ABSTRACT
On 6 January, 1959, Fidel Castro and the barbudos marched triumphantly into Havana and a new era began in politics, social relations and economics, in Latin America, and the world. The “first wave” Latin American revolution was followed by the emergence of left-leaning governments in Peru, the Velasco regime which took power undemocratically in 1968, and the Allende administration in Chile, which came to power via the electoral process in 1970 and was toppled in a US-backed coup three years later. A second wave of leftist revolutionary activity in Latin American culminated with the 1979 Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. The “Pink Tide” is a term used to describe a new wave of left-leaning Latin American leaders who emerged in the 1990s, some of whom are in power. These leaders—led by Hugo Chaez of Venezuela—committed to socialist reforms and priorities, but never completely broke with the capitalist system, in Fidel Castro fashion.
