Democracy, Repression and the Defense of Human Rights

It has been almost forty years since the transitions to democracy began in Latin America.  These transitions were welcomed by many as important steps toward achieving greater social justice and political equality in the region.  Undoubtedly the new regimes did create greater political space and opportunity for civil society after decades of repressive military rule and one-man dictatorships.  However, this special issue presents a critical skepticism of the democratic advantages of these regimes that ostensibly were “institutionalized” or “consolidated” during the 1980s and 1990s.

What this special issue will highlight are the real limits to democracy in the region.  Different governments have operated within “democratic” regimes that have maintained political and socioeconomic exclusion and military/judicial repression despite the seeming expansion of social, economic and political rights.  This repression has often involved extralegal practices, including the criminalization of legitimate protest, the commission of massacres or the forced displacement of whole communities.  These formal democracies, or what many refer to “low-intensity democracies”, are largely procedural democracies that allow political opposition, greater individual freedoms, a reduced institutional role for the armed forces, and a more permeable environment for the investments of transnational capital.  This type of “democracy” is viewed favorably by transnational corporations, the U.S. government and international financial institutions for its ability to co-opt radical movements that challenge the dominant political and/or socioeconomic order, effectively obtaining the public’s consent for capitalist globalization.

In this issue we hope to address two important arguments given to explain the existence of democratic politics coinciding with authoritarian practices.  The first stresses the advantages of low-intensity democracy as the optimal political regime to advance political stability within the region and create the conditions necessary for capitalist globalization.  Exploring how this regime specifically works to co-opt and integrate social opposition to capitalist globalization in contrast to the overt authoritarian repression of the past.  The second addresses the manner that a particular definition of human and democratic rights is narrowly linked to capitalist and extractivist economic development.  In both cases, we find that U.S. and Canadian foreign policy has long utilized these arguments to promote and maintain this restricted model of democracy.  Finally, increasingly we are witnessing how this political and economic dynamic is not restricted to conservative regimes, but crosses the right/left distinction in contemporary Latin America as we can see in the various conflicts associated with resource extractivism in countries such as Ecuador or Bolivia.

Not only does this special issue focus on the practice of “democracy” in the region, but will also include attention upon the various social movements and collective protests struggling not only for “more democracy” or greater respect for “human rights”, but who are also seeking alternative regimes where democracy means more than the existence of civil and political rights.  Whether we are speaking about the Zapatistas or Javier Sicilia’s Peace Caravan against the war on drugs in Mexico, student movements in Chile, indigenous movements in Ecuador, or nationwide agrarian strikes in Colombia we see evidence of movements demanding greater participatory democracy and social justice.  Movements that are not only seeking greater economic redistribution, but who recognize that the right to speak and the right to participate in policymaking must also be redistributed.

We invite submissions on all relevant topics, including but not limited to the following:

How does the increasing criminalization of protests or the work of human rights activists serve the interests of centralized state power? To what extent is this repression to “protect democracy” serving the interests of domestic or global capital?

What strategies have social movements, such as agrarian, indigenous, or students utilized to counter the repressive tools employed by “democratic” governments throughout the region?  What alternative democratic systems are they practicing in an attempt to counter hegemonic constructs of what democracy should or should not entail?

What role has gender rights and gender-based movements played in expanding our understanding of “human rights” and in larger human rights struggles in the region?  To what extent have the rights of children, prisoners or the disabled become more salient in Latin America?

Have the elections of “left” and “center-left” governments in Perú, Brazil, Venezuela, or Ecuador actually led to the genuine expansion of participatory democracy? Do these regimes represent more continuity than change?

Have transnational institutions, such as Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Organization of American States or CELAC advanced the struggle for human rights in the region?

What have been the limits to the transitional justice efforts in different countries (truth commissions, reparations, selective prosecution of human rights violators, etc…)?

What kind of human rights issues from the dictatorship era remain pending?  What kind of organizing is still taking place to deal with them?

What kind of alternative democratic regimes are being promoted within the region?  To what extent do they represent utopian illusions or genuine possibilities for Latin America? Does the 2009 coup in Honduras indicate the fragility of these regimes throughout the region?

How have the foreign policy strategies of the United States and Canada facilitated the consolidation and maintenance of low-intensity democracies?

What have been the human rights implications of the U.S. war on drugs and the expanded military presence of the U.S. in the region?

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

To avoid duplication of content, please contact the issue editors to let them know of your interest in submitting and your proposed topic.  We will begin reviewing manuscripts immediately and recommend submission by Jan. 1, 2015.  However, the issue will remain open until a closing date is posted on the LAP web site.

Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,000 words of paginated, double-spaced 12 point text with 1 inch margins, including notes and references.  The manuscript should include an abstract of no more than 100 words and 5 key words. Include a separate cover sheet with author identification, basic biographical and contact information, including e-mail and postal addresses. Please follow the LAP style guide which is available at www.latinamericanperspectives.com under the “Submit to LAP” tab where the manuscript review process is also described.  Manuscripts should be consistent with the  LAP Mission Statement which is found under the “About” tab.   Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.  If submitting in Spanish or Portuguese, please indicate if you will have difficulty reading correspondence from the LAP office in English.  LAP will translate accepted manuscripts from Spanish or Portuguese to English.  If you do not write in English with near native fluency, we prefer to receive the manuscript in your first language.

All manuscripts should be original work that has not been published in English and that is not being submitted to or considered for publication in English elsewhere in identical or similar form.  Submission of a manuscript constitutes a commitment to publish in the journal if the manuscript is accepted.

Please feel free to contact the Issue Editors with questions pertaining to the issue but be sure that manuscripts are sent to the LAP office as Word documents by e-mail to: lap@ucr.edu with the subject line – “Author name – MS for Democracy & Human Rights issue”

Issue Editor Contact Information:

Leila Celis – celis.leila@uqam.ca
William Avilés – avilesw1@unk.edu