A comprehensive study of the available documents about the Bay of Pigs, including many that have been declassified within the last eighteen months, and extensive interviews with the protagonists in the CIA, the White House and the State Department lead me to conclude that the disastrous operation was launched not simply because Kennedy was poorly served by his young staff and was the captive of his campaign rhetoric, nor simply because of the hubris of the CIA. Rather, the Bay of Pigs was approved because the CIA and the White House assumed they were speaking the same language when, in fact, they were speaking in utterly different tongues.

Only in the last century has the territory of the Enxet Indians of Paraguay been colonised by non-Indians, led initially by Anglican missionaries. This article examines the Enxet in the contemporary political context of Paraguay giving special attention to their claim for 160,000 hectares of their traditional territory. It also considers the development of a mythically expressed autochthonous political discourse and the relationship of the Indians to professional politicians. Despite significant legal backing, the Enxet land claims are strongly opposed by powerful landowners and their best chance for success will be to gain international support.

With the passage of the Jones Act (1917), the United States expanded Puerto Rican autonomy, made Puerto Ricans citizens of the USA, and gave the island prohibition of alcohol. The Puerto Rican people overwhelmingly ratified prohibition in a referendum in July 1917. Prohibition won because it was emotionally linked to patriotism and morality. Prohibition enforcement was almost impossible, compounded by the colonial status of the island. It was that status which brought an immediate end to prohibition in Puerto Rico with the demise of prohibition in the United States in 1933.

The specificities of contemporary Honduran politics are explored by examining both national historical development and the cooption of popular protest by military reformism in the 1970s. The dynamics underpinning demobilisation of the popular movement after 1976 are explained with reference to both the agrarian reform implemented by the military and certain features of local political culture, such as patronage and clientelism, which – it is argued – were utilised selectively to coopt a sector of the organised labour movement. Divisions within the popular movement, in part a product of traditions of statelabour relations, were also significant in weakening the popular challenge.

This article analyses the variables shaping economic relations between Argentina and Brazil in the 1939–5 5 period, namely changes in the international economy, bilateral trade, the industrial structure and domestic politics. It is argued that although rivalry prevailed in most of the period this was qualified by the interest of Argentina and Brazil in securing the gains from trade and in enhancing their position in the international system. The balance of these contending forces was a pattern of limited or restrained cooperation. If significant trade concessions were offered, their institutional framework remained unstable and fragile. This was reflected in the uncertainty that plagued bilateral trade and in the failure of more ambitious initiatives aimed at economic integration, as those proposed in the Pinedo Plan and in the economic union agreements of 1953–54.

The article utilises oral history, labour and military court records, newspaper accounts, and government documents to narrate the history of rural labour mobilisation in the Aha Mogiana region of São Paulo, Brazil, during the years 1959 to 1964. It shows how rival rural leaders linked either to the Brazilian Communist Party or the Catholic Church organised many workers, led numerous influential strikes, and helped hundreds of workers sue for their rights in court. Eventually, Catholic and Communist competitors joined forces under the guidance of a federal agency (SUPRA). Coordinated by SUPRA, the newly unified Alta Mogiana movement was suppressed by the military regime that took control of Brazil in April 1964.

Adjustment in Latin America has largely been analysed in terms of macroeconomic policy. However, for reforms to be sustainable in the long term, there needs to be accompanying change in the social sectors. Such reform is difficult and costly. It is necessary, however, not simply to sustain the economic reforms, but also for an effective long-term strategy of poverty alleviation and for the consolidation of democracy. There are lessons to be learnt from successful and unsuccessful social sector reform.