When first listening to the concept of a dirty war, we might think about a conflict that became so extreme that ended up leaving a complete mess in a nation. Well it does refer to something similar. The concept of “Dirty wars” came from Argentina, and it was used to talk about a war in which it was not clear who was the enemy, therefore military forces treated anyone as an enemy. The period of the Dirty wars in Latin America is interpreted to be between 1959-1990, these period is seen as extremely violent, even more than  during independence times.

During this time of terror, we can see how the successful accomplishment of the Cuban revolution, made the division between the left and right wing even wider. While Latin american countries became proxies for the cold war, due to the fact that the USA was a supporter of all of those right wing movements, and provided them with military. An example of this is the financing of the strikes in Chile by the USA. Their biggest goal by doing o was to prevent the expansion of communism in the Latin American region. On the other hand, the USSR at that time supported the left wing-socialist and Marxist ideals in the region, for example Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.

It is sad to see that during this period a clear cycle of violence takes place from both sides the left and the right, depending on which country’s context we based on. For example the left was tired of so much oppression and violence coming form those authoritarian right wing regimes, and so reacted with violent revolutions to overthrown  the governments. However we also see how in some countries, especially in Central America and Cuba, after these left wing revolutionaries took power, they also applied violence against their enemies among the population. The Peruvian example given by Dawson is an exception to this, because it shows how both sides actually acted with equal violence towards each other, showing us that there is not a clear hero or villain in these stories.

As a personal connection to this chapter I can recall all the stories from my mother of the times of rationalization of food, and any kinds of food during the Sandinista’s socialist regime in Nicaragua. My uncles had to flee the country illegally because any boy older than 16 would be sent to war, a war that was sustained against the US intervention, which was trying to prevent the prevalence of socialism in the country