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In 1964, Brazil’s democratically elected, left-wing government was ousted in a coup and replaced by a military junta. The Johnson administration quickly recognized the new government. The U.S. press and members of Congress were nearly unanimous in their support of the “revolution” and the coup leaders’ anticommunist agenda. Few Americans were aware of the human rights abuses perpetrated by Brazil’s new regime. By 1969, a small group of academics, clergy, Brazilian exiles, and political activists had begun to educate the American public about the violent repression in Brazil and mobilize opposition to the dictatorship. By 1974, most informed political activists in the United States associated the Brazilian government with its torture chambers. In We Cannot Remain Silent, James N. Green analyzes the U.S. grassroots activities against torture in Brazil, and the ways those efforts helped to create a new discourse about human-rights violations in Latin America. He explains how the campaign against Brazil’s dictatorship laid the groundwork for subsequent U.S. movements against human rights abuses in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and Central America.
Green interviewed many of the activists who educated journalists, government officials, and the public about the abuses taking place under the Brazilian dictatorship. Drawing on those interviews and archival research from Brazil and the United States, he describes the creation of a network of activists with international connections, the documentation of systematic torture and repression, and the cultivation of Congressional allies and the press. Those efforts helped to expose the terror of the dictatorship and undermine U.S. support for the regime. Against the background of the political and social changes of the 1960s and 1970s, Green tells the story of a decentralized, international grassroots movement that effectively challenged U.S. foreign policy.
Ethiopia and countries of the Horn of Africa(Djibouti, Eritrea,Somalia,Sudan) are in a silent opposition.Conditions are grave.The regions is the only place that is in extreme hunger,conflict,war and dictatorship. It needs an immediate solution. The best solution being uprooting the old school dictators and brining a new generation of democratic,freedom and just thinkers. The region needs a durable solution and stability not just a ''controlling'' and ''façade'' stability and peace .
I took the above book's review deliberately. Those of you who know the politics of these countries finds exact similarity in what is going on these Region and the Brazil of then.
- All the Dictators in the Horn of Africa, Meles,Issayas, Guelleh, and Bashir have come overthrowing their communist predecessors and still sell themselves as anti communist s while in a double standard doing their affair in bed with China.
- It didn't take these dictators long enough to win the approval and support of the West especially the West.Ethiopia's Meles is a particular case , as he was smart enough to aggrandise himself as the promoter of Western ideals and protector of the peace and security of the region. At the expense of the suffering of the people in this region, the West supports and arms dictators like him.It may take time but these dictators will fall by the truthful and honest predisposition of the poor mass.
-''Few Americans were aware of the human rights abuses perpetrated by Brazil’s new regime. '' Same is the case regarding the awareness of some Westerners about the human rights abuses in this Region of Africa. Although the few ''concerned'' are aware of the abuses, they have always given a deaf ear to it won by their own ''unmeetable and endless interests''.-Most informed Ethiopian political activists, most in the Diaspora and the rest in Ethiopia are now working hard to let the world/West know about the abuses taking place in Ethiopia and beyond.Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT TV), Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia (SMNE),Ethiopian Youth National Movement and Ginbot 7 Movement in Ethiopia;
Democratic Youth Movement in Sudan,Abdourahman Boreh's movements in Djibouti, and the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) in Eritrea are some of them.All are frighting against well armed military dictators.The only support they have is of their own people's. But that is more than enough if used well. The support of the West to these dictators elongates the misery and victory of freedom fighters and campaigners.- Although foreign policy changes have been uttered since the coming of Obama, nothing new has been updated.The current administration's in the West who have all the ''power'' of supporting and not supporting these regimes shouldn't wait until they turn against them.
-I am gonna start reading the book. Those of you who are pro freedom,democracy and human rights should also read it and see what needs to be added learning from the Brazilian experience or has to be deducted. The struggle in Ethiopia as was in Brazil should lay a groundwork for subsequent movements in Eritrea, Somalia,Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya as was in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Central America.
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