that triumphed in 1959; the 1970–1973 Chilean path to socialism; the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua in power from 1979–1990; failed guerrilla movements in Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru; and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela after Hugo Chávez’s election in 1998. Historian Marc Becker opens with a theoretical introduction to revolutionary movements, including a definition of what “revolution” means and an examination of factors necessary for a revolution to succeed. He analyzes revolutions through the lens of those who participated and explores the sociopolitical conditions that led to a revolutionary situation, the differing responses to those conditions, and the outcomes of those political changes. Each case study provides an interpretive explanation of the historical context in which each movement emerged, its main goals and achievements, its shortcomings, its outcome, and its legacy. The book concludes with an analysis of how elected leftist governments in the twenty-first century continue to struggle with issues that revolutionaries confronted throughout the twentieth century.

Some selections translated by the editors. Bibliography: p. [305]-308.