ABSTRACT
By the end of the long 1980s, social movements, reformist political leaders and external forces had all helped to facilitate a region-wide transition to democracy as across Latin America, dictatorial regimes were swept from power. Latin America began the decade with dictatorship as the most common form of government. Throughout the 1980s, the wider transition to democracy spreading across Latin America inspired Chileans to mobilise against Pinochet. Nationally-organised protests brought social organisations together and relations between political opponents improved. The Concertation of Parties for Democracy grew, and after months of negotiations, seventeen parties agreed to support a single candidate for the presidency and to a common programme for a coalition government. The wave of democracy that swept across continental South America in the 1980s reached Haiti in 1986 after anti-government rioting brought down Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier.
