The doctrine that was taught was that if you wanted information, you used physical abuse, you use false imprisonment, you use threats to family members, you use virtually any method necessary to get what you want ... Torture and killing. Killing! Major Joseph Blair, Instructor at School of the Americas 1986-1889
Nothing thrills more than new discoveries of ancient civilisations. For over a century now Peru has given us treasure after treasure. It’s a vast country of extremes, from tropical rainforest to the dry deserts of the Atacama. In one of the remote northern regions lies the most mysterious kingdom in Peru. Dr Jago Cooper, Lost Kingdoms of South America I: People of the Clouds, BBC 2013
The remnants of Chachapoya culture are among the most stunning and least understood in South America. ibid.
The first Chachapoya had rafts and canoes. ibid.
They could trade with the peoples downstream in the Amazon basin. ibid.
The mountains might appear to be a massive obstacle to the Chachapoya. ibid.
Their beautiful textiles. ibid.
A great source of pride in Peru. And they are also a reminder that the cultures of South America thrived long long before Europeans appeared on the horizon. ibid.
High in the Bolivian Andes stand the awe-inspiring ruins of a massive temple city. This is Tiwanaku which is the Stone at the Centre of the World. Dr Jago Cooper, Lost Kingdoms of South America II: The Stone at the Centre
A civilisation that lasted over five hundred years. ibid.
A civilisation grew that eventually numbered a million people. ibid.
Beer drinking was an integral part of Tiwanaku’s festivals. ibid.
South America is the perfect place to keep secrets ... Colombia, the land of El Dorado. Dr Jago Cooper, Lost Kingdoms of South America III: Lands of Gold
Exquisite gold artefacts, infused with intriguing meaning, which drove European invaders into their remote lands. ibid.
One of those cultures – the Tairona – established themselves in the mountains of the Caribbean coast; another, the Muisca, settled five hundred miles to the south. ibid.
A city of gold somewhere in the mountains: the legend of El Dorado was born, and in the years that followed, waves of treasure seekers descended on South America in search of the fabled land. ibid.
The salt trail led the Spanish directly to the Muisca. ibid.
On the north coast of Peru, between the Pacific ocean and the Andes, is a vast desert. For over four hundred and fifty years this was home to a kingdom whose rise and fall is one of the greatest untold stories of the Americas. At its heart was a city – Chan Chan. Dr Jago Cooper Lost Kingdom of South America IV: Kingdom of the Desert
They began building the city in the tenth century. ibid.
For the Chimu hierarchy was seen as pre-ordained. ibid.
Before the Chimu were the Moche. ibid.
Irrigation canals were carved into the earth ... Importing the soil was only the start of the people’s ingenuity. ibid.
In 1992 a German forensic team made an extraordinary discovery: inside seven three-thousand year-old Egyptian mummies they found evidence of what appeared to be a drug not present in Egypt until the late nineteenth century – cocaine. A shocking hoax or is the impossible true? Weird or What? s1e3: Cocaine Mummies, History 2010
Did the cultures interact? Could the Egyptians have travelled to Peru? ibid.
There is no trace of the ancient Egyptians in South America at that time. ibid.
By the late 1800s cocaine was introduced into Europe commonly used as a medicine. Was it possible these mummies somehow became contaminated? ... Brief contact couldn’t produce the same results ... so the mystery lives on. ibid.
The Mayas and Incas of South America believe a race of Giants existed on Earth before the Great Flood. So did many other civilisations. Some took them for gods, others left likenesses of them in stone or wrote about them in their histories. Evidence for Giants, Discovery Channel
Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at you. In Argentina they throw themselves. Marlene Dietrich
What an absurdity to go and bury oneself in South America, where they are always having revolutions. Agatha Christie, The Clocks
Argentina won’t be at Euro 2000 because they are from South America. Kevin Keegan
‘In Latin America a whole generation of political fighters would end up under fascist regimes.’ Grin Without a Cat aka The Base of the Air is Red, 1977
1This 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.
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.