Borderlands and Public Violence in a Shadow Polity
- 350 Downloads
Abstract
Historians have long claimed Central America’s configuration as the Western Hemisphere’s land bridge between the oceans to be the most consequential feature of the region’s physical geography. The history of Central America’s exceptionally complex political geography, however, seems to have attracted much less interest. Among the most politically fragmented areas of the world for the past century and a half, Central America nevertheless can claim an even older and longer history of political unity, which in turn has never ceased to nourish a strong desire for reunification. Just how those legacies of initial unity, subsequent fragmentation, and the longing for reunification have shaped the state formation process in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is a problem that still awaits its historian. This chapter approaches the problem by analyzing the borderland histories of the five countries, focusing on that of Costa Rica and Nicaragua during the Cold War both to explain and to weigh the results of a tradition of borderland-associated violence and intrigue.
Keywords
National Identity Public Security Political Violence Transnational Organize Crime National Security CouncilBibliography
- Aguilar Bulgarelli, Oscar. 1993. Costa Rica y sus hechos políticos de 1948. San José: Editorial Costa Rica.Google Scholar
- Ameringer, Charles D. 1996. The Caribbean Legon: Patriots, politicians, soldiers of fortune, 1946–1950. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
- Arévalo, Juan José. 1953. Al asumir la Presidencia. In Escritos: Políticos y Discursos, 231–241. La Habana: Cultural, S.A.Google Scholar
- Baud, Michiel, and Willem Van Schendel. 1997. Toward a comparative history of Borderlands. Journal of World History 8(2): 211–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Booth, John A. 1998. Costa Rica: Quest for democracy. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
- Borge, Tomás, Carlos Fonseca, Daniel Ortega Savedra, Humberto Ortega, and Jaime Wheelock. 1982. Sandinistas speak. New York: Pathfinder Press.Google Scholar
- Castañeda, Jorge G. 1994. Utopia unarmed: The Latin American left after the Cold War. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
- Child, Jack. 1985. Geopolitics and conflict in South America: Quarrels among neighbors. New York: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
- Clarridge, Duane R. 1997. A spy for all seasons: My life in the CIA. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
- Costa Rica. 1981. Asamblea Legislativa Comisión, Asuntos Especiales Costa Rica. “Informe sobre el tráfico de armas”.Google Scholar
- Costa Rica. 1989. Asamblea Legislativa. Comisión Especial Nombrada para Investigar los Hechos Denunciados Sobre Narcotráfico. Segundo informe de la Comisión sobre el Narcotráfico. Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia. San José: Costa Rica. [“Informe Final” was the original title of the unpublished report]Google Scholar
- Domínguez, Jorge I. 2003. Boundary disputes in Latin America. Washington, DC: United States Insitute of Peace.Google Scholar
- Earley, Stephen. 1982. Arms and politics in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, 1948–1981, Research Paper Series, Latin American Institute, vol. 9. New Mexico: University of New Mexico.Google Scholar
- Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. 1990a. Acuerdos de Unidad del FSLN. In Sandinistas: Key documents/Documentos Claves, ed. Dennis Gilbert and David Block, 68–73. Ithaca: Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
- Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. 1990b. Análisis de la Coyuntura y Tareas de la Revolución Popular Sandinista. In Sandinistas: Key documents/Documentos Claves, ed. Gilbert Dennis and Block David, 74–110. Ithaca: Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
- Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. 1990c. Programa Sandinista. In Sandinistas: Key documents/Documentos Claves, ed. Dennis Gilbert and David Block, 3–21. Ithaca: Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
- Girot, Pascal O. 1997. Border regions, integration, and transborder conservation initiatives in Central America. In Borders and border regions in Europe and North America, ed. Paul Ganster, Alan Sweedler, James Scott, and Wolf Dieter-Eberwein, 333–354. San Diego: San Diego State University Press.Google Scholar
- Gleijeses, Piero. 1992. Shattered hope: The Guatemalan revolution and the United States, 1944–1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
- Gros Espiell, Héctor. 1986. La Neutralidad de Costa Rica. San José: Editorial Juricentro.Google Scholar
- Hall, Carolyn, and Héctor Pérez Brignoli. 2003. Historical atlas of Central America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
- Holden, Robert H. 2004. Armies without nations: Public violence and state formation in Central America, 1821–1960. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- Honey, Martha. 1994. Hostile acts: U.S. policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
- House, J.W. 1980. The frontier zone: A conceptual problem for policy makers. International Political Science Review 1(4): 456–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Hudson, Rex A. 2007. “Castro’s America Department: Coordinating Cuba’s support for Marxist-Leninist violence in the Americas”, Miami. http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/rex-hudson.htm
- Karnes, Thomas L. 1961. The failure of union: Central America 1824–1960. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
- Kornbluh, Peter, and Malcolm Byrne. 1993. The Iran-Contra scandal: the declassified history. New York: New Press. Distributed by W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
- Lambert, Peter. 2006. Myth, manipulation, and violence: Relationships between national identity and political violence. In Political violence and the construction of national identity in Latin America, ed. Will Fowler and Peter Lambert, 19–36. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Lavell, Allan. 1994. Border regions in Central America: An agenda for future research priorities. In The Americas, ed. Pascal O. Girot, 49–57. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
- LeoGrande, William M. 1998. Our own backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
- Longley, Kyle. 1997. The sparrow and the Hawk: Costa Rica and the United States during the rise of José Figueres. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
- Mendieta, Salvador. 1934. La enfermedad de Centro-américa. Barcelona: Tip. Maucci.Google Scholar
- Miranda, Roger, and William Ratliff. 1993. The civil war in Nicaragua: Inside the Sandinistas. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
- Morales, Abelardo. 1997. Los territorios del Cuajipal: Frontera y sociedad entre Nicaragua y Costa Rica. San José: FLACSO.Google Scholar
- Morales Alvarez, Miguel, and Rodia Romero Sepúlveda. 2000. Crisis del estado nacional hacia el Siglo XXI: La cuestión fronteriza Costa Rica, Nicaragua y Panamá. Herédia: Universidad Nacional.Google Scholar
- Morehouse, Barbara J. 2004. Theoretical approaches to border spaces and identities. In Challenged borderlands: Transcending political and cultural boundaries, ed. Vera Pavlakovich-Kochi, Barbara J. Morehouse, and Doris Wastl-Walter, 19–40. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
- Muñoz Guillén, Mercedes, and Rodia Romero. 1991. El dilema del estado costarricense: Seguridad nacional o soberanía. In América Latina: Militares y sociedad, vol. 1, ed. Dirk Kruijt and Edelberto Torres-Rivas, 147–182. San José: FLACSO.Google Scholar
- Munro, Dana G. 1964. Intervention and dollar diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Newman, David. 2006. The resilience of territorial conflict in an era of globalization. In Territoriality and conflict in an era of globalization, ed. Miles Kahler and Barbara F. Walter, 85–110. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Obregón Loria, Rafael. 1981. Hechos Militares y Políticos De Nuestra Historia Patria. Alajuela: Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría.Google Scholar
- Organization of American States. 1973. Inter-American treaty of reciprocal assistance: Applications, vol. 1, 1948–1959. Washington, DC: Organization of American States.Google Scholar
- Orozco, Manuel. 2001. Boundary disputes in central America: Past trends and present developments. Pensamiento Propio 6 – Nueva Epoca 14: 99–134.Google Scholar
- Pastor, Robert A. 2002. Not condemned to repetition: The United States and Nicaragua. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
- Pérez Brignoli, Héctor. 1985. Breve historia de Centroamérica. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.Google Scholar
- Prescott, John R.V. 1987. Political frontiers and boundaries. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
- Ramírez, Sergio. 1999. Adiós muchachos: Una memoria de la revolución Sandinista. Bogotá: Aguilar.Google Scholar
- Rouquié, Alain. 1987. The military and the state in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
- Seligson, Mitchell, and William J. Carroll III. 1982. The Costa Rican role in the Sandinist victory. In Nicaragua in revolution, ed. Thomas W. Walker, 331–344. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
- Solís, R., and Luis Guillermo. 1992. Costa Rica: La política exterior y los cambios en el sistema internacional en los ochenta. In El nuevo rostro de Costa Rica, ed. Juan Manuel Villasuso, 341–356. Heredia: CEDAL.Google Scholar
- Toobin, Jeffrey. 1991. Opening arguments: A young lawyer’s first case: United States V. Oliver North. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
- United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. 2007. Crime and development in Central America: Caught in the crossfire. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2012. Transnational organized crime in Central America and the Caribbean: A threat assessment. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
- United States. President’s Special Review Board. 1987. Report of the President’s special review board. Washington DC: United States Government.Google Scholar
- Valerín Román, Ileana, and Fabiola Tellini Neveu. 1996. El conflicto de la frontera norte: Diversificación de los Cuerpos de Seguridad Pública en Costa Rica (1978–1990). (Licenciatura en Historia, Universidad de Costa Rica, Escuela de Historia y Geografía).Google Scholar
- Wilson, Bruce M. 1998. Costa Rica: Politics, economics, and democracy. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
- Wilson, Thomas M., and Hastings Donnan. 1998. Nation, State and identity at international borders. In Border identities: Nation and state at international frontiers, ed. Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan, 1–30. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Woodward, Bob. 1987. Veil: The secret wars of the CIA, 1981–1987. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
- Woodward, Ralph Lee. 1999. Central America, a nation divided, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar