Synopses & Reviews
As a member of Salvador Allendes Personal Guards (GAP), Luz Arce worked with leaders of the Socialist Party during the Popular Unity Government from 1971 to1973. In the months following the coup, Arce served as a militant with others from the Left who opposed the military junta led by Augusto Pinochet, which controlled the country from 1973 to1990. Along with thousands of others in Chile, Arce was detained and tortured by Chiles military intelligence service, the DINA, in their attempt to eliminate alternative voices and ideologies in the country. Arces testimonial offers the harrowing story of the abuse she suffered and witnessed as a survivor of detention camps, such as the infamous Villa Grimaldi.
But when faced with threats made to her family, including her young son, and with the possibility that she could be murdered as thousands of others had been, Arce began to collaborate with the Chilean military in their repression of national resistance groups and outlawed political parties. Her testimonial thus also offers a unique perspective from within the repressive structures as she tells of her work as a DINA agent whose identifications even lead to the capture of some of her former friends and compañeros.
During Chiles return to democracy in the early 1990s, Arce experienced two fundamental changes in her life that led to the writing of her story. The first was a deep spiritual renewal through her contacts with the Catholic Church whose Vicariate of Solidarity had fought for human rights in the country during the dictatorship. The second was her decision to participate within the legal system to identify and bring to justice those members of the military who were responsible for the crimes committed from 1973 to1990. Luz Arces book invites readers to rethink the definition of testimonial narrative in Latin America through the unique perspective of a survivor-witness-confessor.
Review
andldquo;A towering achievement, the result of more than three decades of research and reflection on the interrelated phenomena of violence, war, culture, politics, and human rights in Peru.andrdquo;andmdash;Carlos Aguirre, University of Oregon
Review
andldquo;Without a doubt, Degregori is the key interpreter of the Shining Path movement. This book is his masterpiece.andrdquo;andmdash;Charles Walker, University of California, Davis
Review
"Powerful reading. . . . A devastating book . . . [which] itself became part of an important controversy within Chile at the time of its appearance, about whether former leftists and secret police collaborators should be welcomed or rejected in society, and by whom."—Steve Stern, author of Perus Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest
Review
"The Inferno is a searing and haunting memoir of one womans journey through the hell of Pinochets torture chambers and secret police."—Peter Winn, Tufts University
Review
“Arce’s testimony . . . draws from her direct proximity to and experiences of the machinery of violent death.”—Patrick Timmons, Latin American Research Review
Review
andldquo;A compelling account of the thirty-year investigation by reporters Russell and Sylvia Bartley to unravel two of the most significant political assassinations of the twentieth centuryandmdash;the blatant 1984 slaying of Mexican journalist Manuel Buendandiacute;a and the brutal 1985 torture-execution of U.S. DEA agent Kiki Camarena. Rather than finger-pointing, arm-waving accusations, the authors use these killings to plunge deep into the clandestine domain created by shipment of CIA guns south through Mexico to the Nicaragua Contras and smuggling of drugs north into the U.S., simultaneously compromising the Mexican state and corrupting U.S.andndash;Mexican relations.andrdquo;andmdash;Alfred W. McCoy, author of
Torture and Impunity: The CIA Doctrine of Coercive InterrogationReview
andldquo;These events have been a taboo subject for mainstream media and most academics. Like a Russian novel, Eclipse of the Assassins has a vast cast of characters meshing together in a world where the murder is never perfectly solved but is finally understood.andrdquo;andmdash;Charles Bowden, author of Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economyandrsquo;s New Killing Fields
Synopsis
The revolutionary war launched by Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency, was the most violent upheaval in modern Peruandrsquo;s history, claiming some 70,000 lives in the 1980sandndash;1990s and drawing widespread international attention. Yet for many observers, Shining Pathandrsquo;s initial successes were a mystery. What explained its cult-like appeal, and what actually happened inside the Andean communities at war?
and#160;and#160; and#160;In How Difficult It Is to Be God, Carlos Ivandaacute;n Degregoriandmdash;the worldandrsquo;s leading expert on Shining Path and the intellectual architect for Peruandrsquo;s highly regarded Truth and Reconciliation Commissionandmdash;elucidates the movementandrsquo;s dynamics. An anthropologist who witnessed Shining Pathandrsquo;s recruitment of militants in the 1970s, Degregori grounds his findings in deep research and fieldwork. He explains not only the ideology and culture of revolution among the insurgents, but also their capacity to extend their influence to university youths, Indian communities, and competing social and political movements.
and#160;and#160; and#160;Making Degregoriandrsquo;s most important work available to English-language readers for the first time, this translation includes a new introduction by historian Steve J. Stern, who analyzes the authorandrsquo;s achievement, why it matters, and the debates it sparked. For anyone interested in Peru and Latin Americaandrsquo;s age of andldquo;dirty war,andrdquo; or in the comparative study of revolutions, Maoism, and human rights, this book will provide arresting new insights.
Synopsis
Eclipse of the Assassins investigates the sensational 1984 murder of Mexicoandrsquo;s most influential newspaper columnist, Manuel Buendandiacute;a, and how that crime reveals the lethal hand of the U.S. government in Mexico and Central America during the final decades of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
The authors uncover new information about the U.S.-instigated andldquo;dirty warsandrdquo; that ravaged all of Latin America in the 1960s, andlt;andrsquo;andgt;70s, and andlt;andrsquo;andgt;80s and revealandmdash;for the first timeandmdash;how Mexican officials colluded with Washington in its proxy Contra war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. They document the deadly connections among historical events usually remembered as separate episodes: the Iran-Contra scandal; the 1985 kidnapping and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Enrique (Kiki) Camarena in Guadalajara; Operation Trifecta, a major DEA sting against key CIA-linked Bolivian, Panamanian, and Mexican drug traffickers; the Christic Instituteandrsquo;s public interest lawsuit against twenty-eight Contra-related defendants on behalf of American freelance journalists Tony Avirgon and Martha Honey; and the CIA-orchestrated media savaging of investigative reporter Gary Webb for his 1996 exposandeacute; of Agency collusion with cocaine-trafficking Contra supporters in California.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Eclipse of the Assassins places a major political crime in its full historical perspective. It is the first book in English to recount the history of Cold War political violence in Mexico and to show how that historyandmdash;in the postandndash;Cold War eraandmdash;segues into the current crime-driven state of societal collapse where growing areas of Mexicoandrsquo;s national territory are beyond the effective authority of the national government.
About the Author
Russell H. Bartley is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsinandndash;Milwaukee. He worked as a correspondent for the Mexico City daily newspaper
unomandaacute;suno from 1980 to 1989. Sylvia Erickson Bartley is an historian, historical records archivist, and photographer. She worked as a photojournalist for
unomandaacute;suno from 1984 to 1989.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Introduction: Journalist Down
1 Knight Errantand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
2 Under the Carpetand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
3 Legworkand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
4 Coordinates of Powerand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
5 Ballet Folklandoacute;rico, Act Iand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
6 Ballet Folklandoacute;rico, Act IIand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
7 Grand Finaleand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
8 After the Curtainand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
9 Back on the Pavementand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
10 secret, nofornand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
11 Attorneys in Wonderlandand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
12 On Down the Rabbit Holeand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
13 By Mutual Consentand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
14 Alien Terrainand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
15 Prohibited Conversationsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
16 Extreme Prejudiceand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
17 Occamandrsquo;s Razor: Parsing the Evidenceand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Epilogueand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;
Glossary of Namesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Sourcesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Index