In our class on September 18th, Professor Michele Leiby, a political science professor from this college who also specializes in Latin American politics, came to class discuss the history of Latin American politics in the later half of the 20th Century as well as answer some of our questions about the politics of Latin America.  She started with answering our questions on the politics of Latin America, which covered various subjects such as political polarization, violence, and similarities to U.S. politics.  Afterwards, she went over two former Authoritarian regimes in Latin America, Pinochet’s Chile and Fujimori’s Peru.

In regards to Chile, we learned that President Allende, who from 1970 to 1973 tried to introduce healthcare reforms and nationalize industries, was overthrown by General Augusto Pinochet, who was aided by the U.S..  Pinochet’s authoritarian rule from 1974 to 1990 involved government spending being cut, tariffs getting lowered, the re-privatizing of nationalized companies, the privatization of various government services, having millions of dollars earned from copper directed towards fighting the dirty war, and the execution of 20,000 to 30,000 people by the government for dissenting.  Even after Pinochet’s ousting from office and subsequent return of democracy to Chile, many scars, both political and societal, from the former regime remain in Chile to this day.