9 - The Left

Summary

For the early years of the Communist movement in Latin America, see Robert Alexander, Communism in Latin America (New Brunswick, N.J., 1957) and Trotskyism in Latin America: (Stanford, Calif., 1973); and Rollie Poppino, International Communism in Latin America: A History of the Movement, 1917 to 1963 (New York, 1964). For excellent collections of documents, see Stephen Clissold (ed.), Soviet Relations with Latin America, 1918 to 1968: A Documentary Survey (London, 1970) and Luis Aguilar (ed.), Marxism in Latin America (Philadelphia, 1978).

Relations between Latin America and the Comintern are treated in provocative fashion by Manuel Caballero, Latin America and the Comintern, 1919–1943 (Cambridge, Eng., 1986). Quite outstanding is the detailed analysis of the Comintern in Central America in Rodolfo Cerdas, La International Comunista, América Latina y la revolución en Centroamérica (San José, C.R., 1986); Eng. trans., The Communist International in Central America, 1920–1936 (London, 1993). Two books provide comprehensive coverage of relations between Latin America and the Soviet Union; Nicola Miller, Soviet Relations with Latin America, 1959–1987 (Cambridge, Eng., 1989), and Eusebio Mujal-Leon (ed.), The USSR and Latin America: A Developing Relationship (London, 1989). See also the article by Rodolfo Cerdas Cruz, ‘New directions in Soviet policy towards Latin America’, JLAS. 21/1 (1989), 1–22; and Fernando Bustamante, ‘Soviet foreign policy toward Latin America’, JIAS. 32/4 (1990), 35–65. Cole Blasier examines Soviet perceptions of Latin America in The Giant’s Rival: The USSR and Latin America (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1983). See also J. G. Oswald (ed.), The Soviet Image of Contemporary Latin America: A Documentary History 1960–1968 (Austin, Tex., 1970); William E. Ratliff, Castroism and Communism in Latin America, 1959–1976 (Washington, D.C., 1976); Augusto Varas (ed.), Soviet–Latin America Relations in the 1980s (Boulder, Colo., 1986); and Robert Leiken, Soviet Strategy in Latin America (Washington, D.C., 1982).