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Since the military took power in 1976, there has been a systematic effort to undermine the power of the labor movement, which was consolidated during the rule of populist leader Juan Domingo Per6n. Orlando Bustos, a former leader of the Textile Worker's Union, told me in late 1997 that mem- bership in his union has decreased dramatically, from 100,000 in 1975 to approximately 12,000 today.
This guide, reprinted here by NACLA, is produced as a public service by WorldViews LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN (a regional division of World Views). It includes information on inter- national nongovernmental orga- nizations whose primary concerns are the nations and people of Latin America and the Caribbean.
On Socialism Dr. Thomas Maack's critique of my Thirtieth Anniversary Essay, "Socialism is Dead; Long Live Socialism," (Letters, March/April 1998) discards my specific assessments of why social- ism failed in particular Latin America countries, arguing that all socialist projects collapsed because they "occurred in the context of underdevelopment.
Daniel Azpiazu & Eduardo M. Basualdo & Hugo J. Nochteff
Punished by years of high inflation, Argentines enthusiastically supported Menem's anti-inflationary Convertibility Plan. The government, however, utilized the success of the Plan to peddle a larger neoliberal shock program that has enriched few and impoverished the majority of Argentines.
Although many observers are optimistic about its future, tensions among national constituencies as well as those between Mercosur and other countries could intensify as the trading bloc develops. The October 1997 visit of U.
Indigenous Groups Challenge U.S.
During his investi- gation into the disappearances of several Spanish citizens in Argentina during the military regime, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garz6n was questioning former navy captain Adolfo Scilingo, who in 1995 had confessed to his par- ticipation in the kidnap- ping and disappearances of Argentine citizens dur- ing the country's dirty war. 1 One of the cases Scilingo mentioned was that of Lieutenant Jorge Alberto Devoto, who had been disappeared after requesting that he be allowed to retire from the navy because he objected to its repressive policies.
Aníbal Ford & Jorge Elbaum
The social and cultural project set in motion by the military regime has been consolidated under Menem. The cultural dislocation and embittered resignation that plagues much of Argentine society is the result of the dismantling of the social contract and the absence of real political debates.
Incomplete Transition: Military Power and Democracy in Argentina by J. Patrice McSherry, St.
President Menem and his Peronist party have ruled Argentina unchallenged for nearly a decade. An electoral alliance that formed last year-and defeated the Peronists in legislative elections-has set its sights on the presidency in 1999.
Impunity & The Murder of Monsignor Gerardi The brutal murder of Guate- malan Bishop Monsignor Juan Gerardi Conedera on April 26 was intended to send a message. Those who have brutal- ized the country for decades and have never had to answer for their crimes have made it clear that they will not tolerate any attempts to challenge the impunity that reigns in Guatemala.
Norberto Cordoba sacrificed his job, trying to end condi- tions in his factory so dan- gerous that he feared the lives of his co-workers were at risk. C6rdoba was employed at the Han Young plant in Tijuana, making truck chassis and shipping contain- ers for the huge Hyundai Corp- oration industrial complex.
While more than 90,000 people were being evacuated in Argentina due to floods provoked by El Nifio, a political joke was making its way around Buenos Aires: "The floods are not the result of the waters rising, but of the fact that the country is sinking." It seems puzzling that people are joking about the country sinking when economic growth rates are extremely high and prices have remained stable over the past few years-the laurels on which the government of President Carlos Menem has rested for nearly a decade.
