It was easy to imagine the content of this week’s readings when reading the title of the chapter. Violence, guerrillas, oppostitions, masacres, bloodbaths… terror. I personally think this chapter encloses one of the most important peaks in the history of Latin America. Most of the texts evoke a lot of strong emotions. It is very hard not to feel any sympathy after reading tragedies with tons of victims and awful perpetrators. I can see why people joined the guerrillas, and why they were creating this expressions of opposition; they were tired of watching the government representing just a small portion of society.

Document 1, was the excerpt of Mario Vargas Llosa’s essay. I’ve never read anything form him besides his literature work. It was really intersting to see a different perspective of his work. I had a bit of confussion with his position, I felt like he was a bit too harsh on expressing his assumptions about Andean paesants as primitive and unawere of the current systems of politics. On the other hand, document 2, had a really left side touch. The excerpt of president Gonzalo talks about war undermining again the indigenous people, yet including them in war.

Fujimori”s declaration has a really strong determination. I think Fujimory was a true leader, (not saying a good or a bad one) just really determined and not afraid of change. But at the same time, I think he saw Peru in a really dark place, and saw himself as a saviour. Finally, document 4, reveals the extremes of Fujiomori, and his war with Sendero Luminoso. When I was reading it, I remembered a lot of stories from my grandmother, she lived in the years of civil war, and she lived through the times of massive killings and kidnappings in Colombia. She knew it wasn’t only in Colombia, but aslo she was aware of the situation of Peru.

This peak in Latin American history has shaped the course of each country, and gave the roots of the problems that today we face. This period of time determined the level of education, economic growth and development of the nations. Most importantly, it shaped the way Latin Americans responded to new challenges and new governments. FEAR was imprinted in every victim, and violations of the Human Rights were something that people excpected in a regular basis.