Politics in Latin America
Mexico
- Like other states in Latin America, Mexico had to deal with neocolonialism
- When the United States felt like their interests we threatened they would intervene with military and influence Mexico's economy with full or part ownership of enterprises like the oil industry
- In the 19th century Latin America looked at the United States as a model of liberal democracy but by the 20th century US interference was seen in a negative light.
- This negative attitude towards the US was extremely apparent in Mexico after the Mexican war when Mexico lost huge chunks of land to the US
- Mexicans that were dedicated to overthrowing elite rule and foreign economic control stirred up a revolution that lasted 1910-1930's
- Their demands for land and liberty were established in the constitution of 1917
- After the demands were established Mexican Presidents designed reform policies
- The constitution stated that the Mexican government owned its own subsoil and its products and that the state had the right to redistribute land to village peasants after confiscating it and compensating landowners
- It also incorporated social laws and guaranteed civil liberties
- Land redistribution reached its peak during the presidency of Lazaro Cardenas when the state returned 45 million acres of land to peasants
- Cardenas also took control of Mexican oil wells away from foreign investors
- The reforms did not continue after the revolution
- Conservative governments controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party often ruled harshly and and did trial and error with different styles of economy that would either increase or decrease Mexico's dependence on foreign markets and capital
- The son of Cardenas took on the role of leading the opposing party, the Democratic Revolutionary Party
Argentina
- Had a reasonably expansive economy based on cattle and agriculture
- a growing middle class population composed of European migrants
- Industrial growth
- Its geography, placing it far away from the us, allowed Argentina to remain fairly independent from the U.S. and became a leader in the reaction to U.S. and European economic and political intervention in the region
- Free elections and sharing of political power beyond that exercised by the landowning elite surfaced
- Brutal Military rulers caused Argentina to become a negative model for politics