Central America's Forgotten History
Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
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Narrated by:
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Aida Reluzco
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By:
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Aviva Chomsky
About this listen
Restores the region’s fraught history of repression and resistance to popular consciousness and connects the United States’ interventions and influence to the influx of refugees seeking asylum today.
At the center of the current immigration debate are migrants from Central America fleeing poverty, corruption, and violence in search of refuge in the United States. In Central America’s Forgotten History, Aviva Chomsky answers the urgent question “How did we get here?” Centering the centuries-long intertwined histories of US expansion and indigenous and Central American struggles against inequality and oppression, Chomsky highlights the pernicious cycle of colonial and neocolonial development policies that promote cultures of violence and forgetting without any accountability or restorative reparations.
Focusing on the valiant struggles for social and economic justice in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras, Chomsky restores these vivid and gripping events to popular consciousness. Tracing the roots of displacement and migration in Central America to the Spanish conquest and bringing us to the present day, she concludes that the more immediate roots of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras lie in the wars and in the US interventions of the 1980s and the peace accords of the 1990s that set the stage for neoliberalism in Central America.
Chomsky also examines how and why histories and memories are suppressed and the impact of losing historical memory. Only by erasing history can we claim that Central American countries created their own poverty and violence, while the United States’ enjoyment and profit from their bananas, coffee, mining, clothing, and export of arms are simply unrelated curiosities.
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Critic reviews
"A fiery, revelatory survey of Central America under U.S. domination...Chomsky challenges readers to acknowledge that Donald Trump’s policies were 'only the most recent iteration of over a century of U.S. domination and exploitation of Central Americans.' A compelling historical synthesis, told with style and moral clarity.”—Library Journal, starred review
“A convincing case that much of Central America’s violent unrest can be laid at the feet of US leaders.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“A searing examination of how colonial oppression, Indigenous resistance, and political and economic turmoil have fueled migration from Central America to the U.S.”—Publishers Weekly
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Great if you can bear the narration
- By Tintin on 09-13-21
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The Darker Nations
- A People's History of the Third World
- By: Vijay Prashad, Howard Zinn - editor
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement - the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the 20th century attempt to knit together the world's impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.
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So informative!
- By krishna chaitanya on 01-03-22
By: Vijay Prashad, and others
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In the Dragon's Shadow
- Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century
- By: Sebastian Strangio
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
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A timely look at the impact of China's booming emergence on the countries of Southeast Asia.
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Great book
- By Alex Noble on 12-13-20
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A Brief History of Korea
- Isolation, War, Despotism and Revival: The Fascinating Story of a Resilient But Divided People
- By: Michael J. Seth
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
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Story
Korea was one of the last countries in Asia to be visited by Westerners, and its borders have remained largely unchanged since it was unified in the seventh century. Though it is one of the world's oldest and most ethnically homogeneous states, Korea was not born in a vacuum. Geographically isolated, the country was heavily influenced by powerful China and was often used as a bridge to the mainland by Japan. Calling themselves as "a shrimp among whales", Koreans borrowed elements of government, culture, and religion, all the while fiercely fighting to maintain independence.
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Loved the historical context but ..
- By Kathy on 01-06-20
By: Michael J. Seth
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Born in Blood and Fire: Fourth Edition
- A Concise History of Latin America
- By: John Charles Chasteen
- Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The most highly regarded and affordable history of Latin America for our times. Born in Blood and Fire, Fourth Edition has been extensively revised to heighten emphasis on current cultural analyses of Latin American society and facilitate meaningful connections between the Encounter and the present.
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Excellent synopsis of a very broad history.
- By Carina Rahn on 01-11-21
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 43 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through 34 nations and 60 years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative.
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Great book, but not terrific listening
- By History on 10-18-11
By: Tony Judt
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Forgotten Continent
- The Battle for Latin America’s Soul
- By: Michael Reid
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Latin America has often been condemned to failure. Neither poor enough to evoke Africa’s moral crusade nor as explosively booming as India and China, it has largely been overlooked by the West. Yet this vast continent, home to half a billion people, the world’s largest reserves of arable land, and 8.5 percent of global oil, is busily transforming its political and economic landscape.
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Good Reporting / Disorganized Content
- By Steven Schuster on 02-11-12
By: Michael Reid
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence
- A People's History of Fake News - From The Revolutionary War to The War on Terror
- By: Roberto Sirvent, Danny Haiphong, Ajamu Baraka - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence examines the stories we’re told that lead us to think that the U.S. is a force for good in the world, regardless of slavery, the genocide of indigenous people, and the more than a century’s worth of imperialist war that the U.S. has wrought on the planet. Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong detail just what Captain America’s shield tells us about the pretensions of U.S. foreign policy, how Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates engage in humanitarian imperialism, and more.
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Still processing
- By D'Juan Eastman on 07-03-19
By: Roberto Sirvent, and others
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A Short History of Ireland, 1500-2000
- By: John Gibney
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Five centuries of Irish history are explored in this informative and accessible volume. John Gibney proceeds from the beginning of Ireland’s modern period and continues through to virtually the present day, offering an integrated overview of the island nation’s cultural, political, and socioeconomic history. This succinct, scholarly study covers important historical events, including the Cromwellian conquest and settlement, the Great Famine, and the struggle for Irish independence.
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Accurate, concise, but lacks spark
- By lightbringer34 on 01-22-24
By: John Gibney
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Russia in Revolution
- An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928
- By: S. A. Smith
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the 20th century. Historian S. A. Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the 19th century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s.
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Excellent centenary look at the complete revolutio
- By Privet on 09-13-18
By: S. A. Smith
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America for Americans
- A History of Xenophobia in the United States
- By: Erika Lee
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia. Here, Erika Lee shows that an irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants has been a defining feature of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their "strange and foreign ways." Americans' anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Forcing us to confront this history, America for Americans explains how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.
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Essential to Understanding America
- By Edward Chin-Lyn on 11-09-20
By: Erika Lee
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Vision or Mirage
- Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads
- By: David Rundell
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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David Rundell - one of America's foremost experts on Saudi Arabia - explains how the country has been stable for so long, why it is less so today, and what is most likely to happen in the future. The book is based on the author's close contacts and intimate knowledge of the country where he spent 15 years living and working as a diplomat. Vision or Mirage demystifies one of the most powerful, but least understood, states in the Middle East and is essential for anyone interested in the power dynamics and politics of the Arab world.
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Facts about 70% correct- but with a neocolonial voice
- By Iyla on 09-20-21
By: David Rundell
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Ukraine's Maidan, Russia's War
- A Chronicle and Analysis of the Revolution of Dignity
- By: Mychailo Wynnyckyj, Serhii Plokhy - foreword
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In early 2014, sparked by an assault by their government on peaceful students, Ukrainians rose up against a deeply corrupt, Moscow-backed regime. Initially demonstrating under the banner of EU integration, the Maidan protesters proclaimed their right to a dignified existence; they learned to organize, to act collectively, to become a civil society. Most prominently, they established a new Ukrainian identity: territorial, inclusive, and present-focused with powerful mobilizing symbols.
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Says he is a Christian but totally ignores God
- By Viktor V. Choban on 08-11-20
By: Mychailo Wynnyckyj, and others
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On May 17, 1980, on the eve of Peru's presidential election, five masked men stormed a small town. They set election ballots ablaze and vanished, but not before planting a red hammer-and-sickle banner in the town square. The lone man arrested the next morning later swore allegiance to a group called Shining Path. Described by a US State Department cable as "cold-blooded and bestial", Shining Path orchestrated bombings, assassinations, and massacres across the cities, countryside, and jungles of Peru in a murderous campaign to seize power and impose a Communist government.
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Understanding my wife
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William Walker's Wars
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In the decade before the onset of the Civil War, groups of Americans engaged in a series of longshot - and illegal - forays into Mexico, Cuba, and other Central American countries in hopes of taking them over. These efforts became known as filibustering, and their goal was to seize territory to create new independent fiefdoms, which would ultimately be annexed by the still-growing United States. Most failed miserably. William Walker was the outlier. Soft-spoken with no military background, in 1856 he managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua.
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Riveting
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Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
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In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation.
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US Bash Job
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What listeners say about Central America's Forgotten History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Myriam Duenas
- 01-02-24
Well intended
The historical information was well done but the narrator really held it back. At times the narrator did the book a disservice by their over or under emphasis of words, bordering on sarcasm. Unfortunate.
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- Mike A. Cruz
- 06-24-21
Enlightening
Excellent accounting of the history and systemic issues that have plagued this region. Must read for anyone working or interested in helping these migrant children coming from Central America.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Guido Ivan Martinez
- 05-07-22
Amazingly Insightful
Love this book and its investigative approach to the history of Central America. I thoroughly enjoy the breakdown of every country's unique history with the Spanish conquistadors and much later United States government involvement. Must read for any Central American that grew up in America and have limited knowledge of their own history (being of Central American deset myself I can attest).
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- Danica
- 01-15-23
Informative but dry at times
Informative but dry at times. It is well done, but I found it difficult to get through at times.
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- Buretto
- 02-07-22
Outline of a rigged game
The book gives a thorough account of the history of the region, with particular focus on the wars of the 80s and 90s. As a college student of the 80s, I vividly remember the protests, and the government obfuscation and lies. A particular bell was rung as the name Hasenfus was spoken, like a Madeleine moment, bringing back floods of memories of protesting against American involvement in Nicaragua, and the moment the whole Iran-Contra debacle came tumbling down.
By all rights, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well Mexico, should take center stage in this story, and in fact, for this review. But it is abundantly clear that the primary player, almost entirely for the worse, is the United States of America. In it's fervent, uncritical self-importance and jingoism, it has created poverty and desperation. A misery which then creates migration to escape for a better life in the USA. Only for that country to dismiss them as criminals and undesirables. Fleeing from a situation American exploitative capitalism helped to create. It should be shameful for a population that gives lip service to the ideas of welcoming immigrants and valuing freedom and democracy. But we always knew, and the documents show, that really was only for white European christians, wasn't it?
The core understanding needs to be for America and Americans, the government of the USA has never supported the idea of freedom and democracy around the world that is independent of Uncle Sam, or more aptly Daddy America, at the helm. It helps to maintain an undereducated population, scared by terminology like socialism, lacking the critical skills to realize nearly all revolutionary movements started with a fundamental admiration of the American ideal, and almost never sought (nor were often offered) Soviet assistance, until needed to combat American capitalist aggression. The policy is simply that you're okay only if your democracy is American-approved democracy, which is the definition of fascism.
My only real concern is that the term neoliberal, while well established and defined, is not well understood by the less inquisitive amongst us. Whether my counterparts are merely ignorant, or being willfully deceptive, it's frustrating to explain that neoliberalism is not the same as liberal, less so progressive, leftist or socialist, and thoroughly not communist! Similarly, that Clinton, Obama and Biden are merely pale versions of Reagan, nothing remotely leftist. And it never ceases to amaze that people frightened to the core by the international specter of "socialism", would so blithely accept "global capitalism". I think "exploitative capitalism" (a bit redundant, I know, but no point going halfway now) is a term better suited than neoliberalism.
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- William
- 10-09-22
No solutions without understanding
When you have a headache, it’s okay to take some pain medicine. If it doesn’t go away, maybe you can take another dose. But when it keeps coming back, it’s time to try to find out what’s causing the headache. That’s the basic premise for this book in a manner of speaking.
We can argue over building walls, fences, better surveillance systems or any number of other solutions to the southern border and I don’t know of any mainstream person who would truly say that we should have an open border (depsite all the accusations of such) just like, when you go to a doctor, they won’t take you off pain medications until they have not only found the problem but solved it. However, a doctor’s primary goal is to find out why. Aviva Chomsky is just dealing with the “why” in this book because when they find that, the pain killers may at least be able to be reduced. Why are there so many people who are willing to risk their lives and their children’s lives to get to the US? And, it’s no longer mostly from Mexico.
This book shows how much of the foundation for the inequalities and instability in Central America goes far back into its history, but makes a convincing argument that much of the blame comes from more recent history including interference by the US.
The first part of the book shows how the Spanish destroyed the native cultures and placed them under permanent subjugation that was race-based. Europe worked with the ruling class to build economies centered on agricultural exports from sugar to coffee to fruit,
The second part focuses on the late 1800s to the 1990s and looks at the results in each of the 4 countries that were the most unstable and where most of today’s refugees are coming from–Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras. In the 1800s the influence of American companies increased with the help of economic pressure and military intervention by the US government. The US repeatedly interevened in Central America when anything happened that might affect US business interests, toppling governments and installing more friendly leaders (the origin of the term “banana republic”). The most decorated Marine in history at the time of his death in 1940, Major General Smedley Butler, had become increasingly disenchanted with his own service over the years leading to his retirement. He spoke out repeatedly against America’s military adventurism until his death. Of his service, he said, “In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.”
This history led to corrupt governments and an increasingly dissatisfied populace more and more disillusioned with capitalism as they knew it which resulted in escalating uprisings and finally to the civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador with the US continuing to prop up increasingly corrupt regimes, though now less for economic reasons but out of fear that any change might result in a communist government.
The last part summarizes the last 40 years from Reagan to Trump and we see that the blame fell equally on Republican and Democratic administrations. Chomsky notes that the 1970 census counted 114,000 Central American immigrants. Immigrants from there reached a peak during the Trump administration and as of 2017, there were nearly 3.5 million. And, those are just the official numbers since illegal immigrants are always undercounted and the Trump administration particularly tried to undercount illegal immigrants.
With all the talk about immigration, we tend to forget that much of this concern is very recent. Congress did not set quotas on Mexican and Latin American entry until 1965. It didn’t regulate immigrant status until 1986. The current focus and political hysteria concerning Hispanic and Latino migrants didn’t arise until the 1990s.
This book is an attempt to remind America about its own history and how it has impacted emigration from Central America. At times it comes of a bit strident and may seem to focused on proving its point. Nonetheless, the point is still well-made. The problem is not completely external. Some of the blame is on our own policies and blind spots and a wall will not really solve the problem. Only a concerted effort to face the issues head on, and an effort to build strong democratic governments that respect their people, treat them equitably regardless of race, and that have strong economies with ready markets for their products. And, it means that we need to truly come together to develop a real immigration policy, that doesn’t just lock the door but sets a policy for who can enter as well as how and when. That doesn’t mean that there is no need for better border controls. It just means that that is not nearly enough.
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- Christian mejia
- 10-19-22
A truth of Central American migration and US fault
This is great book to start seeking for the origins of Central American migration and the cause of poverty.
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- Randal Stevens
- 11-02-24
Biased, narrow minded
Not an objective view of history. Author let’s her personal bias get in the way of history
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- Colo MTN Biker
- 09-29-24
A lecture on how bad the USA is and always has been.
History is can be ugly I get it. Just tell the story, Don't lecture me on how bad The USA is.
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- Maureen Deisinger
- 04-23-21
Confusing, disorganized, and esoteric.
Mrs Chomsky did an excellent job of outlining the many failures of socialist governments. Not one country that was discussed had any successes, but grew more corrupt and oppressive over time. Mrs Chomsky argues the USA owes a moral and material debt to central America but she herself outlines that everytime the USA does get involved, we make it worse. We need to withdraw all aid and inovlement in Central America. Overall, a grossly liberal slanted propaganda piece.
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5 people found this helpful