ABSTRACT
This chapter explores many Cold War research projects on US relations with Latin America, first with an emphasis on specific crisis-events and, in the aftermath of the Cold War, on broader aspects of inter-American relations. These considerations focus on the connection between economic and financial relations with the Swiss neutrality, first in general, and then exemplified by Switzerland's bilateral relations with Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Guatemala. The seizure of power of authoritarian and repressive regimes as in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Chile had devastating consequences on the human rights situation and abolished the rule of law. Economic relations and development cooperation appear to be of a conflictive nature since the first aims at maximising profits of industrial countries whereas the latter improves the economic situation of countries of the Third World. When countries turned their attention away from the US and were looks alternative trade partners, Swiss neutrality and the unencumbered past regarding colonialism.
