Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Chilean History and Politics

Daniel Sparler's Chilean History Lecture:

    In this video, Sparler talked about how Chile is very different from other Latin America countries.  Chile has the highest life expectancy, second highest literacy rate, and a very low infant mortality rate.  Then the video was very focused around politics.  Chile is divided into three main political sections: the right, left, and center.  Due to this, in elections it is not common for one candidate to obtain the majority.  Thus, congress votes on the top two candidates.  Salvador Allende was a physician and realized how people in his country did not have access to health care.  This motivated his political career.  He ran for president four times and finally won.  He was the first Marxists to rule a country.  The U.S. did not like this and took many secretive measures to get him out of office.  They went for Chile's economic system and funded a newspaper to spread disinformation.  Allende did not believe in using violence to stop the U.S. or others from dwindling his power so the Soviet Union disowned him.  Allende said that the only way for them to succeed was to use "democracy, pluralism, and freedom".  That was not the answer the Soviet Union wanted.  Sparler showed the United State's relations with Chile and how we behaved when a Marxist obtained power.
     I knew the general information about Chile at the beginning of this video like how Chile is an outcast among Latin America countries.  I did not know that the United States played such an active role in Chilean politics.  Maybe I just don't understand, but I think it's really scary how the United States got so involved.  The CIA tried to kidnap Allende and we destroyed their economy.  We spread disinformation in their country.  That is horrifying how much power we have abroad in a completely autonomous country.  Also, I don't know much about Allende but I loved how he turned away from violence.  He said that is not the right way to go about things.  I think that really sheds a good light on him and makes me think he's not so bad as he is portrayed by America.

1 comment:

  1. I find it so backwards that Allende was criticized for not using violence to bring peace. It shows that there can be harmony and tolerance between nations, but we actively go against that for economic reasons. Logically it does not make sense to fight for peace, but for some reason that methods isn't used more often.

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