Democracias bajo presión


Book Description

"A pesar de la heterogeneidad casuística existente, que representa América Latina en relación al papel desempeñado por las Fuerzas Armadas -su dedicación y empleo (o la decisión de no hacerlo)- en la lucha contra la delincuencia organizada, resulta factible identificar la superación del paradigma clásico constitucional de intervención excepcional en favor de nuevas opciones. En concreto, esta atribución competencial genera, a día de hoy, no pocas controversias, así como importantes repercusiones a nivel constitucional. Defensores y detractores esgrimen razones y argumentos para defender el rol que se desea otorgar a las Fuerzas Armadas (o arrogarse estas mismas, según cada caso), como proveedoras de seguridad frente al crimen organizado. Su inicial empleo en la confrontación contra el tráfico de drogas ha propiciado el debate sobre su plena inmersión en la lucha contra toda tipología de delincuencia organizada, más allá de episodios de excepcionalidad constitucional, lo cual ha generado, de facto, diversos escenarios. Se pretende hacer una reflexión al aire de los pros y contras que se derivan de la implicación de las Fuerzas Armadas en la lucha contra la criminalidad organizada, extraídos del análisis casuístico de los principales escenarios vigentes en Latinoamérica, tratando de identificar cuál de todos los posibles marcos de actuación marcará la tendencia en la escena regional, acerca de cuál debe ser el compromiso de las Fuerzas Armadas frente a la criminalidad organizada y cómo debería materializarse, en aras de alcanzar las mayores cuotas de calidad democrática" (ed.).




The Greater Maghreb


Book Description

This book represents a different approach in the study of the Sahel region in North Africa. Due to the hybrid security threats sweeping across the area, the whole region becomes a new security complex different from Middle East and more related to Western and Central Africa developments, including the impact of drug-trafficking coming from Latin America. This book discusses how the Transnational Organized Crime-Terrorism Nexus has created a very different dynamics from Middle East’s, hitting hard to people, societies and states there. The contributors argue that the countries in the area and the European Union should recognize this new complex and respond properly and differently to this situation.




Power in the Isthmus


Book Description

Annotation Country-by-country studies of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica as well as a wealth of charts, statistics and chronologies. Dunkerly teaches political studies at Queen Mary College, London. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.




Central America and the United States


Book Description

Describes the various phases of the relationship between the United States and Central America from World War II to the end of the cold war




Dictating Democracy


Book Description

From the introduction: "There is a great deal to be learned from McCleary's work, and she raises serious questions not only about Guatemalan society but also about the democratization of societies in general. . . . We must be immensely grateful to her for providing us in clear and balanced terms with the first, and perhaps only, account and analysis of what happened during those critical days in May and June of 1993."--Richard N. Adams, Rapaport Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts, Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin Documenting a rare political occurrence, Rachel McCleary examines the evolution of the two major elite groups in Guatemala--the organized private sector and the military--during the country's transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Arguing that the transition resulted from a stalemate over economic policy, she shows how the two elites altered their relations from disunity (during the period from 1982 to 1986) to unity (from 1993 to the present). Not only does she describe a nonviolent settlement, she also discusses the development of democracy in a country that was directly caught up in Cold War relations between the United States and the USSR. Thus she makes a serious contribution to the study of democratization as well as to Latin American history. Rachel M. McCleary, professor of international studies at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of Seeking Justice: Ethics and International Affairs.




Forging Democracy from Below


Book Description

This book, first published in 2000, analyzes the role of economically marginalized people in recent transitions to democratic rule.




Marxism and Literary Criticism


Book Description

"Far and away the best short introduction to Marxist criticism (both history and problems) which I have seen."--Fredric R. Jameson "Terry Eagleton is that rare bird among literary critics--a real writer."--Colin McCabe, The Guardian




A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish


Book Description

(abridged and revised) This reference grammar offers intermediate and advanced students a reason ably comprehensive guide to the morphology and syntax of educated speech and plain prose in Spain and Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Spanish is the main, usually the sole official language of twenty-one countries,} and it is set fair to overtake English by the year 2000 in numbers 2 of native speakers. This vast geographical and political diversity ensures that Spanish is a good deal less unified than French, German or even English, the latter more or less internationally standardized according to either American or British norms. Until the 1960s, the criteria of internationally correct Spanish were dictated by the Real Academia Espanola, but the prestige of this institution has now sunk so low that its most solemn decrees are hardly taken seriously - witness the fate of the spelling reforms listed in the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortograjia, which were supposed to come into force in all Spanish-speaking countries in 1959 and, nearly forty years later, are still selectively ignored by publishers and literate persons everywhere. The fact is that in Spanish 'correctness' is nowadays decided, as it is in all living languages, by the consensus of native speakers; but consensus about linguistic usage is obviously difficult to achieve between more than twenty independent, widely scattered and sometimes mutually hostile countries. Peninsular Spanish is itself in flux.




The Forbidden Religion


Book Description

Gnosis means knowledge. But we are not referring to just any knowledge. Gnosis is knowledge which produces a great transformation in those who receive it. Knowledge capable of nothing less than waking up man and helping him to escape from the prison in which he finds himself. That is why Gnosis has been so persecuted throughout the course of history, because it is knowledge considered dangerous for the religious and political authorities who govern mankind from the shadows. Every time this religion, absolutely different from the rest, appears before man, the other religions unite to try to destroy or hide it again. Primordial Gnosis is the original Gnosis, true Gnosis, eternal Gnosis, Gnostic knowledge in its pure form. Due to multiple persecutions, Primordial Gnosis has been fragmented, distorted and hidden.




The Colonial System Unveiled


Book Description

The first translation into English of 'Le Système colonial dévoilé', the first systematic critique of colonialism ever written from the perspective of a colonized subject.