All regions of the world have experienced dictatorship at some point through out their history and Latin America is no exception from this. However, the fact that differentiates Latin American version of dictatorship is that people weren’t too unhappy with their leader and In my opinion this a huge point. It would be interesting to realize what these dictators have done differently that gained them popularity. After watching the videos I realized that leaders’ popularity comes down to the way people feel about them. For instance, since one of these dictators knew the language and customs of the lower class people, they would support him. This is a significant point since it highlights the importance of propaganda and relation with people as a major aspect of politics. It was also quite interesting to realize that various political party’s would suggest things like security to people in order to gain their support.
The evolution of the Caudillos during post-independence era was a result of multiple factors. To be more particular, people who had military power, were charismatic, political and knew struggles of lower class society; would have a great chance to become a leader and eventually a dictator. When we observe the growth’s process of these dictators, we can see they all have many things in common and interestingly many of them have felt the struggle of ordinary people and yet when they become powerful they become dictators. However, it is also important to observe the role of previous governments and in the case of Latin America the role of Spain during pre-independence era. For instance, we can mention that if Spanish invaders did not classify people based on their skin color, then people would not feel as bad towards their social class and begin supporting Caudillos.
I think it is important to look for the roots of a problem and I believe the roots of Caudillos goes back to pre-independence era. Now the question is how can we prevent such incidents from happening in the future or is it even possible to do so?