The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) were one of the most important mass organizations in revolutionary Cuba. During the 1960s, the CDR developed a slew of actions among the Cuban masses, organizing cultural, political, and economic activities that shaped the revolutionary process from below. Through their work, the CDR gave meaning to their own idea of Cuban socialism. In the context of revolutionary upheaval, they were born as mass organizations to organize political surveillance against counterrevolutionary enemies. But the CDR also deployed productive power that sought to improve the lives of fellow Cubans. Organizing workers to solve local problems helped to reimagine the purpose of labor as a resource for public utility. For moments, the CDR even became the state. This article highlights the crucial role of the CDR members in the revolutionary process and their impact on the everyday lives of Cuban people.

Clientelism is traditionally viewed as a mechanism through which patrons exert control over clients. Drawing on qualitative data from three municipalities in Santiago, Chile, and building on literature that emphasizes client agency, this article explores a variant of clientelism in which clients initiate and enforce clientelistic relationships. The findings suggest that these two forms of clientelism can differently impact a crucial aspect of democracy: horizontal accountability. Client-driven clientelism compels patrons to seek resources for distribution, rendering them susceptible to influence by those who can grant them access to these resources. When patrons are tasked with accountability roles and the resource providers are subject to their oversight (as in the relationship between municipal councilors and mayors), the providers can deter these accountability functions. In contrast, patrons with independent access to resources can better preserve their autonomy.

This article identifies four frames of corruption in the discourse of three leaders of Operation Lava Jato, also known in English as Operation Car Wash, a large-scale Brazilian anticorruption operation (2014–2021). These frames are inequality, hidden pact, backwardness, and chronic disease. The frames were identified by analyzing a wide set of press interviews, opinion articles, and books by two prosecutors and one judge whose work has revealed scandals involving the state oil company Petrobras. The operation had a major impact on politics and the economy and left a controversial legacy. We noticed a contradiction between one frame invoking judicial activism (inequality) and three frames focusing on specific techniques that appeal to a more conventional view on the judiciary’s role (hidden pact, backwardness, and chronic disease). Furthermore, even when scholars were still largely positive about the operation, the discourse showed signs of judicial activism. This analysis contributes to the debate on Lava Jato and judicial activism by focusing on discourse rather than action.

Este artículo analiza la inserción de investigadoras y profesoras universitarias de ciencias sociales en Chile desde 1990. Sus objetivos son indagar en la importancia de los movimientos feministas para la emergencia de la perspectiva de género y la apertura de los cuerpos académicos a la presencia femenina, y caracterizar las condiciones laborales de cientistas sociales chilenas. La metodología utilizada fue la revisión sistemática, produciéndose un análisis sociohistórico sobre la transición democrática en su vinculación con los movimientos feministas, transformaciones demográficas y rearticulación de las ciencias sociales. Analizaremos la aseveración de las lógicas neoliberales en universidades (2000–2010) y discutiremos la rearticulación entre las demandas de los movimientos feministas y las críticas al androcentrismo en las ciencias sociales chilenas (2010–2023). La contribución original del texto consiste en poner en diálogo los estudios cuantitativos, cualitativos e históricos, abriendo nuevas vetas interpretativas sobre la desigualdad de género en la ciencia y educación superior en Chile.

O presente artigo tem por objetivo demonstrar as relações transimperiais no extremo sul da América, entre os anos de 1722 e 1726, considerando as alianças das autoridades da América portuguesa, da espanhola, com as do reino e com os homens de negócio. Nessa perspectiva, como metodologia, tratou-se da análise da administração governativa de Pedro António de Vasconcelos, incluindo as indicações que fez para a ocupação de postos na alfândega criada na região, instituição da qual era autoridade máxima. Examinou-se, também, cartas, requerimentos, ordens, relação, verbetes de diversos agentes da administração, plantas e tratados, documentos que foram localizados nos arquivos brasileiros (Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro), argentino (Arquivo Nacional de La Nación Argentina), portugueses (Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino) e espanhol (Arquivo Geral das Indias). Tendo em vista os aspectos observados, a governação na Colônia do Sacramento deve ser entendida como uma forma de garantia de trânsito, circulação de informações e de contatos de diferentes grupos sociais no sul da América.

This essay reviews the following works:

The Pinochet Generation: The Chilean Military in the Twentieth Century. By John R. Bawden. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2016. Pp. x + 304. US$29.95 paperback. ISBN: 978–0817319281.

La Unidad Popular y la revolución en Chile. By Mario Garcés. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2020. Pp. 340. CL$45,000 cloth. ISBN: 978–956–00–1382–8.

Pinochet desclasificado: Los archivos secretos de Estados Unidos sobre Chile. By Peter Kornbluh. Santiago: Catalonia, 2023. Pp. 529. CL$25,900 paperback. ISBN: 978–956–415–039–0.

Historia de la Unidad Popular: Tiempos de preparación: De los orígenes al 3 de septiembre de 1970, vol. 1. By Jorge Magasich Airola. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2020. Pp. 346. CL$20,000 paperback. ISBN: 978–956–00–1367–5.

Historia de la Unidad Popular: De la elección a la asunción: Los algidos 60 días del 4 de septiembre al 3 de noviembre de 1970, vol. 2. By Jorge Magasich Airola. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2020. Pp. 201. CL$14,400 paperback. ISBN: 978–956–00–1368–2.

Historia de la Unidad Popular: La primavera de la Unidad Popular, vol. 3. By Jorge Magasich Airola. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2023. Pp. 397. CL$42,000 paperback. ISBN: 978–956–00–1725–3.

Historia de la Unidad Popular: De tres a dos bloques, vol. 4. By Jorge Magasich Airola. Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2023. Pp. 257. CL$42,000 paperback. ISBN: 978–956–00–1732–1.

El proceso populista: Momento, fenómeno, régimen: El caso de Chile que no fue: Chile (1932–73). By Claudio Riveros Ferrada. Raleigh, NC: Editorial A Contracorriente, 2018. Pp. xii + 364. US$30.00 paperback. ISBN: 978–0990919193.

A History of Chile 1808–2018, 3rd ed. By William F. Sater and Simon Collier. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Pp. xviii + 560. US$120.00 cloth and US$39.99 paperback. ISBN: 978–1009170215.

Este artículo teoriza las relaciones entre la ciudadanía y el Estado ecuatoriano durante el primer año y medio de la pandemia COVID-19. Basado en una metodología cualitativa de entrevistas, las perspectivas de los participantes revelan relaciones contradictorias con el gobierno características de los estados de seguridad neoliberales, pero también de patrones (pos)coloniales persistentes de exclusión racista y clasista: por un lado, un sentido de abandono del Estado, particularmente en salud pública y educación; y por otro lado, la fuerza represiva del Estado en su uso de medidas militares y policiales y de estados de excepción. Proponemos el término estado disperso para referirnos a estas tendencias opuestas de simultánea ausencia y presencia estatal. Argumentamos que las respuestas ciudadanas a la ausencia estatal incluyen cierta aceptación del retorno de las funciones educativas y sanitarias a comunidades, hogares e individuos, provocando de todas maneras nuevas formas de adaptación y creatividad cultural. En cuanto a la presencia represiva del Estado, los participantes expresaron apoyo considerable hacia medidas estatales autoritarias, frecuentemente justificadas por discursos esencialistas sobre el carácter de la ciudadanía nacional.

Fuel subsidies have been an enduring policy in Ecuador’s political and economic history. Given their lack of targeting and high opportunity cost, they have been amply criticized. As of 2017, the Ecuadorian government started a budget consolidation plan that so far has involved seven reforms to subsidies policy in less than seven years. In late 2019, in response to social unrest motivated by a temporal elimination of fuel subsidies, the government pledged to study new targeting mechanisms for this policy to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable sectors. This work seeks to contribute to that effort by evaluating the macroeconomic effects of these subsidies and serving as a guideline for targeting. A computable general equilibrium model is used to assess counterfactual scenarios. The results suggest that by implementing progressiveness and productive linkage criteria, targeting household final consumption and intermediate consumption is a feasible way to reduce the reforms’ negative effects.

This article analyzes the urbanization and privatization of communal lands (ejidos) in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, via a computer vision model that utilizes Google Street View (GSV) and Geographic Information System (GIS) imagery. Our innovative methodology reveals how processes of ejidal urbanization in Mexico’s northern borderlands contributed to the rise of multinational factories (maquiladoras) and geographies of inequality and violence. Past scholarship on the (d)evolution of ejidal land tenure details how periurban ejidal lands throughout Mexico were often sites of impoverishment and a lack of investment, featuring informal settlement and rapid or chaotic urbanization following the country’s 1960 urban turn. Through its use of novel sources and methods, this article demonstrates that the urbanization process in Juárez’s principal periurban ejidos diverged from this classic model in specific ways. By combining conventional historical sources with visual data like GSV and GIS imagery, Juárez’s former and current ejidal landscapes reveal high levels of investment, formal planning, and infrastructure. We argue that Juárez’s distinctive physical, political, and economic geographies shaped the overwhelmingly industrial, private, and invested character of the city’s (former and current) periurban ejidal lands. This process occurred via a globalized modernization regime that forged disparate landscapes of investment and inequality beginning in the 1950s.

Almost a century ago, long before biodiversity expressed a scientific value for nature, Latin American countries began establishing national parks. Today, they represent over 6 percent of Latin America’s landmass. By considering national park creation across a broad regional span and six crucial decades, this article explains a mode of state formation focused on caring for nature instead of just exploiting it. It examines how national parks expanded in the region by identifying three consequent trajectories: the use of these conservation units for frontier development in Argentina and as part of a broader project seeking social justice in Mexico; the formation of more haphazard park initiatives in various countries, taking Brazil and Chile as main examples; and the development of ecologically coherent park systems through the cases of Peru and Colombia. The article also addresses the role of science (especially forestry) and international cooperation in shaping national parks. In this manner, it uncovers the paths that faded from view after the idea that parks intend to protect biodiversity took hold and illustrates a rarely acknowledged aspect of state expansion.

This essay reviews the following works:

A Dynamic Theory of Populism in Power: The Andes in Comparative Perspective. By: Julio F. Carrión. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xi + 269. $26.93 cloth. ISBN: 9780197572290.

¿Por qué funciona el populismo? El discurso que sabe construir explicaciones convincentes en un mundo en crisis. By María Esperanza Casullo. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2019. Pp. v + 208. $19.52 paperback. ISBN: 9789876298964.

The Chain of Representation: Preferences, Institutions, and Policy across Presidential Systems. By Brian F. Crisp, Olivella Santiago and Guillermo Rosas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. iii + 262. $36.69 paperback. ISBN: 9781108745413.

Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil. By Jessica Lynn Graham. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2019. Pp. iii + 365. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520293762.

The Inclusionary Turn in Latin American Democracies. Edited by Diana Kapiszewski, Steven Levitsky, and Deborah J. Yashar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. iii + 537. $93.45 cloth. ISBN: 9781108842044.

Diminished Parties: Democratic Representation in Contemporary Latin America. Edited by Juan Pablo Luna, Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez, Fernando Rosenblatt, and Gabriel Vommaro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. iii + 341. $120.00 cloth. ISBN: 978–1316513187.

Democracia para Venezuela: ¿Representativa, participativa o populista? By Margarita López Maya. Caracas: Editorial Alfa, 2021. Pp. 3 + 238. $19.00 paperback. ISBN: 978–8412266566.

Checking Presidential Power: Executive Decrees and the Legislative Process in New Democracies. By Valeria Palanza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. iii + 245. $108.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781108427623.

This essay reviews the following works:

Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain. By David M. Carballo. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xvi + 351. $37.99 hardcover, $23.99 paperback, e-book. ISBN: 9780197661451.

Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest. By Fernando Cervantes. New York: Viking, 2021. Pp. vxiii + 496. $35.00 hardcover, e-book. ISBN: 9781101981269.

Inca Apocalypse: The Spanish Conquest and the Transformation of the Andean World. By R. Alan Covey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xix + 592. $34.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780190299125.

Death in the Snow: Pedro de Alvarado and the Illusive Conquest of Peru. By George W. Lovell. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022. Pp. xv + 280. $39.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780228014409.

Strike Fear in the Land: Pedro de Alvarado and the Conquest of Guatemala, 1520–1541. By W. George Lovell, Christopher H. Lutz, and Wendy Kramer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. xvi + 194. $32.95 hardcover, $21.95 paperback, e-book. ISBN: 9780806190044.

German Conquistadors in Venezuela: The Welsers’ Colony, Racialized Capitalism, and Cultural Memory. By Giovanna Montenegro. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022. Pp. xvii + 372. $95.00 hardcover, $75.99 e-book. ISBN: 9780268203214.

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. By Matthew Restall. Updated edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xix + 272. $21.99 paperback. ISBN: 9780197537299.

Conquistadors and Aztecs: A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan. By Stefan Rinke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. ix + 328. $34.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9780197552469.