Latin America: A Quest for Peace

Abstract

This book is concerned wíth Latin America and its history. It- is intended to reflect the main feature of the historical process of this area: the violence, and the continous aggression against the life and cultural forms of this continente To this end, the interpreting of peace in Latin America would be relevant the use of the concept of dependency as a basic category of structural condition of its society. Thus, three cases of study are presented to show three different forms of instability and violence in this continent: (1) The Spanish exploitation during the colonial period in the so called "white-gold" era of sugar, (2) The ffect of the liberal economic system during the XIXth Century in the so called "banana-republics" of Central America, and (3) The industrial dependency since the XXth Century, whose most prominent case is the oil extraction, the so called "black gold" ofVenezuela. This critical view is complemented by a previous section on the way of life of the indigenous populations before the discovery of America, and a final section concerning the present situation in the region.