Ridir wrote:
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_90/intro.html
Just some reading
Latin America emerged in 1990 as the most frequent site for terrorist attacks against US interests. Most of these attacks took place in Chile, Peru, and Colombia. Latin American radical or guerrilla groups engaging in terrorism tended to attack domestic, rather than foreign, targets. Thus, although the number of international terrorist incidents was high, the escalating domestic political violence had an even greater impact on the region.
Thought it might be interesting.
The terrorism of which you speak is not the kind of terrorism GW speaks of when he talks about the 'war on terror'. US tourists and businessmen can safely visit any Latin American country (perhaps with the exception of Columbia) without fear of beheading, kidnap, assassination or harassment. That is not the case in places like the middle east. Why is this? Because in Latin America the 'terrorism' that is referred to is politically motivated and not just random carnage and criminality without principle.
It states clearly in the quoted section in fact that 'Latin American radical or guerrilla groups engaging in terrorism tended to attack domestic, rather than foreign, targets' which shows where their disgruntlement lies - they are annoyed with the powers that be in their countries bending over forwards for the US and taking it like bitches. The World Bank, the IMF and western interests (US, European, etc., but in particular USA) have exploited political instability in this region for decades and have undermined democracy in the region on several occasions for their own benefit, often in a very underhanded manner. For me that is legitimate cause for the people of Latin America to stand up and say 'Enough is enough!'. They are just following the dreams of Simon Bolivar, José Martí and Che Guevara. Latin Americans should vote in governments that will protect their interests or oust by force dictators who are hobbling them - America shouldn't be a focus for their hatred if they can get governments that will protect them from scheming, opportunistic and often quite forceful external parties.
