Political Suicide in Latin America - Softcover

Dunkerley, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860915603 ISBN 13: 9780860915607

Publisher: Verso Books, 1992

Synopsis

Over recent years James Dunkerley has established a reputation as one of the most thoughtful and eloquent writers on Latin America. In his latest book he investigates the high incidence of political suicide in the subcontinent. A sensitive and revealing essay details a number of case studies: the still disputed death of Chilean President Salvador Allende during Pinochet’s storming of the Moneda Palace in 1973; the case of the Salvadorean guerrilla leader Salvador Cayetano Carpio who shot himself in the heart in April 1983; the death of Brazilian President Getulio Vargas, who declared in April 1954 that he would only leave the presidential palace dead—and a few days later did so; Bolivian President German Busch, who died at his own hand aged thirty-five in 1939; and the dramatic end of Eduardo Chibas, founder of the Cuban People’s Party, who shot himself live on Havana radio in 1951. in the pieces which follow, Dunkerley employs his customary acuity to range over the implications of the Sandinista defeat in Nicaragua, the plight of El Salvador, the modern history of Bolivia, the experience of postwar Guatemala and, in a coruscating broadside, the politics of the Peruvian novelist and the presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa.

About this title

About the Author:

James Dunkerley is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas. His books include Rebellion in the Veins, Power in the Isthmus and The Long War, all published by Verso.

Review:

From the reviews of James Dunkerley's Power in the Isthmus: "...the most serious and sophisticated history of modern Central America in English and possibly also in Spanish... a truly major work." - Third World Quarterly "...a model of intellectual maturity executed with masterly skill." - Journal of Latin American Studies

About this edition

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0860915603
• ISBN 13: 9780860915607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272