Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus

10. Political Culture and Gross Human Rights Violations in Latin America

Introduction Human rights violations were on the increase during the 19705 and part of the 19808 in Latin America. Government violence intensified in Latin America, where military regimes ruled Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay . During the 19805 Central America took center stage as the focus of political violence in the Western hemisphere. Political violence has alwaysplayed a key role in the evolution of Latin American societies. Some authors have interpreted the recurrence of human rights violations as the by-product of a prevailing cultural tradition antagonistic to democracy.' They perceive human rights violations as expressing some form of monism, that is, "support for the unification of groups at all levels of society: an attempt to eliminate competition among groups in their pursuit of wealth, power, prestige. . . ,"2 This, in turn, is said to reflect the influence of an Ibero-American cultural tradition. This interpretation of Latin America's social evolution is not the only one that has been used in analyses of the recurrence of authoritarianism and repression. Research on Latin America has also criticized the universality of some assumptions on political change in attempts to specify the characteristics of the situation. Examples of this type of analysis can be found in some explanations for the rise of bureaucratic authoritarianism in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile during the sixties and seventies. Guillermo O'DonnclPs theory on the rise of authoritarianism in the most advanced Latin American countries stresses the impact of socioeconomic modernization on the relations among social classes. He argues that once the initial phase of industrialization was over, the coalitions in power had to accelerate that process by manufacturingintermediate and capital goods domestically. This approach, however, meant adopting orthodox ecoHugo Fruhlin0 10. Political Culture and Gross Human Rights Violations in Latin America 254 Hugo Fruhling nomic policies that were challenged by increasinglypowerful popular sectors . To subdue their resistance, a coalition between the military and civilian technocrats installed authoritarian rule with support from dominant classes.3 According to this view, it is possible to identify different types of political systems in Latin America in accordance with varying regime-coalition-policy patterns. Some of them, populist in some cases and bureaucratic-authoritarian in others, cannot be considered democratic and in fact tend to be fairly repressive. Nevertheless, they are neither a product of the same factors nor a mechanical expression of one cultural tradition, regardless of different historical contexts. An alternative explanation for political instability and the breakdown of democratic regimes in the region—that eventually might lead to gross human rights violations—is basically political. A good example of this line of analysis is Arturo Valenzuela's book on the crisis of Chilean democracy .4 He focuses on the Chilean political system's shortcomings in dealing with a crisis situation. He also stresses that the Chilean political bargaining system became too rigid as a result of an attempt to modernize society. All these explanations do not necessarilycontradict one another. It is true that the prevailing authoritarian culture is deeply rooted in Latin America.5 It docs not have the same influence in all countries of the region , however, nor is it capable of provoking gross and systematic violations of human rights in itself. It is manifested differently in different historical contexts. On the other hand, despite their weaknesses, democratic institutions have enjoyed considerable stability in a few countries. Larry Diamond and Juan J. Linz state that there is a reciprocal relationship between political culture and political systems; democratic culture clearly presses for the maintenance of democracy but, historically, the choice of democracy by the elites preceded the presence of democratic values among the general population.6 The general thesis of this chapter is that violence is a particular way of managing conflicts in Latin America and gross human rights violations evolve from a lack of consensus among contending political forces. Gross human rights violations, then, are the outcome of the state's inability to assert its authority over society by other means. The systematic violation of fundamental rights depends upon an alliance among existingrepressive institutions and requires an ideological justification capable of overcoming any moral barriers to such violent actions.7 Once violence is instituted as a permanent instrument of power, it is extremely likely that further violence will occur. Why has reaching a consensus on fundamental freedoms been such a Human Rights Violations in Latin America 255 difficult feat in recent years? The variety of factors...