• Latin America Movies

John Pilger's 1983 film about the small nation of Nicaragua and its right to survive investigates the corruption in Central America. In 1979, the Sandinistas won a popular revolution in Nicaragua, putting an end to decades of the corrupt US-backed Somoza dictatorship. They based their reformist ideology on that of the English Co-operative Movement, but proved too 'radical' for the Reagan administration. In this film, Pilger describes the achievements of the Sandinistas and their "threat of a good example".

Right now Latin America has many leftist governments. But things weren't always this way. This film overviews the U.S. involvement in Latin America and discusses the Ronald Reagan supported Samoza regime which was ultimately overthrown by populist Sandinistas whom later established democratic elections with the wide support of the people. The Sandanista government which was in power during the making of this film faced a US and England bent on pressuring regime change. I find this documentary as well as others regarding US involvement in Latin America significant because they show that US governmental interests in the past were not always with the benefit of the people in mind. The chaos now engulfing the Middle East was once in Latin America.