In the 1960’s and 1970’s, a wave of brutal military regimes came to power in much of South America. These regimes are known as the “new dictatorships” which practiced sweeping governmental change and severe repression of the people. In examining two cases, the Pinochet regime that took power in Chile in 1973 and the “Proceso de Reorgainzacion National” launched by the Argentine military in 1976, we can come to some conclusions. It can be seen that the severity of repression brought on the people of South America was not because the military regimes desired it, but thought that it was for the good of the country’s future, to change the path of the country faster than if they did it politically.

In Chile, the reasons of the brutal military takeover are much easier to see than those of other South American countries. Salvador Allende was elected president in 1970, sliding past the previous president and a third candidate. He was supported by the Christian Democrats and was an open Marxist. He was the first freely elected Marxist of Chile. Allende was committed to democratic socialism yet greatly admired Fidel Castro. According to the book, A Nation of Enemies, by Constable and Valenzuela, Allende soon changed his political thoughts and started to nationalize the industries of the country, much like Castro did in Cuba. The military watched him closely and soon decided that communism was taking over their country. With the threat of communism, the military, with the help of the CIA, took action and destroyed the government of Chile. Allende committed suicide rather than surrender to the military, and the presidential palace was nearly destroyed. The commanding leader of the military, Pinochet, declared himself president of Chile and vowed to make it into the country it should be and to exterminate the claws of communism from the country.

Pinochet sent armies and troops out to fight the people who would resist the rule of the military. People such as union leaders and workers would receive the biggest blow, not only in brutal repression, but also in wage cuts and decreased standards of living that the socialist rule had given them. In one of Pinochet’s speeches, he says he is trying to “extirpate the root of evil from Chile” and bring a “moral cleansing” to the nation and that the repression would go on until the “country has reached social peace and economic development” (39 Constable). Pinochet used war tactics and force on the people to quiet them into the new government, killing random people and instilling fear in order to reach his goal of a true society, a neo-liberal society, which he believed was the right path for the future of Chile.

Argentina’s history is very similar to Chile’s when it comes to the era of the “new dictatorships.” In 1946 a man named Juan Peron was elected as president and became a hero for the people of Argentina. He was a champion of the working class, the protector of the poor. He got the support of the unions and created unconditional loyalty from the working people. Peron’s political standing was to change the path of the country from an export economy to internal markets and industrialization -- a model of developmentalism. The industry people gained money, the working conditions and wages improved for the workers, but after about five years, the internal market disappeared, the profits disappeared, the people polarized, and the economy stagnated. From 1955 to 1976, Peron is overthrown and his party and ideas are outlawed, then allowed to come back and Peronism takes over the government once again until the military overthrows the government in 1976.

In 1976, the “new dictatorship” begins in Argentina. The ideas of Peronism seemed, to the government, a lot like the ideas of socialism. Communism is a volatile topic and one that is repeatedly fought against in most countries. The military regime believed that Peronism was not the path Argentina should go, and like most other South American countries, they believed that neo-liberalism was the right path. They believed that everyone had their place and everyone should stay in that place. Workers shouldn’t be in politics and upper-class should not raise up the poor; accept your place and a good society would be created. This is almost opposite of what Peronism was all about.

Because Peronism was so popular among the majority of the people, there were many who kept doing as they did before. Church groups brought food and built shelters and day cares for the poor. Historians and Social Science workers and students studied and worked on the social problems of the lower classes. The government believed these people were “subversive” to the government’s ideals and so they shut them down. Areas of study were banned from universities and people who were actively participating in subversive activities became disappeared. It is estimated that 30,000 to 35,000 people disappeared during the “new dictatorship” of Argentina, very few of them returned. It was a way for the government to silence the ideas of Peronism, an evil they saw that permeated the country like a bad smell. To the military regime, the people who acted out of their station in life, the people who wanted better for themselves or others, or who believed in the ideals of Juan Peron were bad for the future of the country and to save the country they had to remove the bad people. It is kind of like when Spain entered many areas of Latin America and wiped out or repressed the indigenous populations because they believed their ideals were superior and better for the future of the land than the ideals before them.

The “new dictatorships” of Chile and Argentina are two examples of the many dictatorships that sprung up in Latin America in the 1960’s and 1970’s. From these examples we can see that the brutality of these regimes were seen as necessary by the government in order to put the countries on a new and better path, and to quickly forget the ideals and ways of the past.