User:KarenPerez96/sandbox

==Article evaluation: Dirty War (Mexico) ==

For this week's assignment, I evaluated the article Dirty War (Mexico). The article is rated start-class.

There are several issues with the article.

1) Most of the claims and facts in the article use local newspapers as sources.

2) There are claims, like the number of students killed in the Tlatelolco Massacre, are not referenced by any source.

3) The article provides a very short summary of the events considered as part of the Dirty War. It briefly touches on many events and does not go in-depth. The content of the article is almost inaccessible to someone not familiar with Mexican history.

4) The article does not reference any academic articles or books.

Possible articles I could edit

1) Nicaraguan Revolution. I would add more information to the "Economic reforms" section of the Nicaraguan Revolution and expand on the agrarian reform.

2) Dirty War in Mexico. I would add more information and events that occurred in the years before the Tlatelolco Massacre. I would also find more historiography and secondary sources to backup claims since most of the references are newspapers.

3) El Ladrillo and "Economy and Free Market Reforms" section in Military Dictatorship of Chile (1973-90). The article about "El ladrillo" is a stub so I would have to outline sections and find historiography. Moreover, the sections corresponding to "Pragmatic Neoliberalism" and "Evaluation" of the article "Economic History of Chile" need more information since they are disproportionately short compared to the "Shock Therapy" section.

Article picked: Military Dictatorship of Chile (section on Economy and Free Market Reforms).

Some possible sources/articles:

1) Valenzuela, J. Samuel, and Arturo Valenzuela. Military Rule in Chile : Dictatorship and Oppositions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.

This source contains several articles on the economic history of Chile, for instance: "The neoconservative economic experiment in Chile", "Changes in the economic functions of the Chilean state under the military regime" and "The development of labor movement opposition to the military regime". The articles cover several periods within the military dictatorship.

2) Centro De Estudios Públicos (Santiago, Chile). "el Ladrillo" : Bases De La Política Económica Del Gobierno Militar Chileno. Santiago De Chile: Centro De Estudios Públicos, 1992.

Economic History of Chile from 1973-1988. The article talks about the foundation of economic policy during the military dictatorship in Chile. Published in Spanish.

3) Joseph, G. M, Catherine LeGrand, and Ricardo Donato Salvatore. Close Encounters of Empire : Writing the Cultural History of U.s.-Latin American Relations. American Encounters/global Interactions. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.

Article "From welfare capitalism to the free market in Chile: gender, culture, and politics in the copper mines". Relevant to look at the effects of economic policy in gender and culture during Pinochet's regime.

4) Hutchison, Elizabeth Q, Thomas Miller Klubock, Nara B Milanich, and Peter Winn. The Chile Reader : History, Culture, Politics. Latin America Readers. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

Articles on Chilean history and culture. Some of the latter articles touch a little bit on the economic history of Chile. Relevant to gain an overall understanding of the era of Pinochet's regime.

5) Tinsman, Heidi. "Reviving Feminist Materialism: Gender and Neoliberalism in Pinochet's Chile." Signs 26, no. 1 (2000): 145-88.

Economic history of Chile through the eyes of women. Article that shifts the focus from pure economics to the role of women, gender and sexuality in shaping neoliberalism in Chile.

6) Richards, Patricia. Race and the Chilean Miracle : Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Indigenous Rights. Pitt Latin American Series. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013.

Implications of Chile's economic policy in the lives of indigenous people in Chile.

Economy and Free Market Reforms

Phases of Stabilization Program

Deregulation (September 1973 - March 1975).

The first phase of the Stabilization Program promoted deregulation of prices, devaluation of currency and public spending reduction. The exchange rate dropped to 230% during the first months of the phase and the government introduced fiscal reforms to reduce corporate taxes. Other measures of this period included privatization of previously expropriated companies and a decrease in tariffs to incentivize foreign investment. As a consequence of some of the measures taken during the Deregulation period, inflation rose from 14.6% (January 1973) to 128.5% (October through December 1973). Unemployment doubled right after the introduction of the new policies and grew to 13.3% by the early months of 1975. Increasing inflation and balance of payment crisis led the government to adopt new policies as a means to mitigate negative effects of the deregulation period.

Shock Treatment (April 1975 - June 1976).

The Shock Treatment period consisted of several measures to deepen the structural changes introduced during the deregulation era. Public spending was reduced, tax revenues increased and the government incentivized private capital market by freeing interest rates charged by banks. Among the consequences of this second period, exchange rate remained constant only to increase by the end of this period. Real interest rates increased to 178.4% which lead to stagflationary effects. Given the economic crisis of the period and a rising inflation in the firsts months of 1976, the government introduced a third phase to its economic plan: "Program of Economic Recuperation.

Curbing cost-push factors (June 1976 - 1979).

The main goal of this phase was to curb inflation. Tariffs were significantly reduced and reached the goal set by the government. The Chilean peso was revalued 10% which initially decreased rate of inflation only to go back up quickly. However, that initial decrease in inflation expanded real wages and decreased unemployment to 13% by 1978. Different factors contributed in opposing ways to the balance of payments: on one hand a surplus was generated in 1976 due to an increase inflow of foreign loans and a decrease in imports. On the other hand, by 1977 the effect of the currency reevaluation, a higher demand of imported goods and falling copper prices created a deficit.

Monetarism for the open economy (June 1979).

Tariffs and taxes on imported good were reduced or eliminated altogether for most products. The idea was than once Chile opened up completely to international trade and markets, the global economy would automatically regulate domestic inflation and Chile would not need to change/regulate its exchange rate. Although inflation was brought down to 1.6% by 1981, other factors in the economy continue to fluctuate: there was loss of competitiveness, industrial production fell and unemployment reached 17% by 1981. As a result of the loss of competitiveness and high interest rates, Chile entered a period of economic recession in 1980.

Social consequences.

The consequences of the economic policies under Pinochet were also severe in rural areas. More than 80% of the lands that Mapuche families had recovered during the Agrarian Reform between 1962 and 1973 were either returned to previous owners, auctioned or sold to non-Mapuche individuals during Pinochet's regime. In 1978, the regime introduced a law that allowed the division of communal lands to promote private property and selling of lands to non-Mapuche. Many indigenous families lost the legal rights to their lands or were forced to divide and sell their plots. The division of lands not only meant property losses for Mapuche families: upon division, the lands and their residents would no longer be considered indigenous, and their owners would become peasants. As a result of the grievances caused the policies and laws of the dictatorship, Mapuche communities organized in so called "Mapuche Cultural Centers" to hold political meetings, coordinate community efforts to improve rural infrastructure and hold religious services. By March 1980, their organization was legally recognized and named "Asociación Gremial de Pequeños Agricultores y Artesanos Ad-Mapu". Ad-Mapu, which means land, became the representative of Mapuche interests to the Ministry of Economics, Development, and Reconstruction. Ad-Mapu offered technical education and training and workshops in leadership and development. When the government introduced the Law of Division of Lands, Ad-Mapu released a statement against the new legislation. As a result, the dictatorship began to label Ad-Mapu as part of the opposition and carried out tactics of fear and discredit toward leaders and members of the organization.

El Ladrillo (article)

During Salvador Allende's presidency, leaders of the business opposition began organizing weekly meetings, known as the Monday Club. The Monday Club brought together corporate officials, economists, leaders of conglomerates and military opponents. As the military opposition prepared for the coup, it reached out to the Monday Club for assistance in outlining an economic plan should the coup succeed in overthrowing Allende. A group was put together by Emilio Sanfuentes, and it mostly consisted of economists trained at the University of Chicago under neoliberal scholars, such as Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman. The group was known in Chile as the Chicago Boys and they created an economic policy document with clear neoliberal influence. "El Ladrillo" ("the Brick" in english), emphasized opening of international trade, privatization, decrease in social welfare programs and government spendings, reduction of inflation by indexing wages and freeing of prices.

Pinochet's regime initially took a gradual approach to the plan outlined in "El Ladrillo". Nevertheless, the economic crisis of 1973 and 1974 instigated the dictatorship to adopt more radical and drastic neoliberal policies. Under the new phase of the regime's economic plan, the Chicago Boys rose to leadership roles in the Ministry of Economics and deepened their influence on the implementation of new policies. The Chicago Boys pushed for mechanisms to bring foreign capital without restrictions, relaxe regulations on international loans, reduce public spending, decrease the role of the government as producer, cut fiscal deficit and inflation and eliminate price controls. Among some of the most radical measures suggested by "El Ladrillo" and carried out by the Chicago economists was the rejection of industrialization in favor of extraction activities (agriculture, mining, forestry) that offered larger comparative advantage. Moreover, many national companies were privatized, as to detach the government from its role as producer in the economy.