Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'El Salvador; Guatamala; Nicaragua'

With the success of a leftist revolution in Nicaragua and a civil war against a strong revolutionary movement in El Salvador, Central America has become one of the flash points of world politics. The two revolutionary movements, which adhere to similar ideologies, emerged in countries with similar historical roots and similar socio-economic background. This thesis analyzes the question why the Nicaraguan revolution was successful after one and a half years of general insurrection, whereas the Salvadorean revolutionary movement has failed so far in gaining power. The author looks at four major factors which seem crucial for revolutionary success: Breadth of the Revolutionary Coalition, Military Strength and Strategies, Role of the Church, and External Influences. The comparative analysis shows that three of these four factors favor the Nicaraguan revolutionaries. In contrast to El Salvador, the Nicaraguan revolutionary coalition included all major classes, not only the lower classes and parts of the middle class. When compared to the government forces, the Nicaraguan guerrillas were stronger than the Salvadorean. Furthermore, the counterstrategy of the Nicaraguan government was not as systematic and sophisticated as in El Salvador. In contrast to Somoza, the Salvadorean government has gotten strong U.S. support and the Salvadorean movement does not get the same support from other states that the Nicaraguan revolutionary movement received. Only the role of the Church is in favor of the Salvadorean revolutionaries. The Salvadorean Church was more active in promoting Liberation Theology and thereby helped to make the people conscious about the social injustices prevailing in the country and to organize the lower classes.

Master of Arts

La mujer guerrillera en Latinoamérica es un fenómeno del siglo veinte. Los conflictos armados de Centroamérica crearon condiciones donde la mujer se vio obligada a salir de su rol femenino tradicional para asistir en la lucha armada. Nicaragua y El Salvador son dos países donde los conflictos llegaron a un final, sea por medio de un derrocamiento exitoso del gobierno o por acuerdos de paz. Las mujeres que decidieron participar activamente en la lucha contra el gobierno llegaron a ese punto por vías diferentes y con diferentes metas, pero la experiencia de ser mujer en un ambiente tradicionalmente dominado por hombres no varía tanto entre los dos países. La representación literaria de la mujer guerrillera se encuentra en testimonios contados a entrevistadores, biografías y ficción. Cada género lleva sus características, pero casi siempre se establece el texto como un relato común del país, una mujer extraordinaria entre muchas mujeres extraordinarias. La mujer guerrillera en literatura, especialmente en testimonios, es el intento de relatar la historia de una gente oprimida, no de la individual, para ganar el apoyo y acción por la parte de una audiencia global.

Au début des années 1990, au terme d’une décennie de guerres internes, le Salvador et le Nicaragua ont été les théâtres d’une multiplication sans précédent d’associations de développement et d’ONG humanitaires. Provenant des anciennes mouvances révolutionnaires du Front sandiniste de libération nationale au Nicaragua et du Front Farabundo Martí pour la libération nationale au Salvador, ces organisations nouvelles ont été le signe de l’apparition d’un militantisme professionnel et technicisé proche de « l’humanitaire-expert » et en rupture avec les engagements politico-militaires qui avaient jusqu’alors dominé les scènes militantes centraméricaines. Comment dès lors comprendre l’émergence de ces phénomènes associatifs ? Nés à la croisée de bouleversements sociaux et politiques majeurs, entre la fin des guerres, l’effondrement des gestes révolutionnaires et l’avènement de régimes démocratiques, ces faits associatifs ont d’abord été le fruit d’une conversion de leurs dirigeants. Anciens cadres révolutionnaires du parti-État sandiniste et des guérillas salvadoriennes, ceux-ci occupaient en effet déjà à la fin des années 1980 la tête des mouvances associatives du Front sandiniste et du Front Farabundo Martí. Or c’est là, au sein de ces nébuleuses, que ces acteurs se sont saisis de schèmes humanitaires nouveaux et de registres managériaux, entraînant dans leur sillage « l’ONGisation » de leurs organisations et l’investissement de causes féministes, indigénistes ou environnementalistes. De sorte que l’histoire de ces associations et de leur émergence est l’histoire de cette conversion. D’où le choix de ce travail de retracer le parcours de ces militants depuis leur basculement dans la lutte armée et les organisations révolutionnaires jusqu’à leur conversion à l’humanitaire-expert et leur insertion dans le monde des ONG. Ce faisant, ce travail met en résonance plusieurs analyses. Une réflexion d’abord sur les modalités de basculement dans la violence armée et d’incorporation aux organisations de guérillas. Une réflexion ensuite sur les logiques de conversion politique et de reconversion professionnelle des acteurs politico-militaires. Une réflexion enfin sur la naissance des milieux associatifs et la constitution de carrières militantes. Et au travers de ces analyses se dessine in fine une enquête plus générale sur la nature même des phénomènes associatifs au Salvador et au Nicaragua, leurs usages et leurs fonctions, et montrent le rôle de « supports » sociaux et politiques qu’ils jouent aujourd’hui dans les nouvelles démocraties centraméricaines
At the beginning of the 1990s and after a decade of internal wars, El Salvador and Nicaragua were the stages of an unprecedented growth of development’s organizations and humanitarian NGOs. Originating from the former revolutionary movements of Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and from Farabundo Marti National Front in El Salvador, those new organizations were a sign of professional technologized militancy close to « expert humanitarian work » but also breaking with the military-political commitments which had preponderated over the Central American activist scene so far. How then can we understand the emergence of those voluntary phenomena? Resulting from major social and political disruptions, as well as the end of wars, the collapsing of revolutionary actions and the advent of democratic regimes, those voluntary actions first started with the conversion of their leaders. As former revolutionary officers of the Sandinista state-party and of the Salvadorian guerrillas, by the end of the 1980s those were already heads of the non-profit movements of Sandinista Front and Farabundo Marti Front. Yet this is in the middle of this political maze that those leaders seized upon a new humanitarian framework as well as managerial repertories, bringing in their wake the « NGOzation » of their organizations and their commitment to the feminist as well as indigenist and environmentalist causes. In this way, the history of the emergence of those organizations is actually the history of that conversion. Hence the choice that has been made to work on recounting the activists’ paths from the moment they turned into an armed conflict and revolutionary organizations to their actual conversion into expert humanitarian work and the world of NGOs. In order to do this work several analyses have been compared; first, a reflection about the ways and means of their changeover into armed violence and their enlistments in guerrillas’ organizations; then a thought about the mindset of political conversion and the career change of the military-political leaders; then finally a reflection about the birth of the non-profit domain and the development of activists’ careers. And so, through these analyses appears a more general study on the true nature of voluntary phenomena in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and on their practices and functions, that shows the roles they play as social, political supports in the new Central American democracies nowadays

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Western Hemisphere)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008.
Thesis Advisor(s): Bruneau, Thomas C. "December 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 29, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-68). Also available in print.

Master of Science
Department of Agricultural Economics
Timothy J. Dalton
Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench is a drought tolerant crop able to adapt to hot and dry weather. It has excellent chemical and physical properties, which make it a grain of good quality for processing different types of products. This research is an impact assessment study that estimated the potential impacts of new uses of sorghum by using an equilibrium displacement model. The data used was drawn from interviews developed in July 2011. Using total quantity production, prices, prices elasticities and cost shares 8 potential market scenarios were simulated. Results between countries were similar. Thus, the analysis was applied for both countries. Producers gain when the sorghum flour demand is shifted between $6,000 and $ 30,000. When the feed demand curve shifted the producer benefit was between $3 million and $ 13 million. In the scenario where the sorghum grain curve shifted and the demand curve for feed and sorghum flour, producer net benefit is between $300,000 to $2.5 million. Interpreting these results suggest that increasing yield and promoting sorghum as a substitute of maize for feed and sorghum as a substitute of wheat for sorghum flour can benefit producers while helping them to increase yield.

The five countries that lie on the isthmus connecting North and South America have endured a past of colonialism, civil war, and natural disaster. As these countries evolve in the 21st century, growing economies and political peace provide a promising outlook for the citizens of these nations. The media industries in these nations have varying levels of development which are explored in this thesis. Using Michael Porter's 1990 framework and a case study methodology, this thesis explores the differences and similarities of media industries in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and what may be done to ensure future success in an increasingly global world.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2009.
Thesis directed by Scott P. Mainwaring for the Department of Political Science. "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 341-371).

Health care played an important role in the revolutions of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Both the Sandinistas and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) prioritized popular health throughout the 1980s. Clinics and hospitals served as sites of revolution that drew healthcare solidarity activists from the United States. These health internationalists worked to build community-level networks that relied upon trained medical volunteers. In both El Salvador and Nicaragua, women comprised a bulk of the community health workers. These women chose to interact with revolution by building on radical promises of universal healthcare access. Healthcare solidarity activists trained community volunteers and encouraged women to pursue their own needs within the revolutionary frameworks. Health internationalists actively undermined United States’ policies toward Central America. In the 1980s, the United States implemented economic policies and supported military violence that targeted healthcare infrastructure. In training community health workers, treating civilians, sharing knowledge through international exchange, and sending funds and medical supplies, health activists mitigated some of the damage being done. This thesis posits that health care was an important site of revolution for Central Americans and internationalists alike. By choosing to mend bodies, medical activists stood in direct opposition to the violence of the decade. They also served as fundamental to the revolution because they helped carry out the will of the people. The revolutions rested on the hope of improving the lives of every day Nicaraguans and Salvadorans. As the violence of the 1980s forced the guerillas of El Salvador and the leaders of Nicaragua to focus on war, the people continued to implement revolutionary health goals at the community level. This thesis argues that understanding how health internationalists, women, and community activists engaged revolutionary ideas of medicine is vital to the study of 1980s Central America.

The doctoral thesis Czechoslovakia, Mexico and Central America 1945-1989 analyses political, economic and cultural relations between that country of the called Iron Curtain and the Mesoamerican countries during the Cold War in the twentieth century. The research is based mainly on unpublished archival materials, mainly of Czech origin. It is also complemented by fewer materials obtained at the Central American countries' official archives. The wider context of international politics is primarily outlined in the introductory chapters, which aims, on one hand, to inform readers about the development of the Czechoslovak diplomacy and foreign policy and how it was influenced by the Soviet Union and, on the other hand, to describe the unstable political situation prevailing then in the Central American countries, which were also under the constant scrutiny of the United States of America. Thereafter, the analysis focuses on the Czechoslovak-Mexican relations, which is thematically divided into political, cultural and economic sections. A special chapter is dedicated to the activities of the Czechoslovak secret service in Mexico, as a country conveniently located near to the United States. Other chapters study the bilateral relations between Prague and the individual capitals of Central America. The work...

In this work, I explain that the focus of criticism on the Central American poetry of the second half of the twentieth century has emphasized its political content. I argue, however, that such a limited view obscures the broader import of this poetry and its place in Latin American literature. By reading the work of Nicaraguan Daisy Zamora, Guatemalan Otto René Castillo, and Salvadoran Roque Dalton with an emphasis on affectivity rather than revolution, I suggest a different relationship between the poet and society, one that is not limited to the marginal figure of the mujer soldado, the poeta guerrillero or the poeta marxista in conflict with all societal norms. Rather, I argue that my study portrays the complex subjectivity of the speaker/poet not unlike that of non-revolutionary poets, as well as his or her multi-dimensional affective connections to family and society. At the same time, an analysis of affect in this poetry allows us to reconsider the nature of the revolutionary figure itself, no longer a myth or a romantic hero, but an individual inserted in society in a more complex way. In Chapter 1, “Daisy Zamora: De la mujer-soldado a la mujer-mujer”, I contend that an analysis of affectivity of her poetic work reveals how personal memory constructs an individualized subjectivity different from that of a woman-soldier. In the second chapter, “Otto René Castillo: De la lucha revolucionaria a la soledad del poema,” I argue that a negative connotation of romantic love is projected in his poems bringing about traces of existential solitude in the lyric subjectivity. Furthermore, Castillo’s poetry elicits a binary opposition between “the people” and the guerrillero in which the former is portrayed as lacking of agency. The third chapter, “Roque Dalton: y/o subjetividad en crisis,” reveals the ways in which the Salvadoran poet textualizes a poetic of disenchantment by way of projecting disdain and contempt to the “motherland.” In conclusion, my approach pinpoints how Zamora, Castillo and Dalton share the same preoccupations, affects and ways to conceive reality, which are also similar to the practices of those poets whose works are better-known given their national origin or because their poetic production has been widely studied by academia. This document has been written in Spanish.
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