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A University of Maine Ph.D. student spoke about an example of the United States’ influence in Latin America and the growing democratic-socialist forms of government in the hemisphere at Thursday’s Socialist and Marxist Studies Lecture Series on Thursday in the Bangor Room of Memorial Union. Stefano Tijerina stated that the assassination of Colombian populist politician Jorge Gaitan in 1948 during his second presidential campaign and the American response serves as a parallel to U.S. foreign policy in Latin America today.
“Upon his assassination, the U.S. took advantage of the opportunity to influence power,” he said.
Gaitan had socialist ideals and was “an enemy of the multi-national corporations.” He was assassinated on the eve of a delegation between the United States and Latin American representatives.
Then Secretary of State George Marshall led this summit, which created the Organization of American States, an agreement made primarily to deter communism in Latin America.
Tijerina noted that he thinks Latin America is in a time of extreme change. Because of the United States’ focus on the Middle East, Latin America has been “abandoned again,” much like it was during World War II.
Latin American governments are taking a turn toward socialist policies, despite the United States’ history of trying to influence politics in the area. When the United States was sending money to Europe to help the reconstruction effort after WWII, Latin America’s reaction was toward socialist ideologies. Tijerina said the same trend is seen today.
It is still unknown who killed Gaitan Blame has been placed on the government in power in Columbia in 1948, the Communist Part, and the CIA. In the minutes following his death, a crowd of Gaitan supporters killed a man they suspected of the assassination. It has since been called an isolated incident and no one has been convicted of Gaitan’s murder.
Tijerina said the importance of this incident is that during the Cold War in Latin America “anything socialist became a threat . any government in Latin America that was not up to par became a threat to the hemisphere.”
He said that “never in the history of Latin America has there been this many democratically elected socialist governments . it seems that the United States government has no response to this.”
He said that since the area has been “abandoned again” by U.S. foreign policy shifting focus toward the Middle East, people in Latin America are turning toward the socialist leaders because they are more in tune with the needs of the population.
