ABSTRACT
In the last three decades, Latin America has undergone crucial transformations due to two fundamental causes: the general democratization of most of the countries of the continent (excluding Cuba) and the exposure to globalization. These two phenomena have had contradictory effects upon the societies of the countries of the region. The 1980s saw the displacement of the military from practically all Latin governments and their return to the barracks in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, and Ecuador, among others. In Mexico, democratization began with the electoral reform of 1977 that legalized leftist parties, among the most significant, the communist party, as a response to the important mobilizations of workers and peasants that occurred during the 1970s and the guerilla warfare led by Maoist, communist, and other non-ideological currents.
