This volume consists of seven essays originally presented by professors from British universities at a conference at the University of Liverpool during the 1994 annual conference of the British equivalent of LASA, the Society for Latin American Studies. The collection deals with the cases of Antonio López de Santa Anna, Porfirio Díaz, Carlos Ibáñez, Fulgencio Batista, Alfredo Stroessner, Oswaldo López Arellano of Honduras, and Augusto Pinochet.
The essays are generally “revisionist,” in the sense that they offer a somewhat different view of their subjects than those presented by the accepted wisdom. The editor’s contribution on Santa Anna, for instance, stresses his Bonapartist kind of position, above the ideological conflicts of his time, making it possible for him to come to power 11 different times to “save” the nation from a crisis. Similarly, Paul Garmer emphasizes Porfirio Díaz’ ability to co-opt rather than annihilate his enemies.
In the case of Ibáñez, Francisco Domínguez stresses his role as an executor of the social reforms set in motion by Arturo Alessandri before and during the “rattle of the sabers” military movement of September 1924, rather than Ibáñez’ role as a (military) dictator. Likewise, Bert Richards discusses the Pinochet government’s “social program” in Chile (of which the general boasted considerably in his memoirs) rather than the terrorist and arbitrary aspects of the regime.
Regarding the Stroessner regime, Peter Lambert quite correctly focuses on the social and economic factors that help explain the dictator’s longevity, differentiating him from most of the other twentieth-century Paraguayan dictators. Particularly to the point is Lambert’s emphasis on corruption as one of the principal cements that held Stroessner’s regime together for so long.
Rachel Sieder’s discussion of the Honduran military regime of the 1970s notes the government’s effort to rally support from the labor and peasant movements, and the actual agrarian reform effort it carried out. This is a case that has gained very little outside attention and is the more welcome therefore.
Finally, Antoni Kapcia’s portrait of Batista, instead of dwelling on the usual picture of him as a military tyrant, discusses his role as a leader of the 1933 revolution (an event that has been too widely overlooked) and his later use of “populism” during the late 1930s and early 1940s. This reviewer would have some questions about the writer’s treatment of the relationship between Batista and the Communists during that period, but Kapcia’s general theme is important and food for thought. Indeed, in varying degrees, the same comment about the significance of the volume applies to all of its parts.
