Roberto Bolaño was the only Latin American novelist of the post-Boom period who attained notoriety similar to that of his famous predecessors. Exploring what makes his brief Nocturno de Chiles worthy of such canonical status, I propose five criteria of evaluation: 1) elevated themes, as put forth by Longinus; 2) a self-reflexive literary warp; 3) an unfathomable secret; 4) transformation of received tradition; and 5) a style at once profound, unique, and recognizable. The confession of a priest, Sebastián, presumably on his death bed, the novel recounts his life, including his concomitant vocations for the priesthood and literature. Longinian elevation is manifest comically. The protagonist’s immersion in both the classical and the modern provides literariness. The secret resides in the presence of an Austrian shoemaker whose monument to national heroes seems to point to the origins of fascism. Sebastián’s consideration of current Chilean writers and their knowledge of universal works, such as the Divine Comedy becomes a consideration of literary tradition. And his elegant, erudite style is evident from the very beginning. In the end he and the reader realize that the “wizened youth” who challenges him as his conscience throughout is the one writing the novel.

During the 1960s, the effects of the Cuban Revolution – especially in terms of support for guerrilla warfare against U.S. allies – became all too evident, and the United States pursued interventionism with new vigor. This renewed use of power included economic and diplomatic pressures, veiled threats, covert operations, and even invasion. U.S. officials framed the Cold War as a valiant struggle to protect freedom in the hemisphere, and the cases of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Guatemala epitomized the lengths to which the United States would go to fight what it considered to be security threats. In Latin America, many elites supported U.S. policy, but a growing undercurrent of discontent also emerged, which pushed for negotiated conclusions to war and protested against the treatment of so many citizens caught in the middle. They did not share the notion that leftist or even Marxist governments necessarily constituted a threat to national security and global order. This chapter ends with a discussion of the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

The protection and promotion of human rights and democracy in Latin America, a region historically beset by civil strife, military actions, and foreign intervention, is a difficult task. Before World War II, human rights and democracy promotion were not factors in U.S.–Latin American relations (or, in fact, international relations in general). When the United States or regional governments invoked concerns about human rights or democracy during the Cold War, they did so based on narrow security interests rather than any serious commitment to human rights or democracy. However, there has been a renewed commitment to human rights and democracy in the twenty-first century. This chapter addresses human rights and democracy promotion in the context of the construction of norms and agreements by U.S. and Latin American governments.

Considering that Chile is among the wealthiest countries in Latin America, its tax revenues are low. Its tax burden in recent years has been far below those of Argentina and Brazil and is even surpassed by those of some much poorer countries, like Bolivia, Ecuador and Honduras. A law passed in 2014 promised to boost revenues significantly, but as of 2017 it had not done so. This chapter seeks to explain Chile’s light tax burden. Resource extraction plays an important role in Chile’s economy, but it cannot explain the country’s light tax burden since fiscal revenues from this source are modest. The central argument is that light taxation reflects the indirect impact of a major redistributive reform wave during the early 1970s that unwittingly tilted the balance of power in Chilean society in favor of anti-statist forces in an enduring manner. It did so in the short term by providing the impetus for a radical state retrenchment program under military auspices, and in the longer term by fomenting the rise of actors and institutions capable of sustaining anti-statism as an influential force under more democratic conditions.