Introduction

Abstract

The articles contained in this issue of Latin American Perspectives cover the diverse yet not unrelated topics of debt, drugs, and the containment of progressive social movements through economic and other more subtle means of social control. Separately, the articles offer new information and original analyses with which to consider problems of such ongoing importance. The authors have conducted extensive field research throughout the region, in agricultural areas from the valleys of Peru to the highlands of Guatemala, and all incorporate newly collected data and thought-provoking observations into their analyses. Moreover, as a group the articles share the common theme of how Latin American economies and societies are influenced by the U.S. adherence to strict policies of debt repayment, a war on drugs, and the facade of democracy under the auspices of a strong military and cultural imperialism. Here too we see how the governments of these countries have accommodated U.S. policies, some because they directly benefit from them, others because the social and economic contradictions these policies generate are too massive to overcome.We begin with two articles on Guatemala. The first, by Carol Smith, looks at the penetration of the military into Guatemala's ruling class, putting it in control of economic reorganization and rendering virtually obsolete its tradition of violence and coercion as a means of social control. Smith argues that economic control has replaced military coercion as the instrument to repress and neutralize the resistance of the active Indian communities in the western regions of the country. She shows how this subtle but more effective form of repression is taking place under the guise of democracy as symbolized by the political leadership of Venicio Cerezo, the civilian president. An investigation of the current patterns of economic restructuring in its national and international contexts enables the reader to understand the changing relationships between the state and the military. Over the last twenty years as the military has become incorporated into the state as part of the country's economically dominant class, there has developed a new method of dealing Jennifer Dugan Abbass) is a graduate student at the University of California, Riverside and a member of the Latin American Pcr~pec~rve~ editorial collective. Her work in editing this issue is appreciated.