Latin America's Radical Left
Rebellion and Cold War in the Global 1960s

This book examines a generation of leftist militants who in the 1960s advocated revolutionary violence for social change in South America.

Aldo Marchesi (Author)

9781107177710, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 October 2017

272 pages, 13 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.52 kg

'Marchesi does a superb job of tracing the development of strategic thinking about armed revolution and social change as it responded to shifting international conditions. … this is an informative and well-researched book, making effective contributions to the history of the Left during Latin America's Cold War, and the political, intellectual, and cultural history of militant groups.' Patrick Iber, H-LatAm

This book examines the emergence, development, and demise of a network of organizations of young leftist militants and intellectuals in South America. This new generation, formed primarily by people who in the late 1960s were still under the age of thirty, challenged traditional politics and embraced organized violence and transnational strategies as the only ways of achieving social change in their countries during the Cold War. This lasted for more than a decade, beginning in Uruguay as a result of the rise of authoritarianism in Brazil and Argentina, and expanding with Che Guevara's Bolivia campaign in 1966. These coordination efforts reached their highest point in Buenos Aires from 1973 to 1976, until the military coup d'état in Argentina eliminated the last refuge for these groups. Aldo Marchesi offers the first in-depth, regional and transnational study of the militant left in Latin America during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s.

Introduction: actions, ideas, and emotions in the construction of a transnational radicalism in the Southern Cone
1. Revolution without the Sierra Maestra: the Tupamaros and the development of a repertoire of dissent for urbanized countries. Montevideo, 1962–8
2. The subjective bonds of revolutionary solidarity. From Havana to Ñancahuazú (Bolivia), 1967
3. Dependence or armed struggle. Southern Cone intellectuals and militants questioning the legal path to socialism. Santiago de Chile 1970-3
4. 'The decisive round in Latin America's revolution' – Bolivian, Chilean, and Uruguayan activists in Peronist Argentina. Buenos Aires, 1973–6
5. Surviving democracy. The transition from armed struggle to human rights (1981–9)
Conclusion: revolutionaries without revolution.

Subject Areas: The Cold War [HBTW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]