This film speaks of neo-colonialism and violence in Argentina and in most of the countries of Latin American not yet liberated … The geography of hunger: dispossessed, shut out, damned. We have been taught a false history. False hopes of wealth. A false international viewpoint. False economic beliefs. A false freedom. The Hour of the Furnaces ***** 1968
A plea for unity against the great enemy: USA. ibid.
Latin America is a country at war. For the ruling classes a war of repression; for the oppressed people a war of liberation. ibid.
British merchants took over. The national bank that issued the country’s currency, and in the name of free trade, their manufacturers invaded internal markets. From that moment on, England replaced Spain in dominating almost all of the continent. What it had not obtained before with armies, it now obtained with loans … This was the birth of neo-colonialism. ibid.
The unity of America was destroyed. ibid.
In less than a century the United States carried out 41 armed invasions of Latin America. ibid.
Argentina: an immense country practically deserted. 23 million inhabitants of which 70% are crowded in the cities, 45% in only one of its provinces Buenos Aires where 60% of industry is concentrated. ibid.
The violence visited on the Latin American peoples is a constant, planned, systematic violence. ibid.
75% of Argentine workers cannot satisfy their basic needs with what they earn. ibid.
80% of the population has no land at all. ibid.
The system: an internal enemy that throws open the country’s doors to neo-colonial penetration. ibid.
A common goal united this infiltration: the corruption of the national consciousness to facilitate the dominion of the country. ibid.
The first national form of resistance was crushed in the Massacre of the Monorena. Consequently, an anti-national foreign civilisation was imposed. ibid.
Names that in the mouth of the master deny the victim of exploitation his condition as a man. 80% of the Argentine native population has tuberculosis and syphilis. ibid.
So-called imperialist aid is an aid that always costs. ibid.
An intelligentsia has grown up that has no ties with the people or the reality of the country. ibid.
Censorship and ideological repression are total. ibid.
Violence, crime, destruction become peace, order, normality … Monstrosity disguised as beauty. ibid.
To choose through rebellion his own life and death. For the man who dies in the struggle for liberation, death is no longer the end. ibid.
Argentina 1966-1967: Act for Liberation: Notes, testimonials and debate about the recent liberation struggle of the Argentine people. The Hour of the Furnaces II
General Order 27th July 1819: Comrades in the Andes Army: we must fight however we can … or else let’s die fighting as brave men. ibid.
Revolutionary violence will put an end to imperialist crimes. Liberation or death! ibid.
The nature of imperialism is what turns man into a beast. ibid.
Chronicles of Peronism 1945-1955: national and popular movements were the first appearances in history of most Latin American peoples: they were the first actions of breaking the neo-colonial serfdom. ibid.
17th October 1945: the Argentinian masses burst for the first time on to the national political scene. ibid.
Peronism came to put an end to the effects of an infamous decade – the era that started in 1930 with the oligarchic military dictatorship that overthrew Irigoyen; the years of national corruption, soup kitchens, ignominious frauds and assassins paid by the committee. A time when Argentinian politics were managed between the British embassy and the army. A shameless handover of the national wealth. ibid.
Peronism displaced oligarchy and imperialism from positions of power. ibid.
He was the embodiment of a popular force. ibid.
The central bank is nationalized as are railways, gas, telephones. ibid.
Oligarchic economic power remained the same. The old regime’s institutions were not substantially modified. ibid.
In 1955 the National Front finally divided itself completely. The church, some sections of the army, and the whole of the bourgeoisie surrendered to the oligarchy and became an enemy of the revolution. ibid.
Peron resigned the presidency. The people took to the streets again. ibid.
Peron was isolated by a servile bureaucracy. ibid.
The army removed Peron from power … Peronism went down without a fight. ibid.
The Congress will be dissolved. Peronism will be persecuted and there will be a ban. ibid.
150,000 trade union leaders will be suspended. Tens of thousands will be arrested. ibid.
At the time of Peron’s fall there was no national debt. 10 years later the national debt reached 6 billion dollars. The IMF will start to influence national economic policy. The economy will start a de-nationalization process … the violent decade was about the start. ibid.
September 1955: We moved towards the bridge and started to shout, ‘Mayo Square! Mayo Square!’ As if we wanted to revive 17th October 1945. And we arrived at the bridge but the army was already there. On seeing the soldiers the people stopped. And the army began to shoot. ibid. textiles trade unionist
Often we even organised the resistance while in prison. ibid. trade unionist
After the 1955 coup d’etat the country seems to have been occupied by an invading army. ibid.
In the underground the proletariat organise the first few strikes … many national militants were shot. ibid.
The promotion of private free enterprise, and an open door for foreign capital, privatization of national enterprises, liquidation and removal of small industry, subjection to the International Monetary Fund, and a repression of the people. ibid.
In 1959 the fight for popular power became extremely violent. ibid.
The most important of these demonstrations – the occupation of the factories. ibid.
Buenos Aires 1978: ‘Where are the babies?’ ‘Where are our children?’ ‘Why don’t they tell us if they’re dead or alive?’ The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, mothers’ protest, 1985
‘My daughter was five months pregnant when they took her.’ ibid.
These women screamed for help in Argentina where for the better part of the past fifty years the military has controlled the country and its resources by force. As the standard of living declined discontent and opposition grew. In 1976 the new junta unleashed unprecedented terror. They suspended all constitutional rights and implemented a campaign of kidnapping and murder. ibid.
These women are known as the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. ibid.
The young persons’ enthusiasm soon vanished. In 1974 Peron expelled the left-wingers of his party. They joined the resistance movement. ibid.
‘It wasn’t that we were afraid, we were, but we overcame it.’ ibid. mother
‘We met at a church. There, several of the mothers were kidnapped as well as a French nun who was trying to help us.’ ibid.
While the soccer games were underway the kidnappings increased daily. ibid.
The mothers approached world leaders. ibid.
Many western democracies kept selling arms to Argentina. Ibid.
By June 1989 inflation in Argentina had reached a monthly rate of 100%. Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money e2: Human Bondage, Channel 4 2008
A dozen years ago Argentina grew virtually no soya. This year over half their arable land, an area the size of Britain, will be planted with genetically modified soya beans. Horizon: Jimmy’s GM Food Fight, BBC 2008
I’m in Argentina travelling through Patagonia, a region so vast it covers the lower third of the continent of South America. It’s a land of myth and mystery, grasslands and forests surrounding mountains and ice. Wilderness with Simon Reeve II
This is the south Patagonia ice field. Oh my goodness. ibid.
It is spectacular here. It is so vast though. ibid.