Latin American Political Systems and Issues Today

Cypress Woods HSWorld Geography

History of Political Systems

• Most Latin American countries were ruled by caudillos until the later part of the 20th century.

• Caudillos were either military dictators and men kept in power by the support of the military.

• They were often absolute rulers.

• Some important caudillos included Simon Bolivar of Venezuela and Juan Peron of Argentina. Fidel Castro of Cuba can also be considered a modern day caudillo.

Simon Bolivar

Juan and Eva Peron

Political Systems Today

World in 1965, blue is democratic, red is some form of populist dictatorship

World in 2003, blue is democratic, red is some form of populist dictatorship

Latin America has becomeincreasingly democratic

Question• Which

countries in Latin America are not democracies?

• Cuba and Venezuela• Cuba is a communist

dictatorship• Venezuela is

socialist

Cuba and Castro • Though Fidel

has stepped down from power and handed day to day control to his brother Raul, he still runs the country.

Cuba

What do youthink will

happento Cuba onceCastro dies? Will it become ademocracy?Stay communist?

New Cuban Policy

President Obama has recently stated that the U.S. needs to change its outdated policy towards Cuba. Although many segments of society agree, not everyone agrees.

Click on pics to seevideos

Venezuela

A socialist country,was controlled byHugo Chavez from1999 until his death in 2013. Most of its wealthcomes from oil. Hasstrong ties to other leftist countries likeBolivia and Cuba.

Successful Democracies

The “cone” countries of

Chile, Argentina andUruguay are the mostsuccessful countries

inSouth America. Theyhave strong

economiesand are considereddemocratic. Brazil isbeginning to do wellalso.

Presidents of Argentina, Chile &Brazil

Important World Leaders from Latin America

First Native Americanpresident of Latin America, Evo Morales

of Bolivia.

First Roman Catholic pope from the Americas, Francis ofArgentina.

Drug War

Colombia to MexicoSince the 1990s, thecontrol of Latin

America’sdrug trade has moved

fromColombia to Mexico,primarily due to the defeat of the cartels anddestruction of the cocacrops by government forces.

Drug WarAccording

tothis politicalcartoon, what roledoes the U.S. play inthe drugwar?

Click on cartoon above to see LA TimesSpecial report on the Mexican drug war

Drug War

Click on map to see how drugs flow throughout the U.S.

Drug War

What can bedone to end the drug war

inthe U.S.?What havesome states recently doneto combat it?

Click on map to see video

Drug Abuse

States in red have most problems with drugs