This is the fifth annual yearbook on Asia, Africa, and Latin America to be published by the Karl Marx University at Leipzig. It covers developments in these three areas during 1966 and contains one article and a chronology of events for each area. The contributors focus their attention on “national liberation movements.” The book also has a bibliography of periodical literature on national liberation movements published in the German Democratic Republic during 1966.
Max Zeuske’s short analysis of the year’s events in Latin America (pp. 191-219) follows the familiar Marxist model of anti-imperialist revolutionaries struggling against United States imperialism and its lackeys, the native obligarchies. His discussion, to be quite frank, is a sad comment on the state of Latin American studies in the German Democratic Republic. It consists of little more than a string of Marxist cliches, most of them having scant relevance to actual conditions in Latin America. Although the book’s emphasis is clearly on national liberation movements, Zeuske devotes less space to Bolivia and Guatemala than to several countries free from Castroite insurgency. His treatment of Guatemala—a mere four sentences—is astonishingly brief.
The bibliography (82 entries for Latin America) is by far the most important part of the book.