Latin America

Abstract

Throughout its history, Latin America has suffered more than its fair share of political violence and upheaval. The wars of independence, the frequent revolutions and civil and inter-state wars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the social explosions of the mid twentieth century, such as ‘La Violencia’ in Colombia, engendered a tradition of violence in the region. In an area characterized by low levels of education, development and communications, where personalities rather than parties have often been the predominant political forces, violent confrontation leading to chronic instability and subsequent repressive military intervention to restore order have been depressingly frequent. Costa Rica’s tradition of democratic, consensus politics has been the regional exception, rather than the norm to which Western European or North American states are accustomed.