Good Morning

By Fredric Saurel-Kotbeber

Start The Week

Fascinating discussion this morning on Start The Week - via BBC Radio 4 - about South American cultures -

Ancient lives and legacies in Latin America
Start the Week

The Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa’s latest novel revolves around the lies, schemes, and vested interests that infected the development of Latin America. In Harsh Times (translated by Adrian Nathan West) a CIA-supported military coup topples the government of Guatemala, but the idea that the country was a Soviet satellite is shown up as manipulated fiction (by the fucking USA government - my words). Llosa tells Tom Sutcliffe about the murky tales of Cold War conspiracies that dominated at the time, and their legacy today.

Natalia Sobrevilla Perea is a Professor of Latin American History at the University of Kent (in Canterbury) and looks at the impact of the Cold War proxy battles on countries like Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, and El Salvador. She highlights the power of the drug barons and the current Peruvian government’s war on corruption. Her research focuses on how historical events have set the stage for contemporary debates about how Andean nations should be governed and how to define citizenship.

But what of the land before outside interference? Peru: a journey in time is the latest exhibition at the British Museum and showcases the civilizations and societies that rose and fell in the remarkable landscapes of the Andes mountains. On display will be objects from the early culture of Chavin in 1200 BC to the Incas in the 16th century. The co-curator Jago Cooper says the ancient Peruvian societies had their unique approaches to the economy, gender, power, and beliefs, and they thrived against the odds up until the Inca conquest by the Spanish.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011l04


"The revolution will not be televised"
Gil Scott-Heron

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