A time-line of Latin America by Editor (revised in 2011 by Tyler Maxin) (Copyright © 2019 Piero Scaruffi) |
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TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1487: The Aztecs sacrifice 20,000 people to inaugurate their new temple in Tenochtitlan 1492: Cristoforo Colombo (Columbus) lands in the island of Hispaniola 1494: Pope Alexander VI brokers an agreement dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal ("Treaty of Tordesillas") 1494: Colombo captures 1,500 slaves on Hispaniola 1496: The Spanish found Santo Domingo in the island of Hispaniola, the first Spanish town in the Americas 1498: Colombo explores the coast of Venezuela 1499: Amerigo Vespucci travels to South America 1499: Colombo authorizes slavery in Santo Domingo 1500: Portuguese explorer Alvares Cabral lands on the coast of Brazil 1500: About 65 million Native Americans live in Central and Latin America, of which 25 million in Mexico 1501: The Spanish colonists of Hispaniola begin importing African slaves 1502: Spain sends Ovaldo to Santo Domingo to enforce the Spanish language and the Catholic religion among the natives (birth of the "encomienda" system) 1503: Jews escape the Portuguese Inquisition by emigrating to Brazil 1503: Spain establishes the "Casa de Contratacion" to guarantee a Spanish monopoly of trade with the Americas 1503: Spain builds the first sugar mill in Hispaniola 1507: Martin Waldseemller draws a world map on which he names the new continent America after Amerigo Vespucci 1507: Smallpox outbreak in the Caribbeans 1509: The Spanish colonize Jamaica 1503: Hernan Cortez arrives in Hispaniola 1510: Spaniards (Vasco Nunez de Balboa) found Santa Mar¡a la Antigua del Darien (Panam ), the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas 1510: Bartolome` de las Casas, a member of the Ovaldo expedition, becomes the first priest to be ordained in the New World 1511: Spain institutes an "audience" (supreme court) in Santo Domingo to control the work of the conquerors 1511: Spain institutes an audiencia (high court) in Santo Domingo 1511: Diego Velasquez begins the conquest of Cuba for Spain 1512: Gold rush in Cuba 1512: The first bishop of the Americas arrive from Spain and settles in Puerto Rico 1513: Francisco Pizarro lands in Panama and joins Vasco Nunez de Balboa's expedition across the Isthmus of Panama, becoming the first European to see the Pacific Ocean 1516: Juan Solis is the first European to see the Rio de la Plata/ River Plate (the confluence of the rivers Parana and Uruguay) 1516: Bartolome` de las Casas pushes legislation for the protection of the natives 1516: Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba leads the exploration of Mexico 1517: Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba leads a Spanish expedition to Yucatan Feb 1519: Hernan Cortez sails from Cuba and lands onto the mainland of Mexico and Spaniards found the city of Panama Nov 1519: Hernan Cortez reaches the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, and captures the emperor, Montezuma 1520: Ferdinand Magellan sails the Straits of Magellan, the first European to see the Tierra del Fuego 1520: Bartolome` de las Casas creates a utopian farming community in Venezuela but is expelled by the Spanish encomenderos 1520: Smallpox outbreak in Mexico Jun 1520: Cortez is defeated by the Aztecs 1521: A colonist plants sugar in Brazil Aug 1521: Cortez defeats the Aztecs and conquers their capital Tenochtitlan 1522: The Spanish king appoints Cortes governor of Mexico 1522: Pascual de Andagoya explores South America and learns about the Inca gold 1522: Spanish explorer Gil Gonzalez de Avila "discovers" Nicaragua 1522: Ferdinando Magellan's expedition concludes the first circumnavigation of the Earth (Magellan being already dead) after a journey of three years 1523: The first Franciscan friar, Pedro de Gante, arrives in Ciudad de Mexico 1523: Cortez is appointed governor of Nueva Espana (Mexico) 1524: Pizarro, the priest Hernando de Luque and the soldier Diego de Almagro organize an expedition in Panama to explore and conquer South America 1524: Smallpox outbreak in Peru 1524: Cortes' lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado founds the city of Guatemala 1524: Spain establishes the "Consejo de las Indias" to govern the American colonies 1524: Franciscan friars begin evangelizing in Nueva Espana 1526: The Spaniards (Rodrigo de Bastidas) establish their second settlement in South America, Santa Marta (Colombia) 1527: Francisco de Montejo begins the Spanish conquest of the Yucatan 1527: Spain institutes the audiencia of Nueva Espana 1528: Holy Roman emperor and Spanish king Karl V grants Venezuela to the Augsburg banking family Welser 1528: Spain institutes an "audience" (supreme court) in Mexico City Dec 1530: Pizarro leaves Panama for South America 1531: The king of Portugal dispatches a convoy to Brazil under the command of Martin Afonso de Sousa Sep 1532: Fracisco Pizarro conquers Ecuador and establishes the the first Spanish settlement in Peru (and third in South America) and begins the conquest of Peru 1532: Martin Afonso de Sousa founds Sao Vicente in Brazil Nov 1532: Francisco Pizarro defeats the Inca army led by Atahuallpa at Cajamarca after the Inca Empire has been decimated by smallpox and takes the emperor hostage Jul 1533: Pizarro executes Inca emperor Atahuallpa 1532: Vasco de Quiroga founds the hospital of Santa Fe in Ciudad de Mexico, a utopian community Nov 1533: Pizarro takes Cuzco, the Inca capital 1533: Spaniards found Cartagena (Colombia) 1534: Pizarro's lieutenant Sebastian de Belalcazar conquers Quito 1534: The king of Portugal grants the first capitania to a donatario in Brazil (colossal hereditary landholdings) 1535: Pizarro founds Lima, the Spanish capital of Peru 1535: Vasco de Quiroga denounces the Spanish-American encomienda system in "Informacion en Derecho" 1535: Spain establishes the viceroyalty of Nueva Espana (Mexico, Arizona, Texas, California) with governor Antonio de Mendoza (that relieves Cortes of all power) and capital in Tenochtitlan that is renamed Ciudad de Mexico 1535: The Portuguese colony of Pernambuco of Nova Lusitania (Brazil) is granted to Duarte Coelho 1536: Spaniards (led by Pedro de Mendoza) found Nuestra Senora de Santa Maria del Buen Ayre (Buenos Aires) on the Rio de la Plata 1536: Pizarro's lieutenant Sebastian de Belalcazar founds Popayan in Nueva Granada (Colombia) 1536: Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada explores Nueva Granada (Colombia) 1536: Diego de Almagro explores Chile 1537: Vasco de Quiroga is appointed the first bishop of Michoacan (Mexico) 1537: Domingo Mart¡nez de Irala becomes governor of Rio de la Plata 1537: Duarte Coelho founds the town of Olinda in Brazil 1537: Pope Paul III issues a Papal Bull to affirm that the Indios of Latin America are equal to Europeans and therefore entitled to receive Christianity 1537: Spaniards found Asuncion (Paraguay) 1538: Jimenez de Quesada establishes the colony of New Granada (Colombia) and its capital Santa Fe de Bogota 1538: A civil war erupts between followers of Almagro and followers of Pizarro, won by the latter 1538: Panama gets its own audiencia 1538: The first university in the Americas opens in Santo Domingo 1538: African blacks are shipped as slaves to Brazil 1539: The first printing press opens in Ciudad de Mexico 1540: Pedro de Valdivia explores Chile 1541: Spaniards (Pedro de Valdivia) found Santiago de Chile 1541: Buenos Aires is abandoned and its horses spread in the wild 1541: Spanish explorer Francisco Orellana sails from Ecuador to the Atlantic and names a tribe of female fighters "Amazons", thus giving the name to the entire region and its vast river 1541: Pizarro is assassinated by an Almagrista 1542: Spain establishes the viceroyalty of Peru with capital in Lima 1542: Bartolome` de las Casas frames new laws that are approved by the Spanish king to protect the natives from exploitation by the Spanish colonists/encomenderos, but they are largely ignored 1542: Francisco de Montejo the Young (son of the Elder) conquers most of Yucatan for Spain and founds a new capital, Merida 1543: Lima (Peru) gets its own audiencia 1544: Bartolome` de las Casas is named bishop of Chiapas (Guatemala) May 1544: Blasco Nunez become the first viceroy of Peru 1545: Silver is discovered in Potosi (Bolivia) 1546: Spain completes the conquest of Yucatan 1546: Bartolome` de las Casas' laws are repealed after strong opposition by the encomiendas 1546: Gonzalo Pizarro leads an insurrection of encomenderos and defeats and kills Nunez, the viceroy of Peru 1546: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 1546: Silver is discovered in Zacatecas (Mexico) 1547: The Spanish king's representative, Pedro de Gasca, defeats the Pizarristas 1548: Spaniards found LaPaz is Bolivia 1548: Gonzalo Pizarro surrenders and is beheaded 1548: The population of Santo Domingo has declined from 100,000 in 1492 to 5,000 1549: The Spanish king's representative, Pedro de Gasca, leaves Peru 1549: The Catholic bishop Diego de Landa begins destroying all Maya manuscripts (only four will survive) Mar 1549: Portugal appoints the first governor of Brazil, Thome de Sousa, who founds the capital of Salvador/Bahia, and arrives with 1,000 colonists and six Jesuits, including Manoel de Nobrega 1550: Portugal ships female orphans and African slaves to the colonists of Brazil 1550: Antonio de Mendoza is succeeded as viceroy of Mexico by Luis de Velasco, who frees thousands of "Indians" 1551: Spanish colonists from Peru found Santiago del Estero, the first permanent European settlement in Argentina 1551: The university of San Marcos at Lima is founded in Peru 1551: The university of Ciudad de Mexico is founded 1551: Antonio de Mendoza is appointed viceroy of Peru 1552: Antonio de Mendoza dies and the audience rules Peru 1552: The Portuguese Jesuits found an "aldeia" (shelter) for Indios in Salvador 1552: Bartolome` de las Casas's "Brevisima Relacion de la Destruycion de las Indias" is published in Europe, accusing Spain of having killed 12 million "Indians" since 1492 1552: Cattle is imported into Paraguay by Portuguese colonists and spread to Argentina 1553: Chile's governor Valdivia is defeated and killed by the Araucanian Indios TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1554: Jesuits led by Jose de Anchieta found the mission and school of Sao Paulo (Brazil) 1555: French colonists build a fort in the bay of Rio de Janeiro (France Antarctique) 1555: Portuguese sailors transmit smallpox to Brazil, that exterminates the Indios of the coast 1556: The Welser are stripped of their rights on Venezuela 1558: Portugal appoints the second governor of Brazil, Mem de Sa 1559: Charcas/La Plata (Bolivia) gets its own audiencia 1561: Colonial trade is restricted to two convoys of privately-owned ships a year, leaving from Sevilla or Cadiz, landing in Vera Cruz (Mexico) or Portobello (Panama) 1562: The Portuguese annihilate the rebellious Caete in Brazil, while smallpox and plague begin to spread among Indios of Brazil 1565: The Portuguese expel the French from the bay of Rio de Janeiro 1565: Pedro Menendez founds San Agustin in Florida 1567: Portuguese (Estacio de Sa) founds Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro 20 (Brazil) 1567: Spaniards found Caracas in Venezuela 1569: Francisco de Toledo is appointed viceroy of Peru 1569: Santa Fe de Bogota becomes the capital of the captaincy-general Nueva Granada 1569: Don Francisco de Toledo is appointed viceroy of Peru 1570: A tribunal of the Inquisition is instituted in Lima, Peru 1571: The Inca leader Tupac Amaru rebels in Peru but he is captured and beheaded 1572: British pirate Francis Drake raids Panama 1572: The Jesuits arrive in Ciudad de Mexico 1574: There are 160,000 Spaniards in America 1576: A smallpox epidemics in Mexico kills more than a million people 1577: British pirate Francis Drake raids Valparaiso (Chile) 1578: Juan de Garay is appointed governor of Rio de la Plata 1579: Jesuits found utopian missions in Paraguay and northern Argentina 1580: Juan de Garay refounds Buenos Aires (Argentina) 1580: British pirate Francis Drake concludes the second circumnavigation of the Earth 1580: Spain and Portugal are united and therefore Brazil is Spanish too 1580: Spain forbids the American colonies from conferring any public office to mestizos (mixed-blood people) 1581: Peru's viceroy Francisco de Toledo is deposed by Spain 1581: Brazil has a population of 57,000, of which 20,000 Portuguese, 18,000 Indios, 14,000 African slaves, and 5,000 mamelucos/mestizos 1584: Martin Ignacio de Loyola circumnavigates the Earth 1585: Black slaves constitute about 25% of Brazil's population 1586: British pirate Francis Drake raids Santo Domingo and Cartagena (Colombia) 1586: Juan Ramirez de Velasco is appointed governor of northern Argentina with capital in Santiago del Estero (that has a population of 48 encomenderos and 12,000 Indios) 1589: Martin Ignacio de Loyola is the first man to circumnavigate the Earth twice 1596: Juan Ramirez de Velasco is appointed governor of Rio de la Plata with capital in Buenos Aires, having greatly improved the infrastructure of Argentina 1595: British explorer Walter Raleigh visits "Guiana" (the land of the confluence between the Amazon and the Orinoco) searching for "El Dorado" 1597: Juan Ramirez de Velasco dies 1600: The population of Sao Paulo is 2000 1600: Only one million Native Americans survive in Mexico 1600: Pernambuco produces 60% of Brazil's sugar 1605: The population of Mexico has declined from 25 million (1490) to 1 million (1605), mostly due to diseases 1605: Escaped black slaves of Brazil found the Quilombo dos Palmares, a confederacy ruled according to Central African customs 1606: In retaliation to their guerrilla warfare, Spain authorizes the slave trade of Araucanian Indios in Chile 1606: Portugal creates the relacao (high court) of Bahia 1608: Spanish colonists found Santa Fe (New Mexico) 1613: Smallpox outbreak in Brazil 1616: Dutch explorer Willem Corneliszoon Schouten finds the route around Cape Horn, a faster way to reach the Western coast of South America 1617: Paraguay is separated from Argentina 1618: In Europe Spain fights against France, Holland and England in the "Thirty Years' War" 1621: Holland forms the Dutch West India Company to invade the Spanish and Portuguese colonies and takes control of Guyana (colonies of Demerara, Essequebo, and Berbice) 1621: The state of Maranhao is separated from Brazil with a governor in Sao Luis 1623: The Dutch seize Bahia from Portuguese Brazil with help from the Portuguese Jews and expand in the Northeast 1624: The Catholic Church foments anti-government riots in Ciudad de Mexico 1624: Dutch colons colonize north-eastern Brazil 1624: England takes St Kitts from Spain 1627: England takes Barbados from Spain 1628: The West India Company seizes 170 thousand kgs of silver from Spanish ships at Cape Matanza in Cuba 1629: Brazilian paulistas/mamelucos (slave gatherers) attack the Jesuit missions 1629: The Dutch conquers Pernambuco from Portugal 1631: To escape the Brazilian paulistas/mamelucos, the Jesuit missions of Paraguay/Argetina move inland and found Candelaria 1634: Holland takes Curacao from Spain 1635: France conquers Martinique, Guadeloupe and Dominique from Spain 1639: The Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira explore the interior of Brazil and expand its border 2500 kms west of the Tordesillas limit 1640: Portugal regains its independence and Brazil returns Portuguese 1642: British colonists settle in Honduras 1643: Sugar is planted in Barbados 1647: Earthquake in Santiago de Chile 1648: End of the "Thirty Years' War" in Europe 1651: Jews found Curacao 1651: English colonists from Barbados found a colony along the Suriname River 1653: The Jesuit missionary Antonio Vieira arrives in Maranhao to fight against enslaving Brazilian Indios 1653: A Brazilian-born white is appointed desembargador (high-court judge) 1654: The Brazilians expel the Dutch from Pernambuco 1655: Britain conquers Jamaica from Spain 1658: Buenos Aires has a population of 1,500 1661: Buenos Aires gets its own audiencia 1661: The colonists of Sao Luis revolt against the Jesuits who protect Brazilian Indios from slavery, causing the expulsion of Vieira 1665: France turns the pirate island of Tortuga into its colony of St Dominique 1667: British pirate Henry Morgan raids Portobello (Panama) 1667: Britain surrenders Surinam to Holland in return for New Amsterdam (in New York) 1671: British pirate Henry Morgan raids Panama 1674: Spain abolishes the slave trade of Araucanian Indios in Chile 1679: There are 22 utopian Jesuit missions in Paraguay and northern Argentina 1680: Portuguese colonist Manuel de Lobo founds the colony of Sacramento inside Spanish territory of Uruguay, that competes with Buenos Aires via contraband 1683: An international group of pirates raids Vera Cruz (Mexico) 1692: The poor riot in Ciudad de Mexico against state and Church 1693: Gold is discovered in Minas Geraes, Brazil, causing a gold rush in the West, and the center of power shifts from the Northeast towards Rio de Janeiro 1695: The Portuguese exterminate the Quilombo dos Palmares 1695: Gold is discovered in Minas Gerais, Brazil 1697: Spain cedes the western part of Hispaniola to France, renamed Saint-Dominique (Haiti) 1697: An international group of pirates raids Cartagena (Colombia) 1700: Potosi has 14 dancehalls, 36 gambling houses and a theater 1702: Due to the blockade of Spain by England and Holland during the "War of Succession", Spain authorizes French ships to trade with its American colonies and therefore removes the ban on all non-Spanish trade with the American colonies 1703: Spain authorizes the colonies to confer public office to mestizos 1708: Britain sinks Spain's ship "San Jose" with its cargo of gold, silver and jewels 1711: War of the Mascates in Brazil, a rebellion by landholdes of Recife 1713: The peace of Utrecht allows Britain to export African slaves to Spanish America (1,200 a year to Buenos Aires) 1717: Spain establishes the vice-royalty of Nueva Granada (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) with capital in Bogota 1720: Spain abolishes the encomienda 1720: Antonio de Albuquerque is appointed first governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil 1720: Portugal establishes the captaincy of Minas Gerais with capital in Sao Paulo 1721: Jose de Antoquera jails the governor and seizes power in Paraguay 1722: Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers the Easter Islands 1722: The first newspaper of Spanish America is published in Mexico, the "Gaceta de Mexico" 1729: Montevideo (Uruguay) is founded by Spaniards across from the Portuguese colony of Sacramento 1729: Diamonds are found in Minas Gerais 1731: Jose de Antoquera is arrested and executed in Paraguay 1739: Panama is added to Nueva Granada 1743: The university of Santiago is founded in Chile 1748: Portugal creates the captaincy of Mato Grosso 1750: The treaty of Madrid recognizes Brazil's borders, and hands Sacramento to Spain in return for Jesuit missions (that have to be evacuated by the combined Spanish and Portuguese armies) 1752: Portugal creates the relacao (high court) of Rio de Janeiro, the second in the colony 1759: The Jesuits are expelled from Brazil Sep 1759: Portugal expels all Jesuits from its colonies 1763: The seat of the viceroy of Brazil is moved from Bahia to Rio Feb 1763: France surrenders Canada (except for Saint Pierre and Miquelon), Dominica, Grenada, and eastern Louisiana to Britain, Spain surrenders western Louisiana to France and Florida to Britain 1764: Cuba is made a seat of governorship, ruling over Louisiana 1765: Cuba begins an export boom of sugar 1767: The Jesuits are expelled from the Spanish empire, ending their 57 missions that counted 113,716 Indios 1767: The Franciscan friar Junipero Serra inherits the missions of Baja California when the Jesuits are expelled 1768: Gaspar de Portola is appointed governor of Las Californias 1769: Junipero Serra founds the mission of San Diego (California) 1770: Junipero Serra founds the mission of Montery (California) 1770: Buenos Aires has a population of 22,000, including 4,000 African slaves, thousands of free Africans, and an equal number of mestizos and Indios, which makes Buenos Aires the fourth largest Spanish city in South America (after Lima, Cuzco, Santiago) 1770: Port-au-Prince is chosen as the new capital of the colony of Saint-Domingue 1772: The state of Maranhao is incorporated into Brazil 1776: Spain creates the new viceroyalty of La Plata (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia) under Pedro de Cevallos, with capital in Buenos Aires although most of the population lives in Bolivia, one fourth in Paraguay and only one fourth in Argentina and Uruguay 1776: Spain institutes the viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata with capital in Buenos Aires 1777: Cevallos leads a Spanish incursion into Brazil that secures Sacramento (Uruguay) once and for all, and opens up Argentina to free trade, initiating Buenos Aires' boom 1777: Venezuela becomes a captaincy-general 1778: Chile becomes a captaincy-general 1779: Brazil founds the "Academia Real das Sciencias" 1780: Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui stages a revolt of the Indios in Peru 1783: The Indio rebellion is defeated in Peru 1788: Spain appoints Irish-born Ambrosio O'Higgins as governor of Chile in the viceroyalty of Peru 1789: Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier "Tiradentes" leads a failed independence movement in Minas Gerais against Brazil 1790: Haiti, whose population is 90% black slaves, produces half of the world's coffee and sugar, cotton, tobacco, cocoa and indigo Aug 1791: African slaves led by Toussaint L'Ouverture rebel in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), causing the collapse of the coffee economy 1791: Chile's governor Ambrosio O'Higgins outlaws the forced labor of the encomiendas 1792: The French wars stimulate Brazil's exports 1792: Brazil provides 30% of the cotton to Britain 1792: Cuba as become the third exporter of sugar after Jamaica and Brazil 1793: Cuba opens the first public library of Spanish America 1793: Britain invades Haiti to quell the slave rebellion 1795: Spain is forced to cede Santo Domingo (half of Hispaniola) to France 1796: Spain appoints Ambrosio O'Higgins viceroy of Peru 1796: Gold only accounts for 17% of Brazil's exports to Portugal compared with 51% of agricultural exports 1797: Britain defeats Spain at Cape St Vincent, conquers Trinidad from Spain and cut off trade between Spain and Spanish America 1798: The population of Brazil is three million, of which 50% are black slaves 1798: The British surrender to black general Toussaint Louverture in Haiti 1799: Brazil has produced about 80% of the world's gold during the 18th century (about 1,000 tons) 1800: Spain surrenders Louisiana to France 1800: The population of Spanish America is 12.6 million of which 5.84 are in Mexico and 1.1 in Peru 1800: The population of Chile is mostly made of mestizos (300,000 out of 500,000 people) 1800: There are 550,000 black slaves in Spanish America, notably 212,000 in Cuba, 88,000 each in Peru and Venezuela, and 70,000 in Colombia 1800: Peru's population has declined to one million from the five million of Inca Peru 1801: Spain deposes Peru's viceroy Ambrosio O'Higgins for his revolutionary leanings 1801: A constitution is adopted in Haiti, where there are virtually no whites left with Toussaint president for life 1802: France invades Haiti but its soldiers are killed by yellow fever 1803: France tricks and kills Haiti's rebel Toussaint L'Ouverture 1804: Haiti (the former French colony of Saint-Dominique) declares independence from France, the second colony after the USA to become independent in America, and the first black slave revolt to triumph against the white masters, and Toussaint L'Ouverture's lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines becomes its "emperor", but no European or American country recognizes it 1805: The population of Mexico is 5.8 million 1806: Venezuelan hero Francisco Miranda fights against the Spanish government in Nueva Granada 1806: Rio is the largest city in Brazil with 50,000 people and most people live in the countryside (only 165,000 out of 3 million live in cities) 1806: British troops seize Buenos Aires (Argentina) from Spain 1806: Haiti's "emperor" Jean-Jacques Dessalines is overthrown by the army 1807: Local militiae expel the British from Buenos Aires (Argentina) Nov 1807: Napoleon invades Portugal while the British ship Portugal's king to Brazil 1807: The population of Brazil is 3.5 millions, of which 2 millions are African slaves and 500,000 are Indios 1807: Haiti splits in two 1808: Napoleon's France invades Spain and Portugal 1808: The "Gazeta de Rio de Janeiro" is published in Brazil 1808: A popular insurrection returns Santo Domingo to Spain 1808: Dom Joao VI of Portugal moves the capital of Portugal to Rio in Brazil after Napoleon invades Portugal, and transforms Rio into one of the most modern capitals of Latin America 1808: The viceroy of Nueva Espana declares independence from Napoleon's Spain Sep 1810: The Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo issues his "grito de dolores" and leads a failed insurrection by Indios against white people in which thousands die 1810: Criollos establish anti-Spanish juntas in Venezuela (april, Simon Bolivar), Argentina (may, Mariano Moreno), Nueva Granada/Colombia (july, Simon Bolivar), Ecuador (august), Chile (september, Bernardo O'Higgins), May 1810: The viceroy of Argentina is ousted by a junta faithful to Ferdinando VII and Mariano Moreno assumes power Apr 1810: A junta including the creole Simon Bolivar in Venezuela begins an independence war against Napoleonic Spain 1810: Brazil signs a trade treaty with Britain that de facto grants Britain a monopoly in Brazil 1810: Buenos Aires has 50,000 people, the largest in Argentina 1811: The gaucho Jose Artigas starts a revolutionary movement in La Banda Oriental/Uruguay 1811: Nueva Grenada issues a constitution but civil war breaks up between the various parties Jan 1811: Miguel Hidalgo is defeated and executed in Mexico Jul 1811: A congress led by Bolivar and Miranda declares the independence of Venezuela 1811: A junta led by Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia declares Paraguay's independence from Argentina Dec 1811: Jose Miguel Carrera seizes power in Chile 1811: Argentina is ruled by a triumvirate including Bernardino Rivadavia 1812: Argentinian general Manuel Belgrano defeats Spain at in the battle of Tucuman 1812: Britain exports more goods to Brazil than to all of Asia combined Mar 1812: Spain accepts a liberal constitution for Spanish America Jun 1812: Spain defeats Miranda in Venezuela 1813: Colombian hero Antonio Narino fights against the Spanish government in Nueva Granada Apr 1813: Hidalgo's follower Jose Maria Morelos tales Acapulco Sep 1813: Followers of Jose Maria Morelos at Chilpancingo draw a charter for Mexico's independence Nov 1813: Jose Maria Morelos is captured by Mexican troops 1813: Ferdinand VII is restored king of Spain by British intervention 1813: Bolivar invades Venezuela from Nueva Grenada 1813: Argentina extends the vote to mestizos and indios, and outlaws torture, slavery and the Inquisition Mar 1813: The viceroy of Peru launches an offensive against Chile Jan 1814: Bolivar is proclaimed dictator of Venezuela 1814: Britain acquires Guyana from the Netherlands Mar 1814: Bernardo O'Higgins replaces Carrera as the leader of the Chilean rebels Sep 1814: Bolivar is defeated and expelled from Venezuela Sep 1814: Jose de San Martin is put in charge of Argentina's army Oct 1814: O'Higgins is defeated in Chile and flees to Argentina 1814: Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia is appointed dictator of Paraguay and creates an egalitarian society 1814: Britain occupies Guyana 1814: France returns Santo Domingo to Spain 1815: Jose Artigas controls all of La Banda Oriental/Uruguay with capital in Montevideo 1815: Ferdinand VII sends Spanish troops led by general Pablo Morillo to restore order in Nueva Grenada 1815: Jose Maria Morelos is executed in Mexico Dec 1815: Joao declares the "United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves" Jan 1816: The Congress of Tucuman (shunned by Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia) proclaims the independence of the United Provinces of The Rio de la Plata (Argentina) with capital in Buenos Aires but local caudillos in the countryside resist the central government 1816: Nueva Granada/Colombia abolishes slavery 1816: Brazil invades Uruguay Dec 1816: With help from Haiti, Bolivas invades Venezuela's Orinoco region TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Feb 1817: O'Higgins defeats the Spanish troops at Chacabuco 1817: The USA helps Colombian revolutionaries against Spain Jan 1817: Argentinian general Jose de San Martin crosses the Andes and invades Chile Feb 1818: Chile declares its independence from Spain, with O'Higgins as its first president May 1818: San Martin leads the Chilean troops to win a battle against the Spanish troops at Maipu 1818: Brazil has 3.8 million people, of which 2 million are blacks, 1 million white, 600,000 free mestizos and 200,000 indios Aug 1819: Bolivar defeats the Spanish at the battle of Boyaca near Bogota (Colombia) Dec 1819: Nueva Granada is dissolved and Gran Colombia (Colombia, Panama, Venezuela) is born wth three million people (2 million in Colombia) Dec 1819: Buenos Aires writes a constitution but the other provinces of Argentina oppose it Aug 1820: Troops under Jose de San Martin including many British volunteers under Thomas Cochrane invade Peru from Chile to liberate it from Spanish rule 1820: Sugar, cotton and the coffee are the main exports of Brazil 1820: Portugal defeats and exiles the gaucho caudillo Artigas, and Uruguay is reconquered by Brazil 1821: Uruguya is turned into the Provincia Cisplatina of the kingdom of Portugal and Brazil 1820: Haiti is reunited under Jean Boyer 1820: Argentina is devasted by civil war, and Juan Manuel de Rosas leads a regiment of gauchos (the "colorados") 1820: Jean-Pierre Boyer unifies Haiti and becomes its dictator Feb 1821: The creole Augustin de Iturbide and the mestizo Vicente Guerrero declare the independence of Nueva Espana, and declare a Mexican Empire (Mexico, California, Texas, Central America) that has six million people Apr 1821: Dom Joao returns to Portugal and leaves his son Pedro as governor of Brazil Jul 1821: Spanish troops depose the viceroy of Nueva Espana Sep 1821: The creole Augustin de Iturbide and the mestizo Vicente Guerrero enter the liberated Mexico City Sep 1821: Simon Bolivar is elected first president of Gran Colombia 1821: Guatemala declares its independence from Spain 1821: The USA citizen Moses Austin obtains Spain's permission to establish a colony of Anglosaxons in Texas Jul 1821: Jose de San Martin liberates Lima from the Spaniards and declares Peru's independence, a country with one million people 1821: The Congress of Cucuta declares the union of Venezuela and Colombia, abolishes slavery and choose a republican government under Simon Bolivar with Francisco Jose de Paula Santander as his vicepresident (and de facto ruler of Colombia) Jun 1821: Bolivar defeats the Spanish at Carabobo Jul 1821: San Martin enters Lima, but Spain still controls most of Peru 1821: The Dominican Republic (Spanish half of Hispaniola) declares its independence from Spain 1821: Bernardino Rivadavia dominates Argentinian politics, but Buenos Aires has little control over the "guacho" provinces May 1822: Venezuela general Antonio Jose de Sucre defeats Spain at the Battle of Pichincha and, joining Bolivar, liberates Ecuador May 1822: The creole Augustin de Iturbide declares himself emperor Agustin I of Mexico Jul 1822: Bolivar and San Martin meet in Ecuador to decide the future of Peru and Ecuador Jul 1822: Bolivar incorporates Ecuador into Gran Colombia Sep 1822: Prince Pedro declares Brazil's independence 1822: Haiti invades the Dominican Republic 1822: Ecuador achieves independence from Spain Sep 1822: San Martin resigns in Peru Dec 1822: Pedro I, under pressure from the Brazilian scientist Jose Bonifacio, declares Brazil (4 million people of which half are slaves) independent from Portugal and himself emperor 1822: Haiti's Jean Boyer coquers Santo Domingo from Spain Mar 1823: Augustin de Iturbide is overthrown and the United Provinces of Central America secede from Mexico Jan 1823: Bernardo O'Higgins is overthrown as president of Chile by general Ramon Freire opening a rift between conservatives and liberals Jan 1823: Pedro of Brazil hires Cochrane to fight the last remaining Portuguese troops Aug 1823: Cochrane expels from Brazil the last remaining Portuguese troops 1823: Former regions of Nueva Espana (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua) declare the United Provinces of Central America 1823: Slavery is abolished in Chile 1823: Ramon Freire Serrano becomes president of Chile Sep 1823: Bolivar arrives in Lima 1823: The USA intervenes in defence of the Latin American states ("Monroe Doctrine") against the Holy Alliance (Austria, Prussia, France, Russia, Spain) that wants to restore the monarchies Feb 1824: Peru appoints Bolivar dictator Mar 1824: Brazil enacts a monarchical constitution Aug 1824: Simon Bolivar defeats Spanish troops at the battle of Junin 1824: The USA becomes the first country to recognize the independence of Brazil 1824: Augustin de Iturbide tries to regain power in Mexico but is executed Oct 1824: A liberal constitution is enacted in Mexico, with the abolition of the Inquisition and of torture, and with Guadalupe Victoria as president 1824: Bernardino Rivadavia is forced to resign in Argentina Dec 1824: Simon Bolivar's general Sucre defeats Spanish troops at the battles of Ayachuco in Peru Aug 1825: Upper Peru declares its independence from Argentina (United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata) and adopts the name Bolivia in honor of Simon Bolivar, with general Sucre (a native) as its dictator 1825: Venezuela's population is 700,000 1825: Uruguay (Banda Oriental) secedes from Brazil to join the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (Argentina), and Brazil declares war on Argentina 1825: Costa Rica begins to export coffee 1825: Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil Jan 1826: The last Spanish garrison in Peru surrenders to Simon Bolivar 1826: Jose Antonio Paez, leader of the llaneros of the countryside, leads a failed Venezuelan uprising against Gran Colombia 1826: There are ten independent countries in Latin America: Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Haiti, Paraguay, La Plata, Brazil, and the population of Latin America is about 20 million 1826: Bolivar organizes the Congress of Panama to promote Latin American union 1826: Portuguese king Joao dies and Brazil's emperor Pedro is forced by the Brazilians to renounce the throne of Portugal 1826: Bernardino Rivadavia drafts a new Argentinian constitution and is reappointed president 1827: General Jose de La Mar becomes the first president of Peru 1827: There are five revolutions in one year in Chile 1827: A treaty grants special privileges to Britain in the trade with Brazil 1827: Diego Portales founds the Conservative Party in Chile Jul 1827: Bernardino Rivadavia is ousted in Argentina 1828: Bolivar declares himself dictator of Gran Colombia against the will of Santander who is forced into exile 1828: Peru invades Bolivia and Colombia declares war on Peru 1828: Brazil is defeated by Uruguay and Argentina at the Battle of Las Piedras, and Uruguay is granted independence under president Joaquin Suarez 1828: Vicente Guerrero loses Mexico's elections and rebels against the results 1829: Conservative minister Diego Portales becomes the most influential politician in Chile, winning the civil war against the liberals and subdueing the military 1829: Colombia and Bolivia win the war against Peru 1829: Bolivar's former general Andres de Santa Cruz, an indio, becomes dictator of Bolivia 1829: Cusco's general Agustin Gamarra becomes dictator of Peru Dec 1829: Juan Manuel de Rosas, leader of the gauchos of the countryside, becomes governor of Buenos Aires, the first representative from the provinces to obtain so much power in the country 1829: The Venezuelan writer Andres Bello, who has lived 20 years in Britain, relocates to Chile and promotes education and law 1829: Mexico abolishes slavery 1829: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the son of Spanish immigrants from rural Veracruz, defeats Guerrero and the conservative vice-president Anastasio Bustamante becomes president of Mexico 1830: Simon Bolivar leaves Bogota for exile and Venezuela (dec 1829, under Jose Antonio Paez) and Ecuador (may, under former Bolivar's Venezuelan-born general Juan Jose Flores) secede from Gran Colombia, Venezuela having lost more than 50% of its population (or 500,000 people) during the struggle from independence (1810-30) 1830: An overland trail is opened to Los Angeles that brings Anglosaxon colonists to Mexico's California 1830: Fructuoso Rivera, hero of the liberation war, is appointed president of Uruguay Dec 1830: Simon Bolivar dies largely forgotten and abandoned Apr 1831: Following popular protests ("Noite das Garrafadas"), Pedro I abdicates and leaves Brazil to his five-year old son Pedro II 1831: Slave insurrection in Jamaica 1831: Gran Colombia is renamed Nueva Grenada 1832: Santander returns from exile to rule Colombia/ Nueva Grenada 1832: The first spinning mill opens in Mexico 1832: Ecuador annexes the Galapagos islands 1832: Santa Anna overthrows Bustamante in Mexico May 1832: Silver mines are discovered in Chile (Chanarcillo) 1833: Britain invades the Malvinas/Falkland islands of Argentina 1833: Slavery is abolished in the British colonies, notably the sugar-producing islands 1833: Luis Jose de Orbegoso becomes president of Peru Apr 1833: Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is elected president of Mexico by the National Congress, but the government is run by vicepresident Gomez Farias who enacts anticlerical laws 1833: Chile proclaims a constitution, largely fashioned by the pro-clerical Portales that recognizes Catholicism as the state religion 1834: Slavery is abolished in Guyana Apr 1834: Mexico's president Santa Anna abrogates the liberal constitution and the anticlerical laws, dissolves the National Congress and installs himself as dictator, while the liberal leader Lorenzo de Zavala exiles himself to Mexico promoting the cause of Texan independence 1834: After general Agust¡n Gamarra is deposed, Peru plunges into civil war Apr 1835: The gaucho Juan Manuel de Rosas is appointed dictator of Argentina 1835: Britain charges surveyor Robert Schomburgk to decide the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela (the "Schomburgk Line"), which extends Guyana at the expense of Venezuela 1835: Bolivia's dictator Santa Cruz conquers Peru after helping to quell an army rebellion against Peruvian president Lu¡s Jose de Orbegoso 1835: The "Guerra dos Farrapos" erupts in Brazil, pitting the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul against the Brazilian government, with Giuseppe Garibaldi supporting the farrapos 1835: Britain occupies the coast of Honduras (Belize) 1835: Manuel Oribe, a supporter of Argentina's dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas, becomes president of Uruguay Mar 1836: Mexico's dictator Santa Anna crushes a Texan uprising at the battle of the Alamo (San Antonio), but general Sam Houston defeats the Spanish and Texas declares its independence Oct 1836: Santa Cruz proclaims the federation of Peru and Bolivia Dec 1836: Chile fights a war against Peru and Bolivia Dec 1836: Santa Anna enacts the "Siete Leyes/ Seven Laws", a centralist amendment to the Mexican constitution 1836: Jose Vicente Rocafuerte Rodriguez becomes president of Ecuador Dec 1836: Mexico enacts a new constitution 1837: Portales, most influential politician of Chile (although never its president), is murdered in an attempted military coup 1837: Bustamante is elected president of Mexico 1837: The liberal Jose Ignacio de Marquez is elected president of Colombia/ Nueva Grenada 1837: Argentinian intellectuals led by poet Echeverria found the Asociacion de Mayo to fight the dictator Rosas (including Bartolome Mitre and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento) 1838: The United Provinces of Central America is dissolved, making Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua independent 1838: France bombards Mexico in the "Guerra de los Pasteles" but Santa Anna defeats them 1838: Rivera deposes Manuel Oribe in Uruguay, and Oribe's "Blancos" start a civil war against Rivera's "Colorados" 1838: Juan Pablo Duarte founds a secret society to find for the independence of the Dominican Republic 1838: Brazil imports 46,000 African slaves in just one year 1838: The indio pro-clerical Rafael Carrera seizes power in Guatemala and imposes a ruthless dictatorship 1839: The Uruguayan Civil War ("Guerra Grande") erupts between the liberal "colorados" of Montevideo (supported by France, Britain, Brazil and liberal Argentinians) and the conservative "blancos" of Cerrito (supported by Argentina's dictator Rosas) Jan 1839: Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia, forces the dissolution of the union between the two countries, ends the career of Bolivia's dictator Santa Cruz and allows Agustin Gamarra to seize power in Peru 1839: Regional leaders try to overthrow Colombia's president Marquez ("Guerra de los Supremos") 1840: Francia dies and Paraguay elects two consuls, one being Carlos Antonio Lopez 1840: Justus von Liebig's studies on fertilizers cause a boom in Peruvian guano 1840: Peru begins to develop the deposits of guano on a mass scale, leading to an economic boom 1840: Sao Paulo has become the biggest producer of coffee, which has passed sugar and cotton as Brazil's main export, shifting the economic center of mass towards the south 1840: Chile's first steamship starts running (made in the USA) 1841: Jose Ballivian becomes president of Bolivia 1841: Santa Anna seizes power again in Mexico 1841: The general Manuel Bulnes, hero of the war against Bolivia, is appointed president of Chile, presiding over a period of peace and prosperity 1841: Peru and Bolivian go at war and Peru's dictator Gamarra is killed at the Battle of Ingavi 1841: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil 1841: Peru starts exporting guano 1842: Garibaldi leads an Italian legion for the "colorados" in the Guerra Grande in Uruguay 1842: The University of Chile is established 1842: The University of Chile opens with Andres Bello as its first president 1842: Peru and Bolivian sign a peace treaty 1843: Venezuela is ruled by general Carlos Soublette, a follower of Paez who grants civil liberties 1843: Former president Joaquin Suarez succeeds Fructuoso Rivera in Uruguay while Manuel Oribe lays siege to Montevideo (for eight years) 1843: Jean-Pierre Boyer is overthrown in Haiti and Santo Domingo is separated again from Haiti 1844: Carlos Antonio Lopez becomes dictator of Paraguay 1844: Pedro appoints the Liberal Party to form a government in Brazil 1844: Santa Anna is overthrown in Mexico and exiled to Spanish Cuba 1844: The Dominican Republic (white and Spanish-speaking) declares its independence from Haiti (black and French-speaking) 1845: The farrapos surrender in Brazil 1845: Jose Herrera becomes president of Mexico Dec 1845: Texas is annexed by the USA 1845: Ramon Castilla, a mestizo, becomes dictator of Peru 1845: The general Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera is elected president of Colombia/ Nueva Grenada 1845: British ships are authorized to search Brazilian ships for slaves in order to enforce the end of the slave trade Sep 1845: Britain and France enforce a blockade of Buenos Aires to defend Uruguay 1845: Ecuador's dictator Flores is overthrown by the Liberals Jan 1846: Jose Herrera is deposed and general Mariano Paredes is appointed president of Mexico Apr 1846: The USA provokes a war with Mexico 1846: One fifth of the population of San Francisco is Anglosaxon immigrants 1846: The first iron mill is built in Brazil 1846: Britain adopts free trade, which puts the sugar-producing islands at a disadvantage against slave-operated plantations in Cuba and Brazil 1847: Paez replaces Soublette with Jose Tadeo Monagas as Venezuela's president, but Monagas declares himself dictator 1847: Faustin Soulouque, an ex-slave, becomes president of Haiti and self-appoints himself "emperor" 1847: Benito Juarez, a Zapotec indio, becomes the governor of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the mestizo Porfirio Diaz becomes his right-hand man 1847: A conference in Lima of Latin American countries foils an attempt by former Ecuador's dictator Flores to bring the West Coast of South America under the rule of Spains' queen Isabella II 1847: The indios of Yucatan rebel against the elite class in the "Caste War" of Mexico Sep 1847: The USA reach Mexico City Feb 1848: At the end of the Mexican war (treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo), the USA acquires New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California (almost half of Mexico's territory) 1848: Manuel Isidoro Belzu becomes dictator of Bolivia 1848: Britain and France end the blockade of Buenos Aires in Argentina 1848: Brazil imports 60,000 African slaves in just one year 1849: Paez attemps a coup against Monagas, but is arrested and exiled 1849: Juan Rafael Mora becomes president of Costa Rica 1849: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil 1849: The liberal Jose Hilario Lopez becomes president of Colombia 1849: The Partido Liberal is formed in Chile 1850: At the end of the "Caste War" the population of Mexico's Yucatan has declined by 40% 1850: Mexico's silver production reaches its pre-independence level (560 thousand kgs), about half of the world production 1850: Latin America's population is 33 million 1850: The population of Latin America is 30 million (Mexico and Brazil 7 million each, Argentina 1 million) 1851: A military coup installs general Jose Maria Urbina as dictator of Ecuador, handing the power to the liberals from Guayaquil 1851: Cattle products account for 78% of Argentina's exports 1851: A railway opens between Lima and its port of Callao 1851: Colombia abolishes slavery 1851: The conservative Manuel Montt becomes the first civilian president of Chile, but has to suppress violent protests by liberals who denounce the rigged elections, killing thousands of people 1851: Manuel Oribe's "Blancos" of the "Partido Nacional" are defeated in Uruguay by the "Colorados" 1851: Justo Jose de Urquiza, governor of Entre Rios, declares Entre Rios independent from Argentina, and joins an alliance with Brazil and Uruguay against Argentine-supported Oribe 1852: Urbina of Ecuador expels the Jesuits and abolishes slavery 1852: Slavery is abolished in Uruguay 1852: The first steamboat sails up the Amazon River in Brazil Feb 1852: The civil war in Uruguay ends with the victory of the "colorados" (supported by Brazil and by Argentinian rebels led by general Justo Jose de Urquiza) and the overthrow of Argentine's dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas by Justo Jose de Urquiza May 1852: The "Pact of San Nicolas" appoints Urquiza head of Argentina, while his opponent Bartolome Mitre goes into exile 1853: The United Provinces of Central America adopts a constitution under Urquiza and the name Argentina, but Buenos Aires de facto secedes and the capital moves to Parana Jun 1853: Santa Anna is appointed again dictator of Mexico, drives to exile both Benito Juarez and Melchor Ocampo of Michoacan 1853: Peru annexes a piece of Amazon forest claimed by Ecuador 1853: A new constitution in Colombia grants state great autonomy May 1854: The Mexican liberals led by the illiterate indio guerrillero Juan Alvarez and by Ignacio Commonfort proclaim the "Plan de Ayutla" against Santa Anna 1854: Peru abolishes slavery 1854: The first railway is inaugurated in Brazil 1855: The USA builds the Panama railway 1855: Manuel Isidoro Belzu appoints general Jorge Cordova to be his successor Jul 1855: Benito Juarez returns to Mexico from his USA exile Aug 1855: Santa Anna is forced to leave Mexico 1855: The USA adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua and appoints himself president Nov 1855: Alvarez enters Mexico City as the new president and forms a government that includes the liberals Benito Juarez, Miguel Lerdo, Jose-Maria Iglesias and Melchor Ocampo Dec 1855: Alvarez resigns and is replaced by Ignacio Comonfort 1856: Ecuador's Urbina appoints general Francisco Robles as his successor but remains de facto in power 1856: Gabriel Antonio Pereira, of the "Partido Nacional", becomes president of Uruguay 1857: Jose Maria Linares becomes dictator of Bolivia 1857: The first workers' union is formed in Cuba Feb 1857: Mexico proclaims a new liberal and anticlerical constitution, largely drawn by Benito Juarez Dec 1857: Mexican general Felix Zuloaga stages a coup against Comonfort and Juarez, starting the "Guerra de Reforma/ War of the Reform" May 1858: Benito Juarez, a Zapotec indio, is elected president of Mexico by the liberals in Veracruz 1858: Colombia/ Nueva Grenada adopts the name Granadine Confederation 1858: A military coup removes Monagas and installs Paez again as president of Venezuela 1859: Mexico passes a law expropriating the Church of all its lands (but the beneficiaries are mostly foreigners and rich Mexicans), starting a civil war 1859: Peru occupies the southern provinces of Ecuador Oct 1859: Urquiza defeats the militia of Buenos Aires led by Bartolome Mitre at the battle of Cepeda and forces Buenos Aires to reenter the federation of Argentina 1860: Gabriel Garcia Moreno, representing the conservatives from Quito, allies with Flores to restore order in Ecuador and becomes the new dictator, fostering education and road building and restoring the influence of the Catholic Church ("virtue, faith and order") 1860: Chile is the world's leading copper exporter Mar 1860: Santiago Derqui from Cordoba becomes president of the reunited Argentina 1860: William Walker is executed in Nicaragua 1860: Bernardo Berro of the "Partido Nacional" is elected president of Uruguay 1860: Juarez restores order in Mexico 1860: Peru enacts its 15th constitution 1860: The Liberal Party wins the elections in Brazil (but only about 1% of the population is entitled to vote) Jan 1861: Benito Juarez's government seizes power in Mexico City and ends the Guerra de Reforma Jul 1861: Britain, France and Spain ally against Mexican reforms Sep 1861: The militia of Buenos Aires led by Bartolome Mitre rebels again and this time defeats Urquiza, so that Mitre can become president of a truly united Argentina 1861: Jose Joaquin Perez is chosen to become president of Chile by Montt 1861: General Jose Maria de Acha seizes power in Bolivia 1861: Santo Domingo's dictator Pedro Santana asks Spain for annexion TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Jan 1862: British, French and Spanish troops attack Mexico over a financial dispute, but Britain and Spain soon withdraw 1862: Bartolome Mitre is appointed president of Argentina, thus reuniting the country after the civil war 1862: The USA recognizes Haiti's independence 1862: Francisco Solano Lopez succeeds his father in Paraguay and creates a powerful army 1862: Ecuador declares war on Colombia May 1862: The French invaders are defeated by the Mexican army at Puebla on the "Cinco de Mayo" 1863: British ships enact a six-day blockade of Rio to force Brazil to free slaves Oct 1863: Guatemala defeats El Salvador in a war, with Honduras siding with El Salvador and Nicaragua and Costa Rica with Guatemala 1863: Castilla loses power in Peru and is succeeded by Juan Antonio Pezet 1863: The USA supplies weapons to the Mexican government fighting against France 1863: Ecuador loses the war against Colombia 1863: Venezuela abolishes the death penalty for all crimes (the first country in the world) 1863: Paez leaves Venezuela that plunges into anarchy 1863: The railway from Santiago to Valparaiso is inaugurated 1863: The Granadine Confederation adopts the name United States of Colombia May 1863: France defeats Mexico and captures Ciudad de Mexico, while Juarez flees north Sep 1864: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay attack Lopez's Paraguay ("War of the Triple Alliance") 1864: Mariano Melgarejo seizes power in Bolivia, and establishes a depraved regime 1864: 70% of Chile's exports come from copper, gold and silver May 1864: France crowns the archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor of Mexico 1865: Mariano Ignacio Prado repels a Spanish naval attack and becomes dictator of Peru 1865: Saturnino Martinez opens the newspaper "La Aurora" in Cuba 1865: Jamaican ex-slaves stage a revolt against the British 1865: Spain abandons Santo Domingo Apr 1865: Guatemalan dictator Rafael Carrera dies 1866: Ecuador's writer Juan Montalvo founds the newspaper "El Cosmopolita" to criticize the dictatorship of Garcia Moreno Mar 1867: France withdraws from Mexico, Maximilian is overthrown and executed by Benito Juarez, who restores his government in Mexico City 1868: Bartolome Mitre is replaced by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento the "schoolmaster" as president of Argentina, the first civilian president since Rosas seized power, who embarks on a program of mass education and foreign immigration 1868: Mining production in Mexico is finally back to 1808 values 1868: The colonel Jose Balta becomes dictator of Peru 1868: Lorenzo Batlle y Grau of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay Oct 1868: Carlos Manuel de Cespedes organizes an army to fight Spain and proclaims Cuba's independence, the beginning of a ten-year war supported by the USA 1869: Argentina has 1.8 million people 1869: Jose Marti is arrested in Cuba for his anti-Spanish activities 1869: France intervenes in Haiti 1869: The newspaper "La Prensa" is founded in Argentina 1869: Pedro appoints the Conservative Party to form a government in Brazil Mar 1870: Paraguay surrenders to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, losing almost 40% of its territory, and Paraguay's dictator Lopez commits suicide 1870: Urquiza is assassinated in Argentina 1870: Antonio Guzman Blanco of the Liberal Party becomes president of Venezuela, dominating its political scene for 18 years 1870: The newspaper "La Nacion" is founded in Argentina 1870: The population of Mexico is 9 million 1870: The Republican Party is founded in Brazil 1870: Tomas Guardia seizes power in Costa Rica 1871: The liberal Federico Errazuriz becomes president of Chile 1871: Spain intervenes in Haiti 1871: The liberal Justo Rufino Barrios seizes power in Guatemala 1872: Mexico's president Juarez dies (possibly poisoned) and is succeeded by Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada 1872: Padre Cicero Romao Batista founds a religious community in Juazeiro 1872: The USA businessman Minor Cooper Keith opens a banana plantation in Costa Rica 1872: Manuel Pardo is the first civilian president of Peru, but his tenure is rocked by the collapse of the guano economy 1872: Germany intervenes in Haiti Jul 1872: El Salvador and Guatemala defeat Honduras in a brief war 1873: Britain forces Zanzibar to outlaw the slave trade 1873: Manuel Ferraz de Campos Salles and Prudente de Moraes sign a republican manifesto calling for an end to the empire 1873: The railway between Mexico City and Veracruz is inaugurated Mar 1874: Cespedes is killed by the Spaniards in Cuba 1874: The first cable between Brazil and Europe 1874: Chile increases the number of men who can vote (but still fewer than 50%) 1874: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento is replaced by Nicolas Avellaneda as president of Argentina (280.000 immigrants have entered Argentina during Sarmiento's rule) 1875: Gabriel Garcia Moreno of Ecuador is assassinated, opening an age of anarchy 1875: Peru exports 20 million tons of guano (fertilizer from bird droppings) 1875: Brazil provides about half of the coffee traded in the world 1876: The mestizo Porfirio Diaz overthrows Mexico's president Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada in the name of free elections, but proceeds to create a dictatorship but also to develop the infrastructure of Mexico 1876: Mariano Ignacio Prado again becomes dictator of Peru 1876: Anibal Pinto Garmendia becomes president of Chile 1876: Chile supplies 38% of the copper traded in the world 1876: The population of Peru is 2.7 million Apr 1876: Guatemala defeats El Salvador again, forcing the formation of a pro-Guatemalan government in Salvador led by Rafael Zaldivar. 1877: Britain intervenes in Haiti 1878: Following their victory in the elections, Pedro appoints the Liberal Party to form a government in Brazil Feb 1878: Cuba's independence war fails and Spain regains control of the island 1879: Gold boom in Guyana 1879: Chile fights a border war against Peru and Bolivia ("War of the Pacific") 1879: The civil war in Colombia kills 80,000 people 1879: Argentinian general Julio Argentino Roca is dispatched to eradicate the last remaining indios 1880: The liberal but pro-clerical Rafael Nunez is elected president of Colombia 1880: 90% of Mexicans are illiterate 1880: Cattle and sheep products account for 90% of Argentina's exports 1880: Nicolas Avelaneda is replaced by Julio Argentino Roca as president of Argentina 1881: Domingo Santa Maria becomes president of Chile 1881: Francesco Matarazzo arrives in Brazil from Italy and begins building an economic empire 1881: Jose Marti mobilizes the Cuban community in the USA against Spain 1882: Ignacio de Veintemilla seizes power in Ecuador 1882: Maximo Santos of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1882: Argentina's first meat-packing plant is built by British investors 1883: At the end of the "War of the Pacific" Bolivia loses its access to the sea (the port of Antofagasta) and the nitrate fields to Chile, Peru loses its southern provinces to Chile and is left bankrupt 1883: Jose Maria Placido Caamano becomes dictator of Ecuador 1883: Sao Paulo in Brazil has 35,000 people 1884: A railway is inaugurated between Mexico City and El Paso 1885: Costa Rica finance minister Mauro Fernandez launches a program of mass education 1885: El Salvador defeats Guatemala at the Chalchuapa Battle and Justo Rufino Barrios is killed, thus ending his dream of conquering Central America 1886: Peru's general Andres Avelina Caceres seizes power 1886: The Conservative Party wins the elections in Brazil 1886: Colombia enacts a new constitution drafted by president Rafael Nunez, that proclaims a unitarian Republic of Colombia instead of the previous federalist United States of Colombia (one of the longest lasting constitutions in the world) 1886: Maximo Tajes of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1886: Jose Battle y Ordonez founds the newspaper "El Dia" in Uruguay 1886: Spain abolishes chattel Cuban slavery 1886: Roca is replaced by his brother-in-law Miguel Juarez Celman as president of Argentina 1886: The liberal wealthy landowner Jose Manuel Balmaceda becomes president of Chile (beginning of the liberal republic), and invests heavily in schools and railways 1887: The Partido Democratico is founded in Chile 1888: Peru signs the "Grace Contract" that grants Britain 66 years of monopoly on the railroads but saves the country from bankruptcy 1888: Chile annexes the Easter Islands 1888: The railway from Mexico City to Monterrey to Laredo is inaugurated 1888: Pedro II's daughter abolishes slavery in Brazil (the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery), while European immigration booms (132,000 in 1888) 1888: Antonio Guzman Blanco retires from politics opening a decade of anarchy in Venezuela 1888: A financial crisis hits Argentina 1888: Colombia signs a concordat with the Catholic Church Nov 1889: A military coup led by general Deodoro da Fonseca deposes Brazil's king Pedro II, abolishes the constitution and inaugurates the republic, with power alternating between Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, and Brazil enters a stage of rapid economic growth 1889: Costa Rica holds its first free elections 1889: The first Conference of American States is held in Washington 1889: Brazil's population is 14 million, of which 15% are black and 32% mulatto 1889: The first International Conference of American States is held in Washington, resulting in the founding of the "International Union of American Republics" Aug 1890: Argentinian president Celman is forced to resign by popular protests and vicepresident Carlos Pellegrini succeeds him Apr 1890: Leandro Alem organizes the Marxist-leaning Union Civica in Argentina 1890: Julio Herrera y Obes of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1890: 900,000 Europeans have emigrated to Brazil since 1822 1890: 1.74 million Europeans have emigrated to Argentina since 1851, mostly from Spain and Italy 1890: Brazil's population is 14.3 million 1890: The production of nitrate in Chile has tripled in ten years 1890: The first general strike is held in Chile Oct 1891: Balmaceda is deposed in a coup staged by the parliament, and naval captain Jorge Montt Alvarez becomes president of Chile (beginning of the parliamentary republic) 1891: Peru's anti-clerical writer Manuel Gonzalez Prada help found the party "National Union", a defender of the Quechua indios Feb 1891: Brazil proclaims a new US-inspired federalist constitution ("Old Republic") and Deodoro de Fonseca is elected first president Nov 1891: Deodoro de Fonseca is overthrown by vice-president and army marshal Floriano Peixoto, who begins a military dictatorship 1892: The conservative Luis Saenza Pena is elected president of Argentina 1892: Leandro Alem of Argentina's Union Civica Radical commits suicide and is succeeded at the leadership of the party by his nephew Hipolito Yrigoyen 1892: Leandro Alem founds the Union Civica Radical in Argentina 1892: A railway linking Bolivia with the Pacific coast (Oruro-Antofagasta) is inaugurated 1893: Second navy rebellion in Brazil 1893: Antonio Conselheiro founds the Canudos millenarian movement in Brazil near the city of Monte Santo 1893: Revolucao Federalista in Brazil 1893: Argentina's Radicals attempt an armed insurrection 1893: The liberal Jose Santos Zelaya seizes power in Nicaragua 1894: Juan Idiarte Borda of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1894: Juan Justo organizes the Partido Socialista Argentino Mar 1894: Prudente Jose de Morais e Barros, a former governor of Sao Paulo, becomes the first civilian president of Brazil 1894: The USA sends troops to Nicaragua 1894: Colombia's president Rafael Nunez dies and the country plunges again into anarchy 1895: Luis Saenza Pena resigns and is succeeded by the conservative Jose Uriburu as president of Argentina 1895: Policarpo Bonilla is elected president of Honduras 1895: Britain and Venezuela argue over the border of Guyana 1895: Jose Eloy Alfaro, representing the anti-clerical liberals from Guayaquil, becomes president of Ecuador 1895: Venezuela invokes the Monroe Doctrine and asks the USA to mediate in the border dispute with Britain over the "Schomburgk Line" 1895: Jose Nicolas de Pierola of the Partido Civilista leads a revolution against general Avelina Caceres and becomes president of Peru, leading the country to rapid economic growth (beginning of the "Aristocratic Republic") 1895: Jose Marti lands in Cuba and proclaims the independence of Cuba from Spain but is killed by Spanish troops 1896: Federico Errazuriz Echaurren becomes president of Chile 1896: Spanish general Valeriano Weyler's atrocities cause 100-200,000 deaths in Cuba 1896: Aparicio Saravia of the "Partido Nacional" (the "Blancos") starts a civil war in Uruguary 1897: Juan Lindolfo Cuestas of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1897: The Brazilian army massacres 15,000 members of the millenarian movement Canudos Feb 1898: An accidental explosion on a US warship anchored in Cuba kills 266 sailors and the US media present it as a Spanish attack Apr 1898: The USA declares war on Spain over Spain's atrocities in Cuba Aug 1898: The USA defeats Spain and gains the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, ending Spanish rule in America Nov 1898: Sao Paulo's governor Manuel Ferraz de Campos Salles becomes president of Brazil 1898: Jose Uriburu is succeeded by the conservative Julio Roca as president of Argentina 1899: Civil war erupts in Colombia between liberals and conservatives ("Guerra de los Mil Dias") 1899: Banana tycoon Cooper Keith founds United Fruit Company in Costa Rica 1899: Eduardo Lopez de Romana becomes president of Peru during the stable "Aristocratic Republic" 1899: Cipriano Castro becomes dictator of Venezuela 1899: Nicaragua becomes a de-facto colony of the USA Oct 1899: The USA rules in favor of Britain against Venezuela in the border dispute about the "Schomburgk Line" 1900: The population of Peru is 3.7 million, Dec 1902: Britain, Germany and Italy impose a naval blockade against Venezuela that refuses to repay foreign debts Feb 1903: Britain, Germany and Italy lift the blockade of Venezuela 1903: Panama proclaims its independence from Colombia 1900: Only 300 thousand Native Americans have survived of Brazil is 17.3 million, of Argentina 4.6 million, of Mexico 13.6 milliOn 1900: The Partido Liberal is founded in Mexico by leftists 1900: The USA investor Edward Doheny strikes oil in Mexico 1900: Sao Paulo in Brazil has 239,00 people 1901: German Riesco Err zuriz becomes president of Chile 1901: Another liberal general, Leonidas Plaza Gutierrez, succeeds Eloy Alfaro as dictator of Ecuador May 1902: The USA grants Cuba independence and Tomas Estrada Palma is elected president 1902: ://www.scaruffi.com>Youstol Dispage dies 1902: The USA brokers a peace in Colombia, after 120,000 people have been killed 1902: Uruguya has one million people Nov 1902: Campos Salles is replaced by Rodrigues Alves, also from Sao Paulo, as president of Brazil 1903: Panama secedes from Colombia with help from the USA 1903: The Civilista Party gains control of power in Peru, with a program of industrialization and urbanization 1903: Jose Battle y Ordonez, son of former president Lorenzo Batlle y Grau, of the "Colorado Party" is the first civilian president of Uruguay, dominating its politics for 28 years 1904: Vaccine Revolt in Brazil 1904: For the first time gold and silver represent less than 50% of Mexico's exports 1904: Uruguay's president Battle defeats the "Blancos" of Aparicio Saravia at the battle of Masoller 1904: The conservative Rafael Reyes is elected president of Colombia, but shares the government with the liberals ("Concordia Nacional") 1904: The USA begins work on the Panama canal 1904: USA troops leave Cuba, after having de facto ran its government for five years 1904: Bolivia loses the eastern regions to Brazil 1904: Manuel Bonilla is appointed president of Honduras 1904: Roca is succeeded by the conservative Manuel Quintana as president of Argentina 1904: The first meat-packing factory opens in Uruguay 1905: The USA invades the Dominican Republic 1905: Argentina's Radicals attempt a second armed insurrection, and a Spanish anarchist tries to shoot the president 1905: Argentina exports more wheat than meat 1905: Riots to protest against inflation in Chile's capital Santiago leave more than 300 people dead 1906: Argentinian president Manuel Quintana dies of fatal wounds following a terrorist attack by an anarchist, and is succeeded by Alcorta Figueroa 1906: Eloy Alfaro returns to power in Ecuador with a coup 1906: The collapse of coffee prices causes an economic crisis in Brazil 1906: Pedro Montt Montt becomes president of Chile 1906: The Federacion de Estudiantes de Chile is founded Nov 1906: Afonso Pena becomes president of Brazil 1907: The government of Chile massacres striking miners in Iquique 1907: Literacy in Uruguay is 55% 1907: The population of Santiago in Chile is 330,000 1907: Nicaraguan troops remove Manuel Bonilla and install Miguel Davila as president of Honduras 1907: Battle in Uruguay installs Claudio WIlliman as president 1908: Juan Vicente Gomez seizes power in Venezuela and becomes a ruthless dictator 1908: A railway connects Buenos Aires to the Bolivian border 1908: Augusto Leguia is elected president of Peru 1909: Jose Miguel Gomez is elected president of Cuba 1909: Costa Rica is the world's biggest exporter of coffee 1909: Federacion Obrera de Chile is founded 1909: A Russian anarchist kills the chief of police of Buenos Aires in Argentina 1909: The populist Emiliano Zapata is elected president of the small village of Anenecuilco in Mexico with a program of land redistribution December 1909: The USA forces Nicaragua's president Jose Santos Zelaya to resign 1910: The marshall Hermes da Fonseca becomes president of Brazil and faces the "Revolta da Chibata" 1910: A report by Roger Casement reveals atrocities in Peru, Colombia and Brazil committed by the London-based Amazon Company 1910: The population of Mexico is 15 million 1910: The "International Union of American Republics" changes name to "Pan-American Union" Oct 1910: The conservative Roque Saenz Pena becomes president of Argentina Nov 1910: Hermes da Fonseca becomes president of Brazil Oct 1910: Francisco Madero in exile in Texas proclaims the "Plan de San Luis Potosi" that calls for a liberal revolution against Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, while Pancho Villa engages in guerrilla in the north 1910: Mexican's exports have grown 900% since 1877, shifting from Europe to the USA August 1910: General Juan Jose Estrada, with help from the USA, conquers Nicaragua 1910: Brazil has a population of 22 million 1911: Battle returns as president of Uruguay May 1911: Pancho Villa conquers Ciudad Juarez in north Mexico and Porfirio Diaz resigns Nov 1911: Francisco Madero is inaugurated as new president of Mexico, but Emiliano Zapata begins a rebellion in the south while Pascual Orozco begins a rebellion in the north 1911: A coup led by Plaza overthrows Eloy Alfaro in Ecuador 1911: The Brazilian and Peruvian rubber industry collapses after the British transplant rubber to Malaysia 1911: Russian-born USA businessman Sam Zemurray gains control of Honduras by having Manuel Bonilla oust and replace president Miguel Davila 1912: Universal male suffrage in Argentina 1912: The population of Latin America is 77 million (Mexico 14 million, Brazil 24 million, Argentina 7 million) 1912: Venezuela's dictator Gomez shuts down the Universidad Central of Caracas following student riots Jul 1912: Madero's general Victoriano Huerta defeats the rebels in the north 1912: The USA occupies Nicaragua 1912: Former dictator Eloy Alfaro of Ecuador is lynched by the people 1912: Luis Emilio Recabarren-Serrano founds the "Partido Obrero Socialista" (POS), later renamed Communist Party 1912: The conservative Guillermo Billinghurst is elected president of Peru Feb 1913: Victoriano Huerta seizes power in Mexico after Madero is assassinated, but rebellions flare up throughout the country (Pancho Villa in the north, Emiliano Zapata in the south, Venustiano Carranza in the northeast, and Alvaro Obregon in Sonora) 1913: More than 70% of Bolivia's exports are tin 1913: Roque Saenz Pena becomes ill and is replaced by vicepresident Victorino de la Plaza 1913: Argentina's per-capita GDP is twice Italy's 1913: The main export of Ecuador is cacao 1913: Coffee accounts for 62.3% of Brazilian exports 52% of Venezuela's exports 1913: The USA is the biggest importer of Latin American goods (29.7%) followed by Britain (20.7%) 1913: Honduras' president Manuel Bonilla dies but Sam Zemurray retains control of the country 1913: Mario Garcia Menocal becomes president of Cuba 1913: The subway of Buenos Aires (Argentina) opens 1913: 30% of Argentina's population is foreign born Apr 1914: The USA occupies Veracruz, Mexico's main port, to help the revolutionaries Aug 1914: Carranza and Obregon enter Mexico City and depose Mexican president Victoriano Huerta, but neither Villa nor Zapata accept Carranza as president Nov 1914: The USA withdraws from Veracruz 1914: A British-built subway opens in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Britain owns 70% of the 33,000 kms of railway in the country 1914: A third of Argentina's population is foreign born 1914: Oscar Raimundo Benavides stages a military coup in Peru and seizes power from the Civilistas Nov 1914: Wenceslau Braz-Pereira-Gomes of Minas Gerais becomes president of Brazil 1914: Roque Saenz Pena dies and is succeeded by as president of Argentina 1914: The Panama canal, built by the USA, is inaugurated 1914: Argentina's population has increased to 8 million, with 3 million immigrants from Europe in one century, 1914: "Sedicao de Juazeiro" in Brazil 1915: Jose de Pardo y Barreda is appointed president of Peru by the military 1915: The USA occupies Haiti to end a civil war, after 21 of 22 Haitian presidents have been violently deposed since 1843 Apr 1915: Obregon defeats Villa in Mexico at the battle of Celaya Oct 1915: The USA recognizes Carranza as president of Mexico and Pancho Villa raids the USA 1916: Hipolito Irigoyen is the first democratically elected president of Argentina 1916: The Brazilian Socialist Party is founded 1916: Plaza of Ecuador is succeeded by Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, but real power falls in the hands of the "argolla" (the ring) led by Guayaquil banker Francisco Urbina Jado 1916: Contestado War in Brazil Mar 1916: The USA enters Mexico to fight Pancho Villa 1916: Hipolito Yrigoyen of the Radical party wins the first elections after universal male suffrage and becomes president of Argentina 1917: Brazil enters WWI on the side of Britain and France, the only Latin American country to do so Jan 1917: Mexico enacts a new constitution 1917: Frederico Tinoco stages a coup in Costa Rica 1917: Earthquake in Guatemala 1917: Oil is discovered in Venezuela 1918: Workers and students protest in Peru, led by Lima's student Victor Raul Haya de la Torre and Lima's journalist Jose Carlos Mariategui Jan 1918: Dissident socialists in Argentina form the Partido Comunista 1918: The "University Reform Movement" that starts from the University of Cordoba in Argentina demands autonomy of the universities (the universities become centers of the opposition) Nov 1918: Rodrigues Alves becomes president of Brazil again, but dies and is replaced by Delfim Moreira Apr 1919: Emiliano Zapata is assassinated by the government of Mexico 1919: Augusto Leguia wins the elections in Peru, cracks down on student and workers' protests and enacts a new constitution to pass economic and social reforms 1919: Uruguay enacts a new constitution that greatly increases the number of voters Jul 1919: Epitacio Pessoa becomes president of Brazil Nov 1920: Obregon is elected president of Mexico while Pancho Villa surrenders to the government and retires to a hacienda 1920: Sao Paulo in Brazil has 579,000 people 1920: Brazil's population is 30 million 1920: British investor Weetman Pearson discovers the largest oil field in the world in Mexico 1920: Juan Bautista Saavedra seizes power in Bolivia 1920: Carranza's assassination by the military led by Alvaro Obregon starts a new civil war in Mexico Dec 1920: Arturo Alessandri-Palma, the candidate of the Liberal Alliance coalition (Radical and Democratic parties), narrowly wins the elections for president of Chile 1921: Royal Dutch Shell discovers in Venezuela, and its per capita income rapidly becomes the highest in Latin America 1921: Mexico is the second largest producer of oil in the world 1921: Alfredo Zayas becomes president of Cuba 1922: Yrigoyen's trusted man Marcelo de Alvear becomes president of Argentina 1922: Luis Emilio Recabarren Serrano founds the "Partido Communista de Chile" (PCC) 1922: Artur da Silva Bernardes becomes president of Brazil Jul 1923: Pancho Villa is assassinated Nov 1922: Artur Bernardes becomes president of Brazil Dec 1923: Adolfo de la Huerta leads a rebellion against the Mexican government 1923: While in exile in Mexico, Haya de la Torre founds the Marxist-inspired party "Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana" (APRA), representing the Quechua indios of Peru Nov 1924: Plutarco Elias Calles, also from Sonora, succeeds his mentor Obregon as president of Mexico 1924: The USA withdraws from the Dominican Republic May 1924: Mexico's president Obregon defeats Adolfo de la Huerta's rebels Sep 1924: A military junta led by general Luis Altamirano forces Chile's president Alessandri to resign 1924: Brazilians riot in Sao Paulo to protest economic crisis and try to overthrow president Bernardes 1924: USA investment in Cuba has multipled by more than 40 times since 1895 to $1.24 billion Mar 1925: Another military coup reinstates Alessandri as president of Chile Aug 1925: Chile approves a new constitution separating church and state TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Nov 1925: Alessandri resigns again as president of Chile and is replaced by Emiliano Figueroa, causing a two-day general strike 1925: Chile has had more than 120 governments since 1892 1925: The liberals are overthrown in Ecuador and Isidro Ayora is installed as president 1925: Gerardo Machado becomes president of Cuba and installs a dictatorship, opposed by the newly-founded Communist Party 1925: The USA withdraws from Nicaragua 1925: 3.5 million Europeans (mainly Italians and Portuguese) have immigrated to Brazil since 1886 Jul 1926: The "Cristeros" rise up against the Mexican government's decision to seize all properties of the Catholic Church 1926: The Mexican government seizes all the properties of the Catholic Church 1926: Bolivia's president Saavedra appoints Hernando Siles-Reyes, founder of the Nationalist Party, to be his successor Nov 1926: Washington Luiz-Pereira de Souza becomes president of Brazil May 1927: The colonel Carlos Ibanez seizes power in Chile, opening a period of political chaos 1927: The USA invades Nicaragua again to depose president Augusto Cesar Sandino 1927: Under pressure from the USA, Peru and Colombia ratify new borders that penalize Peru 1928: Obregon is reelected president of Mexico 1928: Venezuela's dictator Gomez quashes a rebellion by students and young officers, many of whom go into exile (Jovito Villalba, Raul Leon, Romulo Betancourt) 1928: Jose Carlos Mariategui founds the Peruvian Socialist (later Communist) Party 1928: Hipolito Yrigoyen is reappointed president of Argentina but his erratic behavior causes riots Jul 1928: Obregon of Mexico is assassinated by a Cristero Jun 1926: The "Cristero" rebels are defeated in Mexico Dec 1928: Emilio Portes Gil becomes president of Mexico, but real power is in the hands of Calles Mar 1929: Calles founds the Pardido Nacional Revolucionario (later renamed "Pardido Revolucionario Istitucional" or PRI) Nov 1929: Calles' choice Pascual Ortiz Rubio becomes president of Mexico, the beginning of rule by the PRI 1929: Venezuela is the second world producer of oil after the USA 1929: Colombia's population increases from 5 million in 1912 to 8 million 1929: Augusto Cesar Sandino begins a guerrilla war in Nicaragua against the USA 1929: The first Latin American Communist Conference in held in Buenos Aires 1929: Harvest of sugar peaks at five million tons in Cuba 1929: Ecuador becomes the first Latin American country to grant women the right to vote Oct 1930: The military seizes power in Brazil and installs the fascist government of rancher Getulio Vargas, who launches a populist revolution (end of the "Old Republic") 1930: One million Europeans immigrated to Argentina in one decade, 31% of the population is foreign-born, 46% of Argentinians live in the province of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires has two million people, literacy is 60%, 1930: Latin America's population is over 100 million 1930: Zemurray sells his banana company in Honduras to United Fruit but becomes United Fruit's largest shareholder 1930: The military, led by lieutenant colonel Luis Sanchez Cerro, overthrow Leguia in Peru, opening the age of the "tripartite" political system (the military, APRA and PCP) 1930: A coup overthrows Bolivia's president Siles-Reyes Sep 1930: A coup overthrows Hipolito Yrigoyen and installs Uriburu again, the beginning of military intervention in Argentina's politics 1930: The liberal Enrique Olaya Herrera is appointed president of Colombia, returning the liberals to power after four decades 1931: Daniel Salamanca of the Partido Republicano-Genuino wins elections in Bolivia 1931: Rafael Trujillo seizes power in the Dominican Republic 1931: A Partido Comunista is founded in Venezuela Nov 1931: general Agustin Justo wins elections in Arngetina 1931: Cuba's population grows from 1.6 million in 1899 to 4 million, thanks to European immigration and improved health care 1931: Literacy in Chile is 56% 1931: Gabriel Terra of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1931: A coup removes Ayora from power and opens a period of instability in Ecuador 1931: The general Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez seizes power in El Salvador Oct 1931: Haya returns to Peru but loses elections to the army's candidate Luis Sanchez Cerro 1931: The general Jorge Ubico becomes dictator of Guatemala Jul 1931: Chile's president Ibanez is forced to resign by strikes by workers, students and lawyers Oct 1931: Conservative candidate Juan Montero becomes Chile's president 1932: Bolivia and Paraguay go to war over border areas ("Chaco War") 1932: Uruguay allows women to vote 1932: Female suffrage in Brazil Jun 1932: The airforce commander Marmaduke Grove establishes a socialist republic in Chile for a few months Jul 1932: More than 1,000 members of APRA are executed during an insurrection in Peru, Haya is arrested and APRA is banned Jul 1932: The wealthy class of Sao Paulo rebels in Brazil against Vargas but their insurrection is crushed Oct 1932: Arturo Alessandri becomes president of Chile again and restores order, turning Chile into the most democratic country in Latin America 1932: Agustine Farabundo Marti leads a communist uprising in El Salvador and Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez's troops kill about 30,000 people ("La matanza") 1933: Marmaduke Grove founds the "Partido Socialista" (PS) of Chile 1933: The Partido Socialista is founded in Chile 1933: Coffee represents 71% of Brazil's exports Sep 1933: Cuba's dictator Gerardo Machado flees the country and Ramon Grau San Martin proclaims a socialist republic 1933: Peru's dictator Sanchez Cerro is assassinated by a supporter of APRA and replaced by army marshal Oscar Raimundo Benavides, while Haya, released from jail, goes abroad 1933: The USA withdraws from Nicaragua and general Anastasio Somoza is chosen to lead the National Guard Dec 1933: The Mexican government enacts a socialist-inspired "Six-year Plan" Jan 1934: Fulgencio Batista stages a coup and seize power in Cuba May 1934: Cuba and the USA sign a treaty ending the USA protectorate over Cuba Jul 1934: The general Lazaro Cardenas of the PRI (the former war minister and governor of Michoacan) succeeds Calles as president of Mexico and nationalizes the oil industry and launches a socialist agrarian reform 1934: Gabriel Terra of Uruguay enacts a new constitution granting him quasi-dictatorial powers 1934: The USA leaves Haiti 1934: Sandino is assassinated by the men of general Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua 1934: Jose Maria Velasco-Ibarra wins elections in Ecuador but is soon ousted by the military 1934: The liberal Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo is elected president of Colombia 1933: Bolivia's president Salamanca is overthrown in a coup and replaced with his vice president Jose Luis Tejada Sorzano of the Liberal Party 1935: Bolivia loses the war against Paraguay that annexes most of Bolivia's Gran Chaco after more than 100,000 people have died, mostly of diseases 1935: Luis Carlos Prestes founds the "Alianca Nacional Libertadora" (ANL) that includes socialists and communists 1935: Juan Vicente Gomez of Venezuela dies, opening a decade of chaos 1936: A coup installs colonel David Toro Ruilova as dictator of Bolivia 1936: Communists, Radicals, Socialists and the Unions of Chile form the Frente Popular 1937: Ruilova resigns and is replaced by colonel German Busch Becerra as dictator of Bolivia, who experiments with "military socialism" Nov 1937: Brazil's dictator Getulio Vargas abolishes political parties ("Estado Novo") 1937: Chile's exports have more than tripled in five years 1937: Anastasio "Tacho" Somoza becomes president of Nicaragua Oct 1937: Dominican's president Rafael Trujillo orders the extermination of the Haitian minority numbering at least 20,000 people ("the Parsley Massacre") Mar 1938: Mexico nationalizes USA and British oil companies 1938: The Brazilian army kills and beheads the social bandits led by Lampiao 1938: The liberal Eduardo Santos, publisher of "El Tiempo", is elected president of Colombia 1938: The Falange Nacional breaks away from the Conservative Party of Chile 1938: The candidate of the Frente Popular, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, narrowly wins the presidential elections of Chile (beginning of the Radical Years) 1938: Roberto Ortiz is elected president of Argentina 1938: Alfredo Baldomir of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1938: Bolivia adopts a constitution that nationalizes mineral resources 1939: Busch Becerra commits suicide and is replaced by general Carlos Quintanilla as dictator of Bolivia 1939: Panama ceases to be a US protectorate 1939: Peru's president Benavides is replaced by the winner of elections, Manuel Prado, who allows APRA's leader Haya to return from exile 1940: Mexico's president Lazaro Cardenas is replaced by Manuel Avila Camacho of the PRI, who launches industrial reforms 1940: Higinio Morinigo seizes power in Paraguay 1940: Mexico's population is 19.6 million 1940: The population of Brazil has increased almost 200% in 50 years 1940: A sick Ortiz resigns and his conservative vicepresident Ramon Castillo assumes the presidency of Argentina 1940: Rafael Calderon Guardia becomes president of Costa Rica 1940: Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia of the Partido Nacional Republicano is elected president of Costa Rica 1940: Bolivia's general Carlos Quintanilla installs general General Enrique Penaranda as Bolivia's new dictator 1940: The population of Peru is 7 million, with 500,000 people in Lima 1940: Arnulfo Arias Madrid become president of Panama for the first time 1941: Hernan Siles and V¡ctor Paz Estenssoro found the "Revolutionary Nationalist Movement" (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, or MNR) in Bolivia 1941: Chile's president Cerda dies and is succeeded by the Radical candidate Juan Antonio Rio, while the Frente Popular is dissolved 1941: Peru wins a war against Ecuador and retains control of the coastal town that Ecuador had occupied 1941: Venezuelan politicians (Romulo Betancourt, Raul Leoni) and writers (Romulo Gallegos, Andres Blanco) found the party "Accion Democratica" 1942: The liberal Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo is elected again president of Colombia Aug 1942: Brazil enters World War II on the side of the USA Dec 1942: Bolivia's general Enrique Penaranda massacres mines at Catavi Jun 1943: A military coup removes Ramon Castillo of Argentina and installs Pedro Ramirez as president Oct 1943: Argentina's president Pedro Ramirez gives the ministry of Labor to Juan-Domingo Peron, who proceeds to organize workers 1943: Bolivia's dictator Penaranda is overthrown by the MNR that appoints general Gualberto Villarroel to be president 1943: Juan Jose de Amezaga of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1943: Venezuela enacts a law that splits profits from oil 50-50 between the government and the foreign oil companies 1944: A coup restores Velasco of the Democratic Alliance as president of Ecuador 1944: Norman Borlaug begins experimenting with hybrid wheat in Mexico, launching the Green Revolution 1944: The army overthrows dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez in El Salvador 1944: Teodoro Picado of the Partido Nacional Republicano is elected president of Costa Rica 1944: Following mass demonstrations, the Ubico government collapses in Guatemala Mar 1945: The civilian Juan Jose Arevalo wins elections and becomes president of Guatemala, and his group of "October Revolutionaries" enacts liberal reforms, the beginning of the "Democratic Spring" 1945: Argentina and Uruguay switch to driving on the right 1944: Under USA pressure Batista allows elections in Cuba that are won by Ramon Grau San Martin 1945: The first free elections in Peru is won by liberal jurist Jose Luis Bustamante with APRA's support 1945: Argentina becomes a haven for nazists fleeing Germany at the end of World War II Aug 1945: Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo resigns and Alberto Lleras Camargo takes over as president of Colombia Oct 1945: A coup by young army officers installs Romulo Betancourt of Accion Democratica as provisional president of Venezuela Oct 1945: Vargas is deposed by the military in Brazil and replaced by Jose Linhares 1945: Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral wins the Nobel Prize for literature, the first Latin American to win the prize 1946: Miguel Aleman Valdez of the PRI is elected president of Mexico, the first civilian president of Mexico since the revolution 1946: More than 80 Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and sex workers die between 1946 and 1948 after being deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea by government scientists of the USA 1946: While testing vaccines, the USA infects hundreds of mentally ill patients and prisoners in Guatemala with gonorrhoea and syphilis 1946: Francesco Matarazzo Sobrinho, son of Francesco Matarazzo, founds the "Museu de Arte Moderna" in Sao Paulo, Brazil Jan 1946: Eurico Gaspar Dutra becomes president of Brazil Feb 1946: Juan Peron wins presidential elections in Argentina Jul 1946: Bolivia's general Gualberto Villarroel is overthrown with complicity from the USA's CIA and the conservatives regain power 1946: Cayenne (French Guyana) becomes a department of France 1946: Gabriel Gonzalez Videla becomes president of Chile thanks to the votes of Communists and Radicals 1946: The USA established the military "School of the Americas" at Fort Gulick in the Canal Zone to train Latin American military officers, many of whom will stage coups in their countries 1946: Rafael Caldera founds the Social Christian Party of Venezuela, COPEI 1946: The conservative Mariano Ospina Perez is elected president in Colombia, ending liberal rule 1946: The USA founds the School of the Americas in Panama to train military officers to fight against leftist regimes and insurgency 1947: Venezuela holds its first free elections, won by Romulo Gallegos 1947: Female suffrage in Argentina 1947: Most countries of the Americas sign the Rio de Janeiro "Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance" 1947: Luis Batlle Berres of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay Feb 1948: Romulo Gallegos of Accion Democratica wins presidential elections in Venezuela Mar 1948: Jose Figueres Ferrer in Costa Rica helped by a Caribbean Legion (mostly from Cuba) starts a civil war against the fraudolent reelection of Calderon (supported by Nicaragua) on behalf of the real winner, Otilio Ulate, and seizes power Dec 1948: A military coup deposes the liberal Romulo Gallegos of Accion Democratica in Venezuela and installs Marcos Perez Jimenez as president, a corrupt politician who outlaws the leftists 1949: Costa Rica's provisional president Jose Figueres Ferrer abolishes the army and grants voting rights to women and blacks Nov 1949: Otilio Ulate is appointed president of Costa Rica 1948: The "Pan-American Union" changes name to "Organization of American States" (OAS or OEA) 1948: Carlos Prio Socarras succeeds his mentor Grau San Martin as president of Cuba Oct 1948: A military coup deposes Bustamante in Peru and installs general Manuel Odria, the hero of the 1941 war against Ecuador 1948: Chile's president Videla bans the Communist Party Apr 1948: The populist candidate Jorge Gaitan is assassinated in Colombia, starting a civil war that killed 250,000 people in ten years ("La Violencia") 1948: Galo Plaza Lasso of the liberal coalition, son of Leonidas Plaza, wins elections in Ecuador and diversifies the economy that used to be based mainly on cacao 1949: Nazist criminal Josef Mengele secretely arrives in Argentina 1949: Peron rewrites Argentina's constitution and curbs free speech 1949: Peru's dictator Manuel Odria arrests members of APRA and Haya takes refuge for five years in the Colombia embassy 1949: Venezuela invites Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to form a cartel of oil producing countries 1950: Nazist criminal Adolf Eichmann secretely arrives in Argentina 1950: Brazil's population is 51 million Aug 1950: The fascist and fanatical Catholic politician Laureano Gomez is elected president of Colombia after all opposition candidates have been forced to withdraw, while civil war rages in the country 1950: In the first peaceful transition of power in Guatemala's history, Arevalo is replaced by Jacobo Arbenz (another "October Revolutionary") as president of Guatemala, who allies with the communists 1950: Mexico's president Aleman commissions architect Carlos Lazo to build the Universidad Nacional, the largest campus in the world 1950: Brazil's population is 52 million 1951: Juan Peron announces that Argentina's nuclear program led by Austrian scientist Ronald Richter, but the program is later proved a fraud 1951: Andres Martinez Trueba of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1951: Francesco Matarazzo Sobrinho founds the "Bienal Internacional de Arte" of Sao Paulo, Brazil 1951: Jose Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica founds the Partido de Liberacion Nacional (PLN) Jan 1951: Vargas is elected president again in Brazil 1951: Paz Estenssoro of the MNR is elected president of Bolivia but the election is stolen by general Hugo Ballivian 1951: Chile's inflation is 1550% 1952: The poor of Bolivia seize power ("Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario") after defeating the army, and Victor Paz Estenssoro forms a government, ending more than a century of coups (a total of 179, including six presidents assassinated) 1952: Latin America posts the highest population growth of all regions in the world, with Argentina growing 251% in 50 years and Brazil 191% 1952: Peron's wife Eva dies of cancer in Argentina as millions mourn her as a saint 1952: Responding to public discontent with the government, general Batista returns to Cuba and seizes power 1952: Jose Maria Velasco-Ibarra wins elections again in Ecuador 1952: Women are allowed to vote in presidential elections in Chile, that are won by the conservative candidate, former dictator Carlos Ibanez (end of the "Radical Years") with support from the Communists 1952: Adolfo Ruiz Cortines of the PRI is elected president of Mexico, and proceeds to build 33,000 kms of roads, irrigation for millions of acres of desert, thousands of schools and hundreds of hospitals June 1952: Guatemala's president Arbenz passes an agrarian reform intended to distribute land to the peasants Jul 1953: Fidel Castro leads a failed insurrection against the dictatorial regime of Batista in Santiago de Cuba Jun 1953: Colombia's fascist Gomez is overthrown by the military and replaced by general Gustavo Rojas Pinilla 1953: Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, is created 1953: Figueres becomes president of Costa Rica again Aug 1954: Getulio Vargas of Brazil commits suicide after being forced by the military to resign 1954: Alfredo Stroessner becomes dictator of Paraguay 1954: An economic crisis hits Uruguay with high inflation and declining GDP June 1954: Rebels led by Castillo Armas and supported by the USA's CIA stage a coup in Guatemala to depose president Arbenz after he begins expropriating United Fruit's plantations, the end of the "Democratic Spring" Jan 1955: Costa Rica, a country without an army, is invaded from Guatemala by former Costa Rica president Rafael Calder¢n (supported by Nicaragua) but the USA stops the invasion Sep 1955: A military coup deposes Peron in Argentina 1955: Chile's inflation is 80% 1956: The conservative Camilo Ponce Enriquez (founder of the MSC) wins elections against Velasco and becomes president of Ecuador 1956: Peru's dictator Odria legalizes the parties and calls for new elections, won by Manuel Prado again with support from APRA Dec 1956: Fidel Castro and Argentinian-born Ernesto "Che" Guevara lead a second failed insurrection against the dictatorial regime of Batista in Cuba Jan 1956: Minas Gerais' governor Juscelino Kubitschek is elected president of Brazil, despite the fact that Joao Goulart wins more votes, and founds a new capital, Brasilia, in the interior, designed by Lucio Costa 1956: Nicaragua's dictator Anastasio "Tacho" Somoza dies and is succeeded by his son Luis Somoza 1956: Hernan Siles Zuaco (UDP) is elected president of Bolivia 1957: Francois Duvalier seizes power in Haiti 1957: A National Front government ends the civil war in Colombia May 1957: Colombia's dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla resigns following widespread demonstrations 1957: The Partido Democrata Cristiano (PDC) is founded in Chile from the union of the National Falange, the Social Christian Conservative Party and the Ibanez's Agrarian Labor Party Jul 1957: The two main political parties of Colombia in exile (the Liberal Party of Alberto Lleras Camargo and the Conservative Party of Laureano Gomez) join together in the "Frente Nacional" and agree to alternate at the presidency for a period of four presidential terms 1957: Guatemala's president Castillo Armas is assassinated and replaced by Miguel Idigoras Fuentes Apr 1957: Student riots in Chile cost dozens of lives Jan 1958: Venezuela's dictator Perez Jimenez resigns and flees to the USA following widespread demonstrations 1958: Mario Echandi of the Union Nacional wins the elections in Costa Rica 1958: Chile's president Ibanez re-legalizes the PCC that forms a coalition with the Socialists, the Frente de Accion Popular (FRAP), that narrowly loses the elections to the conservative candidate and former president's son Jorge Alessandri (Salvador Allende is the candidate of the FRAP, Eduardo Frei is the candidate of the Christian Democrats) Feb 1958: Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina with votes from the Peronists Jan 1958: The liberal Alberto Lleras Camargo is elected president of Colombia, ending "La Violencia" (civil war) but several regions declare independent republics, notably the communist "Marquetalia Republic" 1958: Adolfo Lopez Mateos of the PRI is elected president of Mexico 1958: The USA imposes an arms embargo on Cuba when civil war breaks out between rebels and the Batista government 1958: Ramon Villega Morales returns the Partido Liberal to power in Honduras Feb 1959: Romulo Betancourt of Accion Democratica wins the elections in Venezuela and begins a program to develop the rural countryside Jan 1959: Fidel Castro wins the revolution and installs a communist regime in Cuba, while Che Guevara summarily executes members of the Batista government May 1959: Cuba launches a socialist agrarian reform Mar 1959: Martin Echegoyen is elected president of Uruguay, the first president coming from the "Partido Nacional" since Oribe's times 1959: Leftist leader Demetrio Vallejo organizes a general strike in Mexico 1959: Venezuela's former president Perez Jimenez is extradited by the USA, the first head of state to be extradited by the USA 1960: The largest earthquake of the century (magnitude 9.5) is recorded off the coast of Chile 1960: Paz Estenssoro is reelected president of Bolivia 1960: The population of Latin America is 200 million, half of it in Mexico and Brazil 1960: Brazil's population is 71 million 1960: Inflation spirals out of control in Brazil (2900%), Uruguay (1100%), Argentina (900%), Chile (500%) 1960: The population of Peru has doubled in ten years, thanks to European immigrants 1960: In retaliation for the USA's imposition of quotas on Venezuelan oil (to favor (Canada and Mexico), Venezuela joins Arab countries to found OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) Apr 1960: Leftists of Venezuela's Accion Democratica found the "Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria" (MIR) Jun 1960: Dominican Republic's dictator Rafael Trujillo tries to assassinate Betancour of Venezuela 1960: Sao Paulo's governor Janio Quadros is elected president of Brazil 1960: Communist guerrilla groups start Guatemala's civil war 1960: Castro is refused a meeting by USA's president Dwight Eisenhower and turns to the Soviet Union for economic and military help 1960: Velasco-Ibarra becomes president of Ecuador for the fourth time Jan 1961: Janio Quadros wins presidential elections in Brazil, inheriting from Kubitschek both hyper-inflation and huge foreign debt Aug 1961: Unable to pass austerity measures, Janio Quadros of Brazil resigns and is replaced by vice-president Joao Goulart Apr 1961: A Cuban rebel force trained by the USA's CIA tries to invade Cuba ("Bay of Pigs" invasion) 1961: The population of Lima (Peru) is 1.6 million 1961: Venezuela becomes the first Latin American country to eliminate malaria 1961: Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic is assassinated 1961: The military seize power in El Salvador 1961: The Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (Sandinista National Liberation Front) is founded in Nicaragua by Silvio Mayorga, Tomas Borge, and Carlos Fonseca to fight the Somoza dictatorship, with help from Cuba, Costa Rica and Panama, and opposed by the USA 1961: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is extradited from Argentina to Israel Nov 1961: Ecuador's president Velasco-Ibarra is overthrown by the military and his filo-communist vice president Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy seizes power Mar 1962: The Peronist party wins the elections in Argentina but Arturo Frondizi is deposed by the army and replaced with Jose Guido 1962: The conservative Guillermo Leon Valencia is elected president of Colombia 1962: Francisco Orlich of the PLN wins the elections in Costa Rica Feb 1962: Most of Latin America's countries break political relations with Cuba Oct 1962: The USA forces the Soviet Union to stop building missile bases in Cuba, and the USA imposes an economic embargo on Cuba 1962: The variety show "Sabado Gigante" premieres on Chilean television Jul 1962: The military stages a coup when Haya de la Torre of APRA wins the elections in Peru over Odria and Fernando Belaunde Terry 1962: Brazil declares football player Pele an "official national treasure" so that he cannot be bought by European clubs 1962: Peru is the leading fishing nation in the world 1962: Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo becomes president of El Salvador 1963: The communist "Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional" (FALN), trained and funded by Cuba, carries out terrorist attacks in Venezuela Jan 1963: Juan Bosch wins the first elections in the Republica Dominicana Sep 1963: Juan Bosch is overthrown in the Republica Dominicana Jul 1963: Arturo Illia is elected president of Argentina after the Peronists abstain from voting, and proceeds to nationalize oil industry 1963: Osvaldo Lopez Arellano seizes power in Honduras with a coup, the beginning of 18 years of military dictatorship 1963: Guatemala's president Miguel Idigoras Fuentes is ousted by the military 1963: A military coup overthrows Ecuador's president Arosemena and installs a junta Jul 1963: In a rerun of the previous presidential election Fernando Belaunde Terry, founder of the party "Accion Popular", is elected president of Peru over Haya and Odria, and creates new universities throughout the country 1963: Raul Sendic founds the revolutionary group Tupamaros in Uruguay, launching a campaign of robberies and kidnappings Jan 1964: Raul Leoni of Accion Democratica wins elections and succeeds Betancour as president of Venezuela Aug 1964: The general Rene Barrientos stages a military coup in Bolivia and deposes Paz Estenssoro 1964: Colombian troops abolish the "Marquetalia Republic" Jul 1964: Fabio Vasquez founds the Marxist movement ELN (National Liberation Army) in Colombia, inspired by Castro's revolution in Cuba 1964: Eduardo Frei-Montalva of the Christian Democratic Party is elected president of Chile after his party allies with the right-wing parties against socialist Salvador Allende's leftist party that is the single largest party Apr 1964: After urging student riots and strikes against the military, Joao Goulart of Brazil is deposed by the military and replaced by army marshal Humberto Castelo-Branco 1964: Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of the PRI is elected president of Mexico 1964: Peru battles communist guerrillas funded and armed by Cuba 1964: Brazil's GDP grows 56% between 1964 and 1974 1965: The Marxist guerrilla "Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria" (MIR) is formed in Peru by former APRA members 1965: Uruguay's inflation is 88% 1965: Fidel Castro allows one million Cubans over five years to leave Cuba and settle in the USA, while Che Guevara leaves Cuba to promote revolutions in other countries (Congo and Bolivia) 1965: Abimael Guzman and others found the communist group "Bandera Roja" in Peru Apr 1965: The USA dispatches the marines to restore order in the Dominican Republic after the communists try a coup Jan 1966: Cuba hosts the "Solidarity Conference of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America" 1966: The liberal Carlos Lleras Restrepo is elected president of Colombia and begins a massive program of land redistribution 1966: Manuel Marulanda (Pedro Antonio Marin) establishes the "Fuerza Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia" (FARC) as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union 1966: British Guyana (Georgetown) declares its independence with Forbes Burnham as its prime minister Jun 1966: Juan Balaguer wins elections in the Republica Dominicana Jun 1966: Arturo Illia of Argentina is deposed by the army and replaced by conservative and pro-clerical general Juan Carlos Ongania Mar 1967: The Brazilian parliament elects general Artur da Costa e Silva Mar 1967: Oscar Gestido of the Colorado Party is elected president of Uruguay Dec 1967: Uruguay's president Oscar Gestido dies and is succeeded by his vice-president Jorge Pacheco Areco Mar 1966: The military allow elections and Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro is elected president of Guatemala after his brother is assassinated Mar 1966: The military regime resigns in Ecuador 1967: Cuba revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who was trying to spread the communist revolution to Latin America, is killed by USA agents in Bolivia 1967: Jorge Pacheco Areco of the "Partido Colorado" is elected president of Uruguay 1967: Guatemala's writer Miguel Angel Asturias wins a Nobel Prize, the first one awarded to Latin America 1967: Nicaragua's dictator Luis Somoza dies and is succeeded by his brother Anastasio 1967: Chile's government redistributes 15 million acres of land to the peasants 1967: Fidel Sanchez Hernandez becomes president of El Salvador 1967: USA shipbuilder Daniel Ludwig begins massive logging in the Amazon forest of Brazil 1967: 700 landowners own 50% of Peru's land, or 2% of the population owns 90% of the productive land Oct 1968: As inflation reaches 150%, Fernando Belaunde Terry of Peru is deposed by a leftist military revolution led by general Juan Velasco Alvarado, who enacts a massive socialist-inspired agrarian reform 1968: The USA ambassador is assassinated by communist rebels in Guatemala 1968: Velasco wins elections again in Ecuador 1968: A military coup installs Omar Torrijos Herrera as president of Panama Jul 1968: 325 students are killed by the police during riots in Mexico between july and october ("Tlatelolco massacre") 1968: The Olympic Games are held in Mexico 1969: El Salvador invades Honduras following a football match 1969: Rafael Caldera of COPEI is elected president of Venezuela and re-legalizes the left-wing parties Aug 1969: Following a stroke by Costa e Silva, the military appoint general Emilio Garrastazu Medici as president of Brazil, but guerrillas fight against the government through kidnappings and bombings 1969: The Andean Common Market is formed by Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru 1969: The subway of Ciudad de Mexico opens 1969: Pedro Aviles Perez founds the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico 1970: The population of Peru is 13.6 million 1970: Mexico's population is 48.3 million 1970: Brazil's population is 93 million and the number of university students has increased from 144,000 in 1964 to 430,000 1970: Sao Paulo is the largest city in Brazil with 6 million people Jun 1970: Following strikes in Cordoba, Argentina's dictator Ongania is deposed by another military coup that installs general Roberto Levingston 1970: The conservative Misael Pastrana Borrero is elected president of Colombia, narrowly defeating former dictator Rojas Pinilla, but anarchy still reigns 1970: Brazil's population is 90 million 1970: Fidel Castro launches a plan to produce ten million tons of sugar 1970: Luis Echeverria of the PRI, former interior minister who ordered the massacre of students, is elected president of Mexico 1970: Earthquake in Peru Nov 1970: The left-wing Unidad Popular led by Salvador Allende wins 36.3% of votes in democratic elections in Chile against 34.9% for right-wing Partido Nacional and 27.8% of the Christian Democrats, and Allende becomes the first Marxist politician in the world to be elected democratically, and begins a program of nationalization of foreign companies (copper, coal, steel) and distribution of land to the poor against an opposition that enjoys a majority in parliament 1970: Brazil wins its third world cup 1970: Peak of the Tupamaros insurgency in Uruguay, with kidnappings and assassinations 1970: The population of Latin America is 250 million 1970: Figueres of the PLN wins the elections again in Costa Rica 1970: The center-right Carlos Arana Osorio wins elections in Guatemala 1971: Guzman leads a split in "Bandera Roja" that creates the communist group "Sendero Luminoso" (Shining Path) in Peru 1971: Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez Merino founds Liberation Theology 1971: Venezuela is the fifth producer of oil in the world Mar 1971: Following more riots in Cordoba, Levingston is replaced by general Alejandro Lanusse 1971: Hundreds of students are killed in Mexico's worst student riots (the "Corpus Christi massacre") 1971: JeanClaude Duvalier succeeds his father as dictator of Haiti 1971: Hugo Banzer stages a coup in Bolivia and assumes absolute power 1971: Chile's communist poet Pablo Neruda is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature 1971: About one thousand people are murdered in Guatemala by right and left terrorists Dec 1971: A large scale demonstration is held in Chile against Allende's government Mar 1972: Juan Marma Bordaberry becomes president of Uruguay, winning against the "Partido Nacional" as well as an alliance of left-wing parties called the "Frente Amplio", and defeats the Tupamaros 1972: Brazil's economy has grown an average 10% over four years 1972: Andreas Pavel invents the stereobelt in Brazil, the first portable audio cassette player 1972: Cuba joins the Soviet Union's COMECON Feb 1972: Ecuador's president Velasco is overthrown by general Guillermo Rodriguez Lara 1972: Large reserves of oil are discovered in Ecuador 1972: Earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua Oct 1972: Large-scale demonstrations against Allende's government spread throughout Chile May 1973: The Peronista Hector Campora becomes president of Argentina and appoints leftists to university positions Sep 1973: Juan Peron returns from exile and wins Argentina's presidential elections for the second time, the first election since the military dictatorships of the 1960s 1973: Venezuelas joins the Andean Common Market 1973: The USA and Cuba sign a treaty to prosecute plane hijackers, after more than 80 airplanes have been hijacked since 1961 to Cuba Feb 1973: A military dictatorship in Uruguay bans socialism, ending 70 years od democratic governments, although Bordaberry remains formally president Sep 1973: As inflation hits 500% and GDP declines 7%, and strikes paralyze the country, Chile's president Allende is overthrown by general Augusto Pinochet and commits suicide 1973: Mexican's peasants found "Tierra y Libertad", a Maoist colonia in Monterrey 1973: Large oil reserves are discovered in Colombia 1973: Serial killer Pedro Rodrigues Filho is arrested in Brazil after killing more than 70 people including his father 1974: The liberal Alfonso Lopez Michaelson becomes president of Colombia following the dissolution of the Frente Nacional, but he still forms a government of coalition while the country plunges into anarchy 1974: Oil exports double in Ecuador over the year before 1974: Exports boom in Bolivia due to oil and gas 1974: Cuba's population is 9.5 million Mar 1974: Carlos Andres Perez of Accion Democratica wins presidential elections in Venezuela Mar 1974: The general Ernesto Geisel is appointed president of Brazil after the oil crisis has caused a deep recession Jul 1974: Isabel Peron, the second wife of Juan Peron, becomes president of Argentina at his death, the first woman to become president in the Americas 1974: A hurricane kills thousands of people in Honduras 1974: Mexico plunges into an economic crisis, after 20 years of rapid growth (average +6.5%) 1974: Hyper-inflation in Peru 1974: The Sao Paulo (Brazil) subway opens 1974: The Trans-Amazon road opens in Brazil 1974: Daniel Oduber of the PLN is elected president of Costa Rica 1974: Eric Gairy leads Grenada to independence from Britain 1975: Honduras' Lopez resigns due to a scandal and is replaced by Juan Alberto Melgar Castro 1975: Colombian-born drug-lady Griselda Blanco is wanted in the USA for smuggling cocaine and hides in Florida where she orders dozens of murders 1975: Chile's population is 11 million 1975: There are fewer democracies in Latin America than there were in 1955 1975: The subway of Santiago (Chile) opens 1975: Venezuela nationalizes USA-owned iron mines 1975: Colombia is rocked by terrorist attacks and strikes Sep 1975: Peru's president Velasco is replaced by general Francisco Morales Bermudez, who launches an economic austerity program to curb inflation 1975: About 1,000 people die in political violence in Argentina 1975: Large oil reserves are discovered in Mexico 1976: Anti-Castro terrorists (led by Luis Posada Carriles and funded by the USA's CIA) blow up a Cuban airliner TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1976: Chile withdraws from the Andean Common Market 1976: Chile undergoes an "economic miracle" with average GDP growth of 7% Jan 1976: Venezuela nationalizes all oil fields under Petroleos Venezolanos 1976: Inflation is 27% in Mexico Jun 1976: The military appoints Aparicio Mindez-Manfredini of the "Partido Nacional" to be president of Uruguay, while thousands of dissidents are jailed Mar 1976: After inflation hits 750%, Isabel Peron of Argentina is deposed by general Jorge Videla in a military coup, and 1,300 leftists are killed in the repression that follows Jan 1976: Rodriguez Lara is ousted in Ecuador and replaced by a military junta Dec 1976: Jose-Lopez Portillo of the PRI is elected president of Mexico 1977: the USA suspends military aid to Guatemala to protest civil rights abuses by the right-wing government 1977: Chicha Mariani and Licha de la Cuadra form the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to press the dictatorship about the children who have disappeared 1977: Venezuela's population is 13 million 1977: Brazil is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world after the USA Jul 1977: Peru uses the army to break strikes 1977: Pinochet abolishes the secret police in Chile Feb 1977: The general Carlos Humberto Romero becomes president of El Salvador in rigged elections, and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front is founded in El Salvador to fight the military dictatorship 1977: Mothers of students who disappeared under the repression of Videla's rule stage demonstrations in Argentina 1978: The general Romeo Lucas Garcia is appointed president of Guatemala 1978: Antonio Guzman wins the elections and replaces Balaguer, the first time in the Dominican Republic's history that an incumbent president peacefully surrenders power to the opposition 1978: The general Policarpo Paz Garcia seizes power in Honduras 1978: Indios are massacred by the army at Panzos, Guatemala 1978: Hugo Banzer rigs elections in Bolivia to have general Juan Pereda elected instead of the left-wing coalition of former president Hernan Siles (UDP) 1978: The liberal Julio Turbay is elected president of Colombia 1978: serial killer Pedro Alonso begins a killing spree that would leave more than 300 people dead in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru 1978: Dominica gains independence from Britain 1978: Nicaragua's regime kills opposition leader Pedro Joaquin Chamorro 1978: Luis Herrera Campins of COPEI wins the elections in Venezuela 1978: The right-wing Rodrigo Carazo is elected president of Costa Rica 1978: Brazil's GDP has quintupled since 1960 (making it the eighth industrial power in the West), and the number of college students has increased from less than 100,000 to almost 1.5 million 1978: The boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, Pedro Aviles Perez, is killed by the Mexican police July 1979: Led by Eden Pastora and Daniel Ortega, the Sandinistas overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua 1979: National elections are held again in Bolivia but Paz Estenssoro (MNR) and Siles (UDP) win the same amount of votes 1979: Brazil is the sixth most populous nation in the world 1979: Maurice Bishop of the New Jewel Movement overthrows the government of Eric Gairy in Grenada 1979: The Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) subway opens 1979: The general Joao Baptista Figueiredo is appointed president of Brazil by the military 1979: Jaime Roldos wins democratic elections and becomes Ecuador's president 1979: Peru enacts a new constitution, largely drawn by Velasco and returns to democratic rule 1979: For the first time Mexico allows the Communist Party to run for elections 1979: Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo wins rigged elections in Brazil 1979: The Canal Zone becomes part again of Panama but the canal is still controlled by the USA 1979: The USA suspends the military treaty with Brazil to protest violations of human rights by Brazil's dictator 1979: Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo founds the Guadalajara Cartel in Mexico 1980: Former Bolivia's dictator Banzer forms the ADN party (Accion Democr tica Nacionalista) and loses elections against Siles (UDP) but general Luis Garc¡a Meza seizes power 1980: Only two South American countries have had a democratic regime for at least a decade, Venezuela and Colombia 1980: Brazil's economy grows at an average 7% annually over four years and its population has reached 120 million (12 million just in Sao Paulo) 1980: Archbishop Oscar Romero, a critic of the regime, is assassinated in El Salvador Feb 1980: The Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party) is founded in Brazil 1980: The population of Ciudad de Mexico is 14 million, one of the largest cities in the world, and grows by 500,000 people a year 1980: Nicaragua's dictator Somoza is assassinated in Paraguay and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega seizes power May 1980: In the first election since the restoration of democracy, Fernando Belaunde Terry is reelected president of Peru while "Sendero Luminoso" carries out its first operation 1980: The civilian Jose Napoleon Duarte is elected president of El Salvador by an overwhelming majority, the first civilian president since 1931 1980: More than 800 people are killed in Jamaica during the elections 1980: Violeta Chamorro splits with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua 1980: Eugenia Charles becomes prime minister of Dominica (and first black female leader in the world) 1980: Fidel Castro allows 125,000 people to leave Cuba for the USA 1980: Serial killer Pedro Lopez is arrested in Colombia after killing more than 100 little girls in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru June 1981: Eden Pastora resigns from the Nicaraguan government and organizes a resistance movement in the south, part of the "Contras" 1981: Ronald Reagan funds "Contras" based in Honduras to fight Nicaragua's communist regime of the Sandinistas 1981: Roberto Suazo Cordova is elected president of Honduras, the first civilian president in 18 years 1981: Belize, Britain's last colony in the Americas, becomes independent 1981: The population of Lima (Peru) is 4.1 million 1981: Ecuador's president Roldos dies in an plane crash 1981: The military appoints general Gregorio Alvarez as president of Uruguay 1981: Argentine dictator Videla relinquishes power to Roberto Viola after 6.500 dissidents have "disappeared" 1981: Torrijo of Panama dies in a plane crash Dec 1981: USA-trained Atlacatl death squads massacre 900 people in El Mozote, El Salvador 1982: Siles Zuazo becomes president of Bolivia, replacing the military junta with a civilian government 1982: Salvador Jorge Blanco wins elections in the Dominican Republic 1982: Roberto Suarez Cordoba is elected president of Honduras 1982: Brazil and Paraguay inaugurate the itaipu Dam on the Upper Parana river 1982: Siles (UDP) is recognized as winner of the 1980 elections and finally installed as president of Bolivia 1982: The right-wing party ARENA wins parliamentary elections in El Salvador 1982: Miguel Hurtado de la Madrid is elected president of Mexico 1982: Belisario Betancur is elected president in Colombia 1982: Garcia is deposed and general Rios Montt seizes power in Guatemala and starts a terror campaign 1982: Argentina invades the Falkland islands causing a war with Britain Feb 1982: Desire Bouterse seizes power in Suriname with a coup 1982: Luis Alberto Monge is elected president of Costa Rica Dec 1982: Top opposition officials are killed by Desire Bouterse's government in Suriname 1983: Following defeat in the Falklands war, the military junta collapses and Raul Alfonsin is elected president of Argentina 1983: The Caracas (Venezuela) subway opens 1983: Venezuela devalues its currency ("black friday") 1983: Anti-Pinochet demonstrations take place in Chile 1983: Rios Montt is deposed in Guatemala 1983: Manuel Noriega becomes dictator of Panama 1983: Bolivia holds the first free elections October 1983: The USA invades Grenada and deposes Hudson Austin who has seized power after Bishop was murdered 1984: Daniel Ortega Saavedra is appointed president of Nicaragua by the Sandinista junta Apr 1984: One million people demonstrate against the dictatorship in Sao Paulo 1984: Jaime Lusinchi of Accion Democratica wins presidential elections in Venezuela 1984: The Marxist-leaning "Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru" (MRTA) is formed in Peru 1984: Leon Febres Cordero wins elections in Ecuador 1985: The Bolivian parliament chooses Victor Paz Estenssoro as president 1985: Every major country of the world has AIDS cases 1985: Griselda Blanco is arrested in the USA 1985: The population of Latin America is 400 million 1985: Julio Marma Sanguinetti of the "Partido Colorado" is the first civilian president of Uruguay after the military dictatorship, and dominates Uruguay's politics till 2000 1985: Burnham dies and Desmond Hoyte become president of Guyana May 1985: The USA imposes a trade embargo on Nicaragua 1985: The military junta collapses and Tancredo Neves of the Partido Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (PMDB) is elected president of Brazil, the first civilian president in 21 years, but dies and is replaced by his vice-president Joseph Sarney 1985: Alan Garcia of APRA is elected president of Peru, leading to a massive economic crisis, corruption scandals and increased political violence 1985: The M-19 guerrilla group kills 11 of the 25 Supreme Court Justices of Colombia 1985: An earthquake in Ciudad de Mexico kills thousands of people 1985: Panama's president Noriega orders the assassination of opposition leader Hugo Spadafora 1986: the Iran-contra scandal in the USA reveals that the USA sold arms to Iran to fund the contras in Nicaragua 1986: Juan Balaguer is reelected in the Republica Dominicana 1986: JeanClaude Duvalier is deposed in a military coup in Haiti 1986: Oscar Arias Sanchez is elected president of Costa Rica 1986: Vinicio Cerezo wins elections and becomes the first civilian president of Guatemala in 25 years 1986: Jose Azcona del Hoyo is elected president of Honduras 1986: Earthquake in El Salvador 1986: The liberal Virgilio Barco Vargas is elected president of Colombia 1986: Serial killer Daniel Camargo is arrested in Ecuador after raping and killing more than 100 little girls in Colombia and Ecuador 1987: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras sign a peace plan brokered by Costa Rica 1987: Brazil's inflation is 338% 1987: Drug cartels terrorize Colombia 1987: Nicaragua's dictator Daniel Ortega and the opposition sign a peace agreement Jul 1987: A bus crash kills 69 near Belo Horizonte in Brazil 1988: Carlos Salinas is elected president of Mexico 1988: Alfredo Cristiani of ARENA is elected president of El Salvador 1988: A military coup installs Prosper Avril as dictator of Haiti Jul 1988: A bus crash kills 39 people near Cornelio Procopio in Brazil 1988: Pinochet loses a referendum in Chile and resigns, ending the military dictatorship that killed 3,197 civilians in 16 years 1988: A new constitution is proclaimed in Brazil 1988: Ramsewak Shankar is elected president in Suriname's first democratic elections 1988: Rodrigo Borja Cevallos wins elections in Ecuador 1988: Jose Amezcua Contreras founds the Colima Cartel in Mexico 1989: Jaime Paz-Zamora is elected president of Bolivia 1989: More than 3,000 people are murdered in Medellin alone in Colombia at the peak of the power of the Medellin drug cartel 1989: Carlos Andres Perez of Accion Democratica wins again presidential elections in Venezuela 1989: Carlos Menem of Arab descent is elected president of Argentina 1989: Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera of the "Partido Nacional" is elected president of Uruguay 1989: Fernando Collor de Mello of the Partido da Reconstrução Nacional is elected president of Brazil 1989: In the first elections since the return to democracy, Patricio Aylwin of the Christian Democratic Party is elected president of Chile 1989: Paraguay's dictator Stroessner is deposed in a coup 1989: The USA invades Panama and deposes Manuel Noriega, arrested for drug trafficking and deported to the USA, and Guillermo Endara wins the first democratic elections 1989: Juan Garcia Abrego's Gulf Cartel is smuggling over 300 metric tons of cocaine in the USA every year 1989: The boss of the Guadalajara Cartel, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, is arrested and jailed in Mexico Jan 1990: Rafael Callejas is elected president of Honduras and assumes presidency Feb 1990: The Sandinistas allow free elections in return for the end of contras insurgency, and Violeta Chamorro wins the presidency of Nicaragua Feb 1990: At the Cartagena (Colombia) "Drug Summit" the presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and the USA join in the "war on drugs" May 1990: The right-wing candidate Rafael Calderon becomes president of Costa Rica after winning election Jul 1990: Alberto Fujimori wins elections in Peru and assumes office, while 3,384 Peruvians die in political violence just in 1990 Aug 1990: The liberal Cesar Gaviria Trujillo is elected president of Colombia and assumes office 1990: Sao Paulo in Brazil has 14 million people 1990: Argentina's inflation is 8,000% and the economy has shrunk 10% in a decade 1990: Brazil's inflation is 5,000% Jan 1991: Johan Kraag is elected president of Suriname and assumes office Jan 1991: Jorge Serrano, a former Rios Montt advisor, wins elections in Guatemala and assumes office Jul 1991: Colombia proclaims a new constitution Sep 1991: Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins the first elections in Haiti but is immediately deposed by the military Dec 1991: El Salvador's government and the rebels sign a peace agreement, ending a civil war that killed 75,000 people 1991: a ferry capsizes in Haiti killing over 500 people 1991: Brazil inaugurates the giant Itaipu Dam on the Parana River, the world's largest generator of hydroelectricity 1991: Colombia's yearly murder rate peaks at almost 30,000 1991: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay form the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) 1991: The last case of polio in Latin America Feb 1992: Hugo Chavez stages a failed coup in Venezuela Mar 1992: A suicide bombing by Islamists at Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires kills 29 people in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah's head Sayed Abbas al-Musawi Apr 1992: Peru's president Fujimori dissolves Parliament Jun 1992: the first "World Summit" is held in Rio Aug 1992: Sixto Duran Ballen wins elections in Ecuador and becomes president Sep 1992: Earthquake in Nicaragua Sep 1992: Abimael Guzman, leader of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), is captured by the Peruvian army Oct 1992: The first democratic elections in Guyana are won by Cheddi Jagan; Jagan assumes office Dec 1992: Brazilian president Collor is impeached by parliament and replaced with vice president Itamar Franco 1992: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 1992: Mexico City has 18 million people, Sao Paulo has 15 million 1992: Mexico's Guadalajara Cartel splits in the Tijuana Cartel, led by Javier Arellano Felix, and the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin Archivaldo "El Chapo" Guzman Loera May 1993: Carlos Andres Perez, accused of corruption, is forced to resign and replaced by Jose Velasquez in Venezuela 1993: 111 rioting prisoners are shot dead by the guards at the Carandiru prison of Sao Paulo in Brazil May 1993: Guatemala's president Serrano attempts a coup to become dictator but is forced to flee the country while Ramiro de Leon Carpio is elected president Aug 1993: US-educated Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (MNR) becomes president of Bolivia after winning elections Aug 1993: Juan Carlos Wasmosy of the Partido Colorado wins the first free elections in Paraguay and takes office Aug 1993: US-educated Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada becomes president of Bolivia after winning election Nov 1993: Mexico joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Dec 1993: Pablo Escobar, the most famous druglord of Colombia, is killed by the police 1993: Mexico joins the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the USA and Canada Jan 1994: Guerrilla rebellion in Mexico by the Zapatista National Liberation Army Jan 1994: Carlos Reina is elected president of Honduras and assumes presidency Feb 1994: Rafael Caldera of COPEI is elected again president of Venezuela and assumes presidency Mar 1994: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle of the Christian Democratic Party is elected president of Chile May 1994: Jose Maria Figueres becomes president of Costa Rica after winning election Jun 1994: Armando Calderon Sol of ARENA becomes president of El Salvador after winning election Jul 1994: A suicide bombing (sponsored by Iran and Hezbollah) at a Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires kills 85 people Aug 1994: The liberal Ernesto Samper Pizano is elected president of Colombia and assumes presidency Aug 1994: Fidel Castro allows 50,000 people to leave Cuba Sep 1994: The USA invades Haiti to restore Aristide as president Nov 1994: Chile joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Dec 1994: Ernesto Zedillo wins presidential elections in Mexico and assumes presidency 1994: The USA, Canada and Mexico sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 1994: Javier-Perez de Cuellar founds a new party in Peru named Union por el Peru Jan 1995: Finance minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who has founded the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), wins presidential elections in Brazil and assumes presidency Mar 1995: Sanguinetti is reelected president of Uruguay and assumes presidency Jun 1995: Eugenia Charles resigns from prime minister of Dominica Oct 1995: The Guatemalan army commits a massacre in Chajul Nov 1995: Nazist war criminal Erich Priebke is extradited from Argentina to Italy 1995: Chiapas indios are killed during protests in Mexico 1995: Juan Garcia Abrego is arrested and Osiel Cardenas Guillen seizes control of the Gulf Cartel Jan 1996: Alvaro Arzu is elected president of Guatemala and ends the civil war Jun 1996: FARC kills 34 soldiers in Colombia Feb 1996: Rene Preval wins Haiti's elections and assumes presidency Aug 1996: Leonel Fernandez wins elections in the Republica Dominicana, the first victory by Bosch's Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) Aug 1996: Abdala Bucaram becomes president of Ecuador after winning elections Sep 1996: 200,000 coca growers march in protest in Colombia Sep 1996: Jules Wijdenbosch becomes president of Suriname Jan 1997: Arnoldo Aleman is elected president of Nicaragua and assumes presidency Feb 1997: Ecuadorian president Abdala Bucaram is ousted by Congress for corruption, beginning a period of political instability (six presidents in 8 years) Apr 1997: Peru defeats the "Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru" (MRTA) Aug 1997: Former dictator Hugo Banzer becomes president of Bolivia after winning elections Dec 1997: Janet Jagan becomes the first white and the first female president of Guyana Dec 1997: 45 people are massacred in the Zapatista enclave of Acteal in Mexico 1997: Arturo Guzman Decena of the Mexican special forces joins Osiel Cardenas Guillen's Gulf Cartel and founds its armed wing Los Zetas Jan 1998: Carlos Flores of the Partido Liberal is elected president of Honduras and assumes presidency Mar 1998: FARC kills 62 soldiers in Colombia Mar 1998: Daniel Ortega's daughter Zoilamerica accuses him of rape May 1998: Miguel Angel Rodriguez is elected president of Costa Rica and assumes presidency Jun 1998: Jose Amezcua Contreras of the Colima Cartel is arrested in Mexico and the power of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman increases Aug 1998: The conservative (and former television and press journalist) Andres Pastrana, son of Misael, becomes president of Colombia after winning an election Oct 1998: Thousands die in Nicaragua due to a hurricane Nov 1998: Peru joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Feb 1999: The socialist candidate Hugo Chavez wins elections in Venezuela and assumes presidency 1999: Arrested for the killings of at least 43 people, Jaimes Mejia, aka "El Panadero", leader of a right-wing paramilitary militia, bribes guards to torture and kill dozens of convicts at Bogota's La Modelo prison Mar 1999: Luis Gonzalez Macchi of the Partido Colorado is appointed president of Paraguay Jun 1999: Francisco Flores of ARENA becomes president of El Salvador after winning election Jul 1999: The last leader of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) is captured by the Peruvian army Aug 1999: Bharrat Jagdeo becomes president of Guyana Sep 1999: Arnulfo Arias Madrid's wife Mireya Moscoso becomes president of Panama after winning election; the USA returns the Canal to Panama Dec 1999: Fernando de la Rua becomes president of Argentina after winning election 1999: Colombia, under siege by the Marxist guerrilla group FARC in the middle of an economic depression, becomes the main recipient of USA military aid 1999: Hugo Chavez seizes control of all Venezuelan institutions 1999: Serial killer Luis Garavito is arrested in Colombia after killing about 140 street children 1999: Colombia's GDP per capita has declined to $2197 from $2814 in 1997 Jan 2000: Alfonso Portillo becomes president of Guatemala after winning election 2000: Colombia begins an economic recovery Mar 2000: The socialist candidate Ricardo Lagos becomes the president of Chile after winning presidential election May 2000: Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya who is investigating crimes committed by right-wing paramilitary militias is kidnapped and gang-raped Mar 2000: Jorge Batlle of the "Partido Colorado" becomes president of Uruguay after winning election Aug 2000: Hipolito Mejia wins elections in the Republica Dominicana and begins presidency Aug 2000: Ronald Venetiaan becomes president of Suriname after winning election Nov 2000: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is forced to resign while on a visit to Japan Dec 2000: Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition candidate (non-PRI) to become president through democratic election in Mexico 2000: Brazil's population is 170 million 2000: Mexico's population is 100 million 2000: Cuba's population is 11 million plus 1.2 million Cuban-Americans in the USA 2000: Latin America's population is 513 million 2000: More than 1,000 street children are murdered by death squads in Honduras 2000: The Argentinian economy collapses 2000: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is elected mayor of Ciudad de Mexico 2000: About 750 thousand Mexicans cross illegally into the USA, the peak of the Mexican wave Jan 2001: Earthquake in El Salvador Feb 2001: The Brazilian gang Primeiro Comando da Capital stages massive riots in 29 prisons of the state of Sao Paulo Feb 2001: Aristide becomes president of Haiti after winning election Jun 2001: Vladimiro Montesinos, wanted by Peru on allegations of corruption and blackmailing, is arrested in Venezuela Jul 2001: Alejandro Toledo becomes president of Peru after winning election Aug 2001: Banzer resigns as president of Bolivia because of cancer Dec 2001: Riots in Argentina due to economic crisis lead to the resignation of president La Rua and two years of political chaos 2001: Venezuela becomes the first Latin American country to enter into a "strategic development partnership" with China Jan 2002: Ricardo Maduro of the Partido Nacional becomes president of Honduras after winning election Jan 2002: Enrique Bolanos becomes president of Nicaragua after winning election May 2002: Abel Pacheco becomes president of Costa Rica after winning election May 2002: Fighting between communist terrorists and right-wing paramilitaries leaves 119 civilians dead in Bojaya, Colombia Jun 2002: Brazil wins its fifth world cup Aug 2002: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada becomes president of Bolivia after election; however, Evo Morales, known for his defense of coca growers, comes in second Aug 2002: The liberal Alvaro Uribe, whose father was assassinated by FARC, becomes president of Colombia after winning election Dec 2002: Millions of Venezuelans go on strike for months, demanding Chavez's resignations (he is briefly overthrown but then reinstated) 2003: Mexico arrests Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel becomes the most powerful drug kingpin Jan 2003: Socialist leader Luiz Inacio Lula of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party) wins the Brazilian elections and assumes presidency Mar 2003: A landslide in Bolivia kills 400 people Apr 2003: Castro's regime in Cuba arrests dozens of dissidents, the worst crackdown on the opposition in two decades May 2003: The socialist candidate Nestor Kirchner is elected president of Argentina, the sixth in 18 months Jun 2003: Brazil, India and South Africa form the "G3", an economic forum for emerging countries Aug 2003: Nicanor Duarte Frutos of the Partido Colorado becomes president of Paraguay after winning election Oct 2003: Bolivian president Sanchez de Lozada resigns following weeks of violent protests throughout the country 2005: The USA approves the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with Guatemala, Costarica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Dominican Republic Jan 2004: Oscar Berger wins democratic elections in Guatemala Jan 2004: For the first time since 1987 the murder rate in Colombia falls under 20,000 May 2004: Following widespread riots, Aristide flees Haiti and is replaced by Gerard Latortue 2004: Former Costa Rica's presidents Jose Maria Figueres, Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Rafael Angel Calderon are investigated over allegations of corruption May 2004: A fire in Honduras kills 102 convicts Jun 2004: Tony Saca of ARENA becomes president of El Salvador after winning election Jun 2004: FARC kills 34 people in Colombia Jul 2004: An investigation by the USA senate unveils that Pinochet hid money abroad Aug 2004: A fire in a shopping mall in Paraguay kills about 300 people Aug 2004: Leonel Fernandez becomes president for the second time in the Republica Dominicana after winning elections Sep 2004: Martin Torrijos, son of the former general, becomes president of Panama after winning elections Oct 2004: Brazil launches its first rocket into space Dec 2004: Gangsters kill 23 passengers a local bus in northern Honduras Dec 2004: A fire at a nightclub in Buenos Aires (Argentina) kills 174 people Dec 2004: FARC's spokesman Rodrigo Granda is found and captured in Venezuela by bounty hunters, proving Chavez's support for FARC Dec 2004: Guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) kill 17 peasants at a New Year's Eve party Dec 2004: Venezuela and Cuba launch the Alternativa Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra America or ALBA, an anti-USA alliance 2004: Latin America posts the biggest economic growth since the 1980s due to exports of raw material to China 2004: The USA and Chile sign a free-trade treaty Jan 2005: Ollanta Humala's brother Antauro Humala of the Movimiento Etnocacerista leads a revolt in Andahuaylas against Peru's president Alejandro Toledo Mar 2005: The socialist candidate Tabare Vazquez becomes president of Uruguay, the fifth socialist leader to be elected in a few years in Latin America (after Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela) Apr 2005: Ecuador's president Lucio Gutierrez flees the country after mass protests against his dictatorial style Jun 2005: Bolivian President Carlos Mesa resigns after mass protests Aug 2005: Colombia's right-wing paramilitary organization United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) disbands Oct 2005: Guatemala is devastated by a hurricane Nov 2005: Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is arrested in Chile Dec 2005: Parties allied to Venezuela's president Chavez win 100% of the votes in elections boycotted by the opposition 2005: Brazil's is the fifth most populous country in the world with 188 million people and Mexico is the 11th with 107 million, Sao Paulo and Ciudad de Mexico rank among the 10th largest mega-cities in the world Jan 2006: Manuel Zelaya of the center-right Partido Liberal becomes president of Honduras after winning elections Jan 2006: Leftist candidate Evo Morales wins elections in Bolivia and becomes the first indigenous president of a South American nation, and the fifth Bolivian president in four years Feb 2006: Portia Simpson Miller is appointed prime minister by the majority party of Jamaica Mar 2006: Michelle Bachelet becomes Chile's first woman president after winning election May 2006: Oscar Arias is reelected president of Costa Rica and assumes presidency May 2006: Uribe is reelected in Colombia with 62% of the vote, the largest margin of victory in Colombia's history May 2006: The Brazilian gang Primeiro Comando da Capital unleashes a wave of terror in Sao Paulo, conducting 293 attacks on police stations and public buildings May 2006: Rene Preval wins Haiti's elections and assumes presidency May 2006: Fidel Castro of Cuba, Evo Morals of Bolivia and Hugo Chavez of Bolivia sign a "people's trade agreement" May 2006: Gang violence, particularly by the First Command of the Capital (PCC), causes more than 100 deaths in the state of Sao Paolo, Brazil Jul 2006: Alan Garcia is reelected president of Peru and assumes presidency Jul 2006: An ailing Fidel Castro is de facto succeeded by his brother Raul as the helm of Cuba Aug 2006: Former dictator of Paraguay, Alfredo Stroessner, dies in exile in Brazil Sep 2006: Venezuela purchases $3 billion worth of arms from Russia Dec 2006: Gangs attack buses and police across Rio de Janeiro killing 18 Dec 2006: Felipe Calderon becomes president of Mexico after narrowly winning elections and orders a military assault on drug cartels 2006: 22,000 people have been kidnapped in Colombia in a decade 2006: Evo Morales of Bolivia launches a nationalization plan Aug 2006: The boss of the Tijuana Cartel, Javier Arellano Felix, is arrested in Mexico 2006: More than 2,000 Mexicans die in drug-related gangland-style killings Oct 2006: Evidence surfaces that Colombian politicians, including two senators, have collaborated with right-wing death squads Jan 2007: Leftist candidate Rafael Correa wins elections in Ecuador and assumes presidency 2007: Guatemala establishes the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to investigate crimes against humanity committed by previous dictators, the beginning of the "Justice Spring" of Guatemala Jan 2007: Former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua after winning election Feb 2007: Venezuela de facto nationalizes all foreign oil projects May 2007: Chavez shuts down Venezuela's oldest private tv station, Radio Caracas Television May 2007: Left-wing rebels carry out several attacks against the Colombian army Sep 2007: Bruce Golding wins democratic elections in Jamaica and assumes role as prime minister, ending 18 years of rule by the People's National Party Sep 2007: The Colombian police arrest drug lord Diego Montoya Nov 2007: Large oil reserves are discovered in Brazil Dec 2007: Cristina Fernandez, the wife of outgoing president Nestor Kirchner, becomes president of Argentina after winning election, while it is discovered that her campaign was financed by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela 2007: 40% of Chile's exports go to Asian Pacific countries 2007: The USA and Peru sign a free-trade treaty 2007: The Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez extends economic aid to Nicaragua in order to support Daniel Ortega's government Jan 2008: The socialist candidate Alvaro Colom wins elections in Guatemala and becomes the first left-wing president ever Feb 2008: Cuba's dictator Fidel Castro announces retirement Mar 2008: The Mexican police arrest drug lord Gustavo Rivera Martinez Mar 2008: FARC commander Raul Reyes is killed by Colombian forces during a raid inside Ecuador Jun 2008: Mexico and the USA sign the Merida Initiative by which the USA provides Mexico with military aid and training to fight the drug cartels Jul 2008: Colombian soldiers free Western hostages held for years by the FARC Jul 2008: Ecuador approves a new constitution Jul 2008: Argentina is paralyzed by protests against an export tax Jul 2008: Oil prices peak at $147 per barrel, greatly benefiting the Venezuelan economy Aug 2008: Honduras' president Zelaya converts to Chavez's leftist ideology and Honduras joins ALBA Aug 2008: Leftist former priest Fernando Lugo wins presidential elections in Paraguay and ends the rule of the Partido Colorado that lasted since 1947, but a scandal reveals that he fathered four children while still a priest and one of them from a teenage girl Jan - Aug 2008: Rondell Rawlins carries out a campaign of mass murders in Guyana 2008: Mass demonstrations in the eastern provinces of Bolivia against president Evo Morales' plans to redistribute revenues from natural gas exports 2008: The four Beltran Leyva brothers split from El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel and allies with the Zetas criminal gang, starting a bloody war fought all over Mexico 2008: More than 6,000 people die in violence related to organized crime in Mexico (a 48% jump over the previous year) 2008: Latin America's population is 569 million, of which 38% is in Brazil and 22% in Mexico Nov 2008: Mainland China publishes a policy paper advocating tighter ties with Latin America (paper) Jan 2009: Bolivia approves a new constitution Mar 2009: Mauricio Funes of former Marxist guerrilla group "Farabundo Marti Liberation Front" (FMLN) wins El Salvador's presidential election Mar 2009: The first case of swine flu in Mexico Apr 2009: China and Argentina sign a $10.2 billion currency swap deal to help stabilize the Argentine peso Apr 2009: Colombia arrests the country's most wanted drug lord, Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as "Don Mario" Apr 2009: Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for political homicides committed during his presidency May 2009: Ricardo Martinelli, a tycoon of the conservative party, wins elections in Panama May 2009: Chilean anarchist Mauricio Morales is killed by the bomb that he is carrying Jun 2009: A military coup ousts Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and parliament elects Porfirio Lobo to replace him Jun 2009: Brazil, Russia, India and China meet in Russia, the first BRIC meeting 2009: An epidemics of "swine flu" is first recorded in Mexico Jul 2009: The Colombia government accuses Venezuela of supplying weapons to FARC guerrillas Sep 2009: Antauro Humala is sentenced to 18 years in prison for the insurrection of 2005 Nov 2009: Former guerrilla leader Jose Mujica, who waged an armed revolt against a democratically elected government in the 1960s and was jailed for 14 years, wins elections and becomes the new president of Uruguay Dec 2009: Mexico kills Arturo Beltran Leyva, a brutal druglord Dec 2009: Mexico legalizes gay marriage Dec 2009: Venezuela arrests several tycoons, including the country's richest man, Ricardo Fernandez Dec 2009: Venezuela's inflation reaches 27%, the highest in Latin America 2009: More than 7,000 people die in Mexico of drug-related violence in just one year 2009: 16047 people are murdered in Venezuela in one year (three times more than in the civil war of Iraq) 2009: Latin America is the only region in the world where murder rates increased in the first decade of the 21st century 2009: China becomes Brazil's largest trading partner 2009: Mexico arrests Ernesto "El Neto" Pinon, leader of the Mexicles gang Dec 2009: The swine flu has killed at least 120,000 people worldwide, mostly in South America Jan 2010: Sebastian Pinera is elected president of Chile, the first time since 1958 that a right-wing politician wins a democratic election 2010: Violent crime peaks in Mexico, with 22 homicides per 100,000 people 2010: Colombia's GDP per capita has increased to $6180 from $2376 in 2002 during Uribe's rule Jan 2010: Porfirio Lobo is elected president of Honduras Jan 2010: An earthquake kills 230,000 people in Haiti Feb 2010: Laura Chinchilla is elected president of Costa Rica, the first female president in the country's history Feb 2010: Venezuela hires Cuba's vice-president Ramiro Valdes Feb 2010: A Spanish judge accuses Venezuela of having supported a deal between Colombia's terrorists FARC and Spain's terrorists ETA to assassinate Colombia's president May 2010: 11 people are killed Kingston, Jamaica, when troops storm the stronghold of drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke May 2010: Kamia Persad-Bissessar becomes Trinidad's first female prime minister Jun 2010: Former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos wins presidential elections in Colombia 2010: Latin American economies recover from the recession and grow faster than any region except China, with Brazil posting its fastest growth in 24 years Jun 2010: Cuba releases 52 political prisoners Jul 2010: Argentina becomes the first country in Latin America approve same-sex marriages Jul 2010: Desi Bouterse is elected president of Suriname Aug 2010: Raul Castro enacts free-market reforms in Cuba Aug 2010: The Zetas drug cartel kills 72 Central American migrants near Tamaulipas, in northeast Mexico Sep 2010: Soldiers kill 25 drug cartel members during a gunbattle in Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas, Mexico Sep 2010: Colombian troops kill 22 guerrillas of FARC Oct 2010: Chile rescues 33 miners trapped deep underground for 69 days Nov 2010: Dilma Rousseff is elected to become Brazil's first woman president Nov 2010: Gangsters kill 14 people in Honduras Dec 2010: A fire in a jail in the Chilean capital Santiago kills at least 83 inmates 2010: Brazil's GDP passes Italy's and Brazil becomes the seventh largest economy in the world 2010: Between 1980 and 2010 Brazil has registered more than one million homicides 2010: United Nations peacekeeping forces spread cholera in Haiti 2011: Cholera imported from Nepalese troops of the United Nation mission kills about 10,000 Haitians Apr 2011: Michel Martelly is elected president of Haiti Apr 2011: A young man kills 11 students at his former school in Brazil Apr 2011: The Zetas drug cartel kills at least 193 people near Tamaulipas (second Tamaulipas massacre) in Mexico May 2011: A gang shootout in Mexico kills 28 people in the state of Nayarit Jun 2011: Leftist candidate Ollanta Humala wins presidential elections in Peru while the economy has been growing an average of almost 7% yearly since 2003 Jun 2011: Gang-related violence kills 33 people in 24 hours in Mexico's industrial capital Monterrey Jul 2011: Mexico captures Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, the leader of La Linea who ordered 1,500 murders on behalf of the Juarez drug cartel in its fight against the Pacific cartel for control of Ciudad Juarez 2011: The USA has 413 billionaires, China has 115 billionaires, Russia 101, India 55, Germany 52, Britain 32, Brazil 30, and Japan 26 Aug 2011: Trinidad and Tobago declares emergency over drug crimes Aug 2011: The Mexican Zetas drug cartel sets fire on a Monterrey casino killing 52 people Aug 2011: Gunmen burst into a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey and set it on fire, killing more than 50 people 2011: The Cuban government frees the last of 75 dissidents jailed during the crackdown on dissidents in 2003 Sep 2011: Gunmen dump 35 bodies in Mexico's eastern state of Veracruz 2011: The Mexican Zetas drug cartel carries out mass executions in Durango killing at least 249 people Oct 2011: A fight between prisoners at a jail in Matamoros in northern Mexico leaves 20 inmates dead Oct 2011: The world's population is 7 billion up from 1 billion in 1850 and less than 3 billion in 1950. Nov 2011: The top commander of FARC, Alfonso Cano, is killed by the Colombian army Nov 2011: Otto Perez Molina wins presidential elections in Guatemala 2011: Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff removes six ministers in one year because they are linked to corruption scandals 2011: Brazil overtakes Britain as the world's sixth largest economy after the USA, China, Japan, Germany and France 2011: China becomes Brazil's main trading partner Dec 2011: Jose Eberto Lopez of the Popular Revolutionary Anti-terrorist Army of Colombia surrender Dec 2011: Portia Simpson Miller's People's National Party wins elections in Jamaica Dec 2011: 12,000 people are killed in drug violence in Mexico Dec 2011: More than 45,000 people have died in Mexico's war on drugs since 2006 2011: Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world 2011: 19,000 murders are committed in Venezuela in 2011, the highest murder rate in South America and four times that of Mexico 2011: Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, controls 80% of Mexico's land phone lines, 75% of its broadband lines and 70% of mobile phone lines 2011: Panama's growth averages 9% a year between 2006 and 2011, the fastest in the Americas 2011: Brazil's economy grows by just 2.7% in 2011, down from 7.5% in 2010 Jan 2012: The USA calls Mexico's Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman the world's most powerful drug trafficker Feb 2012: A fire at a jail kills more than 350 inmates in Honduras Feb 2012: 44 inmates are killed in a fight in a Monterrey prison in Mexico May 2012: FARC rebels kill 12 Colombian soldiers in an ambush near the border with Venezuela May 2012: Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano's Zetas drug cartel kills 49 people in Cadereyta, Mexico May 2012: Danilo Medina is elected president of the Dominican Republic Jun 2012: Paraguay's senate removes president Fernando Lugo from office after a confrontation between police and protesters leaves 17 dead, and appoints vice-president Federico Franco Jun 2012: Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI wins elections in Mexico, inheriting a country where 60 thousand people died of drug-related violence in the six years of Calderon's rule, and appoints Salvador Cienfuegos as secretary of national defense Jul 2012: Venezuela joins Mercosur Aug 2012: 48 workers die in a fire at Venezuela's biggest oil refinery Oct 2012: Jamaican runner Usain Bolt becomes the first athlete to win both 100 m and 200 m titles at consecutive Olympics Oct 2012: Mexico kills Heriberto Lazcano, head of Los Zetas drug cartel, who is succeeded by Miguel Trevino 2012: Mexico grows twice faster than Brazil (4% vs 2%) 2012: Venezuela's poverty rate has falled from 50% in 1998 to 30% 2012: 1890 Brazilians are killed by the police, 351 in Sao Paulo alone 2012: Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Forest has fallen from 28,000 sq km in 2004 to 5,000 sq km 2012: Latin America suffers 134,519 homicides in 2012, about 31% of the world's total 2012: 50108 people are murdered in Brazil Jan 2013: A riot at the prison of Uribana in Venezuela leaves 50 people dead Jan 2013: 232 people are killed in a fire at a night club of Santa Maria, in southern Brazil Mar 2013: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez dies of cancer and is succeeded by his vicepresident Nicolas Maduro May 2013: Former Guatemala's dictator Efrain Rios Montt is convicted of genocide Jun 2013: Huge crowds protest in Brazil's five major cities demanding better public services Jul 2013: Mexico captures Zetas leader Miguel Trevino Jul 2013: The Knights Templar drug cartel kills five demonstrators protesting against it and the police kill 20 gang members in a shootout in Mexico's western Michoacan state Aug 2013: Paraguay's richest men, Horacio Cartes, of the Colorado Party becomes the country's president after his centre-right party defeats the liberal party Nov 2013: Juan Orlando Hernandez is elected Honduras' president at a time when Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world Nov 2013: Diego Guelar, Argentina’s ambassador to the USA, publishes the book “The Silent Invasion" about the China's economic colonization of South America Dec 2013: Michelle Bachelet is elected president of Chile for the second time Dec 2013: The average salary in Cuba is $20/month Dec 2013: Uruguay becomes the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana Dec 2013: Mexico is the world's fourth exporter of cars after Germany, South Korea and Japan 2013: 2212 people are killed by police in Brazil 2014: China forms the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) forum that includes every country in the Americas with the exception of Canada and the USA 2014: The China Development Bank had provided Venezuela's regime with more than $30 billion in loans Jan 2014: The Colombian army kills 14 FARC rebels Feb 2014: Mexico arrests the world's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman Mar 2014: Mexico kills druglord Nazario Moreno Mar 2014: A Brazilian investigation dubbed "Operation Car Wash" about bribes paid by Brazil's company Odebrecht, Latin America's largest construction firm, leads to the arrest of an executive at Brazil's government-run oil company Petrobras, the beginning of the largest global corruption scandal in history Mar 2014: Dozens of anti-government protesters are killed in Venezuela as Venezuela enters a recession May 2014: Ricardo Martinelli's rival Carlos Varela wins elections in Panama May 2014: A new species of titanosaur is unearthed in Argentina, the largest animal ever May 2014: Colombia's government and the FARC agree to eliminate all illicit drug production May 2014: The first case of chikungunya, a disease originating in Africa, is documented in Venezuela Jun 2014: The Mexican police kills 12 people who had already surrendered Jul 2014: Argentina defaults on its debt for the second time in 13 years Sep 2014: Cuba sends 165 doctors and nurses to fight the ebola epidemics in Africa Sep 2014: After clashing with protesting students in Mexico's Iguala, the mayor Jose Luis Abarca orders the police to deliver 43 students to the drug gang Guerreros Unidos to be killed Oct 2014: More than 200,000 cases of chikungunya are documented in Venezuela Nov 2014: Leftist candidate Tabare Vazquez wins Uruguay's presidential elections Nov 2014: Mexican journalist Maria del Carmen Aristegui uncovers a scandal involving Mexico's first lady Angelica Rivera, the biggest scandal to rock president Enrique Pena Nieto's administration Dec 2014: Brazil arrests serial killer Sailson Jose das Gracas, accused of 42 murders Dec 2014: Work by Chinese company HKND begins in Nicaragua on a new canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 2014: 563 people are killed by police in Brazil's state of Rio 2014: Serial killer Thiago Gomes da Rocha is arrested in Brazil after killing 39 people Sep 2014: The cartel Guerreros Unidos kills 43 students with the collaboration of the police and the army in the Mexican town of Ayotzinapa Oct 2014: Hector Beltran, aka "El H", the last brother to lead the Beltran Leyva cartel, is arrested by Mexican police, and is succeeded by Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez, aka "H-2" Jan 2015: Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli, accused of corruption, flees the country Feb 2015: Mexico captures Knights Templar cartel's druglord Servando "La Tuta" Gomez Mar 2015: Mexico captures Zetas cartel's druglord Omar Trevino Morales Mar 2015: Leandra Becerra dies at the age of 127 in Mexico Apr 2015: Druglords kill 15 police officers in western Mexico between Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara Apr 2015: A massive corruption scandal at the state-run oil giant Petrobras spark anti-government demonstrations in Brazil Apr 2015: US president Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro meet in person 2015: 42,000 people are shot dead in Brazil, a 35-year record, and most of the victims are blacks under the age of 30 May 2015: David Granger wins presidential elections in Guyana May 2015: An outbreak of Zika virus infection in Brazil Jun 2015: More than 40 people are killed in a shoot-out in Tanhuato in the western Mexican state of Michoacan between security forces and armed gangs Jun 2015: Brazil arrests Marcelo Odebrecht for bribing the Brazilian oil company Petrobras Aug 2015: Brazil, now the seventh-largest economy in the world, enters a recession Aug 2015: Jose Dirceu, former chief of staff for Brazil's president Lula, is arrested for the bribing scheme involving Odebrecht Sep 2015: Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina resigns after a judge issues a warrant for his arrest for corruption Sep 2015: Venezuela arrests Leopoldo Lopez, leader of the opposition, for inciting violence Oct 2015: Former television comedian Jimmy Morales wins presidential elections in Guatemala Oct 2015: China hosts officials from 11 Latin American countries for a 10-day forum on military logistics titled "Strengthening Mutual Understanding for Win-Win Cooperation." Nov 2015: Brazil arrests billionaire banker Andre Esteves and senator Delcidio do Amaral for corruption. Nov 2015: Mauricio Macri wins presidential elections in Argentina Dec 2015: Argentina's former president Menem is convicted of corruption Dec 2015: The opposition wins parliamentary elections in Venezuela after 16 years of socialist control of the parliament Dec 2015: Mexican druglord Carlos Rosales Mendoza is assassinated 2015: Colombia's economy grows for the 15th consecutive year 2015: Colombia discovers the wreck of the "San Jose", sunk by the British in 1708 with its cargo of gold, silver and jewels 2015: 99% of crimes committed in Mexico are never punished. 2015: Brazil's economy shrinks 3.8% in 2015 Dec 2015: China passes the USA to become South America's main trading partner Jan 2016: Mexico City's newly elected leftist mayor is assassinated one day after taking office Jan 2016: Mexico arrests again druglord "El Chapo" who has escaped again from a high-security prison Jan 2016: The Venezuelan government announces an economic emergency to deal with the country's worsening recession Feb 2016: 52 people are killed in a prison riot at Mexico's Topo Chico prison Feb 2016: Brazilian investigators discover that Peru's president Ollanta Humala received bribes from Odebrecht Mar 2016: Barack Obama becomes the first president to visit Cuba since the Castro revolution Mar 2016: The Labour Party wins Jamaica's elections and its leader Andrew Holness becomes prime minister Mar 2016: Environmental activist Berta Caceres is murdered in Honduras Apr 2016: A leak of millions of confidential documents reveals that Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca helped rich people launder money and avoid taxes Apr 2016: An earthquake in Ecuador kills more than 650 people May 2016: Brazil's parliament votes to impeach president Dilma Rousseff May 2016: The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung shares with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists the "Panama Papers", more than one million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama that expose a global web of money laundering and tax evasion involving high-level political figures, business leaders and celebrities Jun 2016: The economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (a Jew), leader of the center-right party Peruanos Por el Kambio, wins presidential elections in Peru with a narrow margin over Fujimori's daughter Keiko, leader of the right-wing party Fuerza Popular Jun 2016: Colombia and FARC reach a peace agreement after a 50-year war that has killed more than 200,000 people Jul 2016: Environmental activist Lesbia Yaneth Urquia is murdered in Honduras Aug 2016: Brazil's parliament votes to remove president Dilma Rousseff from power, ostesibly for a minor infraction but in practice because of public outrage at scandals involving her Workers' Party, and Michel Temer becomes the new president Oct 2016: Colombians reject the peace deal with FARC in a referendum Oct 2016: Venezuela's parliament votes to try President Maduro, but the supreme court had ruled that the parliament is illegitimate Nov 2016: Fidel Castro dies Nov 2016: US employees of the US embassy in Cuba fall mysteriously sick Dec 2016: Russia and Cuba sign a sweeping pact on defense and technology cooperation. Dec 2016: Mercosur suspends Venezuela for violating human rights 2016: Venezuela's bolivar falls 71% against the dollar in one year 2016: Brazil's economy shrinks by 3.6% (its worst-ever recession), and 10% in three years, and Argentina's by 1.8% 2016: 23,000 people are killed in Mexico's war on drugs, making it the second deadliest war in the world after the Syrian civil war Dec 2016: Ecuador inaugurates a giant dam in the jungle, Coca Codo Sinclair, financed and built by China, but bribery scandals surround the project Jan 2017: Prison riots started by Brazil's two largest gangs kill at least 130 convicts in several Brazilian prisons Jan 2017: Venezuela's president Maduro appoints Tareck El Aissami, a former interior and justice minister, as vice president Feb 2017: Jovenel Moise replaces Michel Martelly as president of Haiti Feb 2017: The USA accuses Venezuela's new vicepresident Tareck El Aissami of being a drug trafficker connected with the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas Mar 2017: Landslides kill about 300 people in Mocoa (Colombia) Mar 2017: Brazil's former House Speaker, Eduardo Cunha, is sentenced to 15 years in prison for money laundering bribes involving Petrobras and Odebrecht Mar 2017: Former vicepresident Lenin Moreno wins Ecuador's presidential election Jun 2017: Brazil arrests druglords Luiz Carlos Aug 2017: Morales expels from Guatemala a United Nations representative investigating corruption within his family Sep 2017: An earthquake kills more than 300 people in central Mexico Oct 2017: Ecuador's vice-president Jorge Glas is jailed for taking bribes from Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht Dec 2017: The conservative billionaire and former president Sebastian Pinera is elected present of Chile for a second time Dec 2017: 63,880 people are murdered in Brazil in 2017, more than 30 per 100,000 people, with a peak in Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil (63.9 per 100,000 people) 2017: More than 23,000 murders are committed in Mexico in 2017, the all-time record 2017: Colombia's murder rate has declined to 24 per 100,000, the lowest in 42 years 2017: Latin America has the highest murder rate of any continent, accounting for 38% of all criminal killings in the world 2017: Colombia's cocaine production hit a record level in 2017 Feb 2017: Mexican marines kill Juan Francisco Patron Sanchez, aka "H-2", leader of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel Jun 2017: The USA arrests Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli, accused of unlawful wiretapping in Panama Dec 2017: El Salvador (61.7 deaths per 100,000 people), Honduras (41.0), Venezuela (49.9), Jamaica (56.4) and Belize (37.8) have the highest murder rates in the world 2017: The top 1% of Mexicans own about 50% of Mexico's wealth and more than 30,000 people are murdered in one year 2018: The USA under Donald Trump suspends funding for the CICIG that was investigating corruption in Guatemala Feb 2018: Venezuela introduces a digital currency, the petro, to circumvent US sanctions Feb 2018: Venezuela becomes the first government to issue its own cryptocurrency, the petro Mar 2018: China inaugurates a space mission control station in Argentina Mar 2018: Eleven Asia-Pacific countries sign the trade pact formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, NewZealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam) Mar 2018: Peru's president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns amid allegations of corruption and is replaced by vice-president Martin Vizcarra Mar 2018: A riot in the prison of Carabobo in Venezuela kills 68 people Mar 2018: Brazilian investigators discover that Venezuela's president Maduro was involved in the Odebrecht scandal Mar 2018: China opens a space station in Argentina Apr 2018: Carlos Alvarado wins Costa Rica's presidential election Apr 2018: More than 30 people are killed in Nicaragua in anti-government protests Apr 2018: Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez is appointed Cuba's president, replacing Raul Castro Apr 2018: Former Brazilian president Lula is arrested for corruption Jun 2018: Ivan Duque of the right-wing Democratic Centre party wins presidential elections, beating the first left-wing candidate in Colombia's history, Gustavo Petro, and becomes Colombia's president Jun 2018: The first case of polio since 1991 in Latin America shows up in Venezuela Jun 2018: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing former mayor of Mexico City and leader of the Morena party, is elected president of Mexico with a program to fight corruption by the two dominant parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN) after more than 130 candidates and activists have been killed during the campaign Jul 2018: More than 14 people are killed in new anti-government protests in Nicaragua Jul 2018: Ecuador issues an arrest warrant for ex-president Rafael Correa, who has fled to Belgium, while former vice-president Jorge Glas-Espinel, former electricity minister Aleksey Mosquera and even former anti-corruption official Carlos Polit are jailed for taking bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht to build the giant Chinese-funded Coca Codo Sinclair dam, and more than 7,000 cracks have been discovered in the dam’s machinery Aug 2018: Latin American countries act to stem the flow of Venezuelan refugees after more than two million people have fled Venezuela since 2014, the largest exodus ever in Latin America, while Venezuela's inflation reaches 1,000,000% Sep 2018: A fire destroys much of Brazil's National Museum Sep 2018: 324 people are killed in 3 months in Nicaragua's antigovernment protests Oct 2018: Opposition politician is arrested following a drone assassination attempt on Venezuela's president Maduro and dies falling from the high-rise building of the police Oct 2018: Central American refugees start walking from Honduras towards Mexico and the USA, fleeing political turmoil in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala Oct 2018: Right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro wins presidential elections in Brazil with an anti-corruption and anti-crime platform Nov 2018: Alejandro Andrade, a former associated of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, is sentenced to jail in the USA for money-laundering and bribes that made him a billionaire Nov 2018: Juan Orlando Hernandez's brother is arrested by the USA for smuggling drugs and demonstrators demand the resignations of Honduras' president Nov 2018: Nieto's approval rating is only 18% at the end of his presidency Dec 2018: About 3 million people (or 10% of the population) has fled Venezuela to flee hyperinflation, hunger, crime and diseases since Maduro became president 2018: Argentina's currency falls 53% to the dollar in one year and inflation has reached 30% 2018: Mexico records 34,656 murders nationwide in 2018, a 30% increase on the previous year, of which 3,159 in Baja California (whose murder rate this year is one of the highest in the world) Jan 2019: Anti-Maduro protests erupt again in Venezuela, opposition leader Juan Guaido declares himself interim president and is recognized by the USA, Canada, several European countries, the Organization of American States and most Latin American governments Jan 2019: Protesters in Haiti demonstrate against government corruption and demand president Jovenel Moise's resignations Jan 2019: Guatemala's president Morales expels the CICIG that was investigating corruption Jan 2019: A dam incident in Brazil's Brumadinho kills more than 120 people Jan 2019: Anti-corruption candidate Nayib Bukele, founder of the new Nuevas Ideas party, wins presidential elections in El Salvador while the country is experiencing record murders Jan 2019: Witnesses at the trial of Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo" testify that El Chapo paid huge bribes to top Mexican officials, including Enrique former president Pena Nieto May 2019: 40 convicts are killed on the same day in four different prisons in Brazil's city Manaus May 2019: Argentina's inflation peaks at 57% Jul 2019: 52 convincts are killed in a riot at Brazil's Altamira jail started by rival gangs Aug 2019: In just one day the Argentinian peso loses 25% to the US dollar and the Argentinian stock market falls 48%, the second largest stock-market crash in the world since 1950 Aug 2019: Jair Bolsonaro's policies cause record fires in Brazil's Amazon forest Sep 2019: Peruvian president Martin Vizcarra orders Congress to dissolve and, in retaliation, Congress, dominated by Keiko Fujimori's right-wing party Fuerza Popular, suspends him from the presidency and appoint Mercedes Araoz as the new acting president but most of the world does not recognize it Oct 2019: The USA reveals that El Chapo, one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers, has paid a $1 million bribe to the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez Oct 2019: Following anti-government protests, Ecuador's president Lenin Moreno imposes a night curfew near government buildings Oct 2019: Gunmen of the Jalisco New Generation cartel kill 13 police officers in the Mexican state of Michoacan Oct 2019: Eight people are killed during a street battle in the city of Culiacan between police and gangsters when Mexican police tries to arrest Ovidio Guzman, the son of drug kingpin "El Chapo" Oct 2019: Violent protests against the Pinera government erupt in Chile triggered by the high cost of living Oct 2019: Centre-left opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez is elected president of Argentina, with former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as his vice-president Oct 2019: Antauro Humala joins from prison the Union por el Peru, which becomes the party of the Movimiento Etnocacerista Nov 2019: Following mass demonstrations, Bolivia's president Evo Morales resigns Nov 2019: Former Brazilian president Lula is released from prison and cleared of wrong-doing Nov 2019: Chile's government agrees to hold a referendum on changing the constitution after more than 20 people have died in mass demonstrations Nov 2019: Right-wing politician Luis Lacalle Pou, son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera, defeats Daniel Martinez of the left-wing Broad Front coalition and wins presidential elections in Uruguay Nov 2019: The Brazilian real hits a record low against the US dollar (4.26 reais) Dec 2019: The USA accuses former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna of having worked for the Sinaloa drug cartel 2019: Mexico records 35,588 murders in one year Jan 2020: Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force party drops from 36% in 2016 to just 7% in Peru's parliamentary elections, following her implication in the Odebrecht scandal Jan 2020: Right-wing candidate Alejandro Giammattei, who spent time in prison for his connection with the death squad Riveritas, wins Guatemala's presidential elections after the front-runner candidate, anti-corruption jurist Thelma Aldana, is disqualified by the Constitutional Court Mar 2020: The covid-19 epidemic spreads in Latin America Apr 2020: Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa is convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison but flees the country Jun 2020: A gang kills 26 people at a drug rehabilitation center in Mexico's Irapuato Aug 2020: The covid-19 pandemic has killed more than 210,000 people in Latin America and plunged its economy into the deepest recession in a century Aug 2020: The former head of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya Austin, testifies that Pena Nieto received illegal funding from Odebrecht Oct 2020: The USA accuses Mexican general Salvador Cienfuegos, who was Mexico's defense chief from 2012 to 2018, of being the mysterious "El Padrino" who protected the drug cartels Oct 2020: Bolivians elect a Morales ally, Luis Arce, president Oct 2020: The USA arrests former Mexican defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda on charges of collusion with the drug cartels, but Trump's attorney general William Barr releases him and Mexican prosecutors exonerated Cienfuegos and Mexico imposes new restrictions on the USA’s ability to investigate Mexican criminals Nov 2020: The Peruvian Congress, led by the imprisoned Antauro Humala and his Union por el Peru party, impeaches and removes president Martin Vizcarra and replaces him with Francisco Sagasti of the centrist Purple Party Dec 2020: Argentina legalizes abortion Dec 2020: Covid has killed 180,000 Brazilians, 1123,000 Mexicans, 41,000 Argentinians, 39,000 Colombians and 37,000 Peruvians, almost half a million people in the whole of Latin America 2020: More than 30,000 people are murdered in Mexico in 2020 Dec 2020: El Salvador (83 deaths per 100,000 people), Honduras (56.5), Venezuela (56.3), Jamaica (47) and Belize (37.6) have the highest murder rates in the world 2020: Luis Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) is elected president of the Dominican Republic on an anti-corruption program 2021: A Spanish court accuses Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli of corruption and money laundering related to the Odebrecht scandal Jan 2021: Maduro's socialist party takes control of parliament after parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition Feb 2021: Cuba opens most of its economy to private business Feb 2021: Prison riots in Ecuador among opposing gangs leave 62 dead Apr 2021: Anti-government protests erupt in Colombia Apr 2021: Guillermo Lasso is elected president of Ecuador Mar 2021: Arce's government in Bolivia arrests ex-interim president Jeanine Anez and some of her ministers, accusing them or orchestrating a coup Mar 2021: Brazil's chief of the army, air force and navy resign in protest against Bolsonaro's mishandling of the covid pandemic, which has made Brazil the world's worst affected country May 2021: The Maoist rebel group Shining Path kills 16 people in the village of San Miguel del Ene of Peru May 2021: Anti-Bolsonaro protests erupt in Brazil, following the devastating covid death toll Jun 2021: Nicaragua arrests prominent dissidents who challenge Daniel Ortega in presidential elections Jun 2021: Leftist Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre narrowly beats conservative Keiko Fujimori and becomes president of Peru Jun 2021: Mexico arrests former Nayarit governor Roberto Sandoval Jul 2021: Haiti's president Jovenel Moise is assassinated Jul 2021: Cubans stage the first anti-government demonstrations in decades Jul 2021: Mexico, under president Lopez Obrador, abandons the Merida Initiative while fentanyl from Mexico is fueling the deadliest drug epidemic in US history Aug 2021: An earthquake kills more than 2,000 people in Haiti Sep 2021: El Salvador becomes the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender Sep 2021: A riot at the Litoral prison in Ecuador's Guayaquil kills 126 convicts Sep 2021: Roberto Sandoval is elected governor of Mexico's state Nayarit, and his attorney general Edgar Veytia makes deals with Beltran Leyva cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel Oct 2021: Mexico terminates the Merida Initiative Oct 2021: Colombia captures druglord Dairo Antonio Usuga ("Otoniel"), the leader of the country's largest criminal gang, the Gulf Clan Nov 2021: A second riot at the Litoral prison in Ecuador's Guayaquil kills 68 convicts Nov 2021: Left-wing candidate Xiomara Castro, Mel Zelaya's wife, wins presidential elections in Honduras, ending 12 years in power of the right-wing National Party and becoming the first female president of Honduras Dec 2021: More than 50 people die when a truck full of Central American migrants crashes in southern Mexico's Chiapas state Dec 2021: Leftist candidate Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader, is elected Chile's president, the youngest ever Dec 2021: More than 50 people are killed when a fuel tanker explods in northern Haiti's city of Cap-Haitien 2021: The USA adds to the Engel List of anti-democratic individuals both Ricardo Mendez Ruiz, who served as Rios Montt’s interior minister, now president of Guatemala's right-wing organization Fundaterror, and Guatemala's attorney general Maria Consuelo Porras who has discredited anti-corruption jurists Dec 2021: The Argentine peso loses 18% to the dollar in one year, the Chilean peso 16% and the Colombian peso 15% Dec 2021: Brazil's inflation passes 10%, the highest in 18 years Dec 2021: Almost 100,000 people have disappeared in Mexico, mostly victims of the drug cartels 2021: Brazil's population is 214 million and Mexico's 127 million 2022: The Dominican Republic approves the construction of a 164km border wall to stop migrant crossings and increases deportation of Haitian refugees Feb 2022: Honduras arrests former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, accused by the USA of drug trafficking Mar 2022: El Salvador imposes a state of emergency after 62 gang killings in a single day Mar 2022: Gunmen kill 19 people in Las Tinajas in Mexico's state of Michoacan Mar 2022: Mexico captures druglord Juan Gerardo Trevino Chavez alias “El Huevo” Mar 2022: Guatemala's anti-corruption jurist Erika Aifan flees the country Mar 2022: El Salvador’s largest gang, MS-13, murders 87 people in three days Apr 2022: Ecuador declares a state of emergency over rising gang crime May 2022: At least 43 inmates are killed in a prison riot between rival gangs Los Lobos and R7 in Ecuador's Santo Domingo May 2022: The USA passes one million covid deaths, followed by Brazil with 660,000, India with 523,000 (but more likely 10 times more), Russia 376,000 (more likely 3.5 times more), Mexico 324000, Peru 212000, Britain 176000, Italy 164000, Indonesia 156000, France 146000, Iran 141000, Colombia 149000, Germany 136000, Argentina 129000, while the death rate per million people is 6296 in Peru, 5393 in Bulgaria, 4812 in Hungary, 3741 in Czechia, 3449 in Romania, 3083 in Brazil, 3059 in the USA, 2966 in Chile, 2838 in Greece, 2799 in Argentina, 2723 in Italy, 2568 in Britain Jun 2022: The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia and El Salvador snub the ninth Summit of the Americas in the USA because the USA does not invite the leftist leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela Jun 2022: Gustavo Petro, a former M19 rebel, wins Colombia's presidential election, becoming Colombia’s first leftist president (after leftists won in Chile, Peru and Honduras the previous year) Jul 2022: About 100 people are killed in gang warfare in Haiti's capital Jul 2022: Guatemala's journalist Jose Ruben Zamora, a critic of president Giammattei, is arrested on accusations of money laundering Jul 2022: Mexican troops find and arrest drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero Jul 2022: Argentina's inflation hits 64% Jul 2022: Jose' Ruben Zamora, president of "El Periodico” that carried out dozens of corruption investigations, is arrested by the Guatemala's government Jul 2022: Mexico captures druglord Rafael Caro Quintero Aug 2022: Failed assassination attempt at Argentina's vice president Cristina Fernandez Sep 2022: Violent anti-government protests in Haiti against acting prime minister Ariel Henry Sep 2022: Chileans reject in a referendum the constitution proposed by Boric's leftists government Sep 2022: Almost 7 million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014 Oct 2022: The "Los Tequileros" gang kills 18 people, including the mayor, in southern Mexico's San Miguel Totolapan Oct 2022: Paraguay's communist rebel leader Villalba, leader of the Paraguayan People's Army, is killed by the army Oct 2022: Lula wins narrowly over Bolsonaro and becomes Brazil's president again Nov 2022: Ecuador declares a state of emergency in two provinces (Guayas and Esmeraldas) after a series of attacks by drug cartels kill five police officers, following measures introduced by the government to curb the power of gangs inside prisons, following the death of more than 400 people in gang violence in prisons since 2020 Dec 2022: Congress removes Pedro Castillo Peru's president from office and vice president Dina Boluarte becomes the first female president of Peru 2022: More than 7 million people have left Venezuela since 2015 Dec 2022: Argentina's inflation hits 94.8% Dec 2022: Argentina's inflation soars past 102% 2022: Led by Leo Messi, Argentina wins its third world cup 2022: Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq Jan 2023: 17 people are killed when the Mexicles gang attacks a prison in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez to free their leader, Ernesto "El Neto" Pinon, but he is killed by the police a few days later Jan 2023: The Chinese firm Catl wins the right to develop Bolivia's huge lithium reserves Feb 2023: The USA sentences to jail Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico's security minister under president Felipe Calderon, guilty of taking bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel Feb 2023: El Salvador begins relocating to the new Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, the largest prison in the Americas Apr 2023: A mob lynches 11 gang members in Haiti May 2023: Junior Roldan, a senior leader of Ecuador's Los Choneros gang, is assassinated by a rival gang in Colombia May 2023: Argentina's inflation rises over 100% May 2023: Ecuador's president Guillermo Lasso dissolves parliament before an impeachment vote against him Jun 2023: 13 people are shot dead in Honduras' Choloma during a birthday party and more than 40 female prisoners are killed during a riot in the women's prison of Tamara Jun 2023: Jose Ruben Zamora, a journalist who exposed corruption in Guatemala, is jailed Jun 2023: 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy and her three little siblings survive 40 days alone in the Amazon jungle of Colombia after a plane crash Jun 2023: Panama sentences former president Ricardo Martinelli to jail for money laundering related to a 2010 business deal Jul 2023: Honduran president Xiomara Castro demands that the USA cancels the sanctions imposed against the leftist governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua Jul 2023: Ecuador declares states of emergency and night curfews in three provinces to fight organized crime Aug 2023: Ecuador's presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio is assassinated Aug 2023: Bernardo Arevalo wins presidential elections in Guatemala on an anti-corruption program Aug 2023: The people of Ecuador vote in a referendum against oil drilling in Yasuní National Park Aug 2023: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Emirates and Saudi Arabia join BRICS Sep 2023: Venezuela sends the army to regain control of Tocoron prisons, controlled by Hector Guerrero Flores' gang Tren de Aragua Sep 2023: 68 people die during gang fights in Brazil's Bahia Sep 2023: Mexican drug cartel Sinaloa bans fentanyl production after the USA threatens to intervene Oct 2023: Mexican drug cartel Sinaloa bans fentanyl production after the USA threatens to intervene Oct 2023: Haiti arrests Badio, suspected of ordering the murder of president Moise Oct 2023: Venezuela's president Maduro releases five political prisoners and agrees on free elections Oct 2023: Ecuador elects centrist Daniel Noboa of the National Democratic Action coalition, son of a tycoon, as president, the youngest in the country's history, defeating Luisa Gonzalez of the left-wing Citizen Revolution Movement, hand-picked by former president Rafael Correa, now living in exile Nov 2023: Javier Milei, a Jair Bolsonaro-esque nationalist demagogue who wants to replace the peso with the dollar, wins presidential elections against Sergio Massa, the economy minister in the outgoing Peronist government, as Argentina's inflation reaches an annual 140%, and 40% of Argentines live in poverty 2023: Mexico overtakes China to becomes the number-one exporter to the USA 2023: Ecuador has the highest murder rate of Latin America, followed by Mexico, Colombia and Brazil (major countries only) 2023: Mexico records more than 30,000 murders and a record number of "disappearances" (more than 100,000) 2018: Mexico records 34,656 murders nationwide in 2018, a 30% increase on the previous year, of which 3,159 in Baja California (whose murder rate this year is one of the highest in the world) Jan 2024: Ecuador is shaken by prison riots in Guayaquil and even an assault on a TV station, following the escape from prison of Adolfo "Fito" Macias, head of Los Choneros gang Jan 2024: A prosecutor, Cesar Suarez, is assassinated in Ecuador, and two drug bosses, Adolfo Macias and Fabricio Colon Pico, escape from prison Jan 2024: Venezuela bans opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from running in national elections Feb 2024: Brazil declares a dengue emergency Feb 2024: Argentina’s inflation rate reaches 276%, passing Venezuela's as the highest in the American continent Feb 2024: As gangs control around 80% of Port-au-Prince, gang leader Jimmy Cherizier demands that Haiti's prime minister Ariel Henry resigns and gangs storm a prison helping 3,700 inmates escape Mar 2024: Peru's prime minister Alberto Otarola resigns after a recording seem to prove he was involved in bribery Mar 2024: Boko Haram kidnaps dozens of women in Nigeria's Gamboru Ngala Mar 2024: Panama's electoral tribunal disqualifies Ricardo Martinelli from running in presidential election due to his conviction for money laundering Apr 2024: Peru’s president Dina Boluarte is investigated for corruption and several ministers resign from her government (the "Rolexgate scandal") and for the killings of protesters during the protests over the ousting of her predecessor Pedro Castillo Apr 2024: Ecuadorian police raids the Mexican embassy in Ecuador’s capital to capture Ecuador’s former vice-president Jorge Glas May 2024: Colombia’s parliament bans bullfighting, leaving just seven nations that still permit it (mainly Spain and Mexico) May 2024: Garry Conille is appointed prime minister of Haiti by a Presidential Transition Council May 2024: Jose' Raul Mulino, an ally of Martinelli, is elected president of Panama while billionaire and former president Ricardo Martinelli is hiding in the Nicaraguan embassy Jun 2024: Claudia Sheinbaum, a Jewish woman of Andres Obrador's party and former mayor of Mexico City, is elected Mexico's first woman president after about 40 people running for office have been killed Jun 2024: General Juan Jose' Zuniga attempts a coup in Bolivia but is arrested by Bolivian police Jul 2024: Honduras' former president Juan Orlando Hernandez is sentenced to 45 years in prison in the USA for drug trafficking Jul 2024: Kenya sends peacekeeping troops to Haiti Jul 2024: Ismael Zambada Garcia and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, leaders of Sinaloa drug cartel, are arrested in the USA Aug 2024: The opposition candidate wins presidential elections in Venezuela, but Maduro refuses to recognize the result Oct 2024: Peru’s former president Alejandro Toledo, is convicted of corruption in connection with the Lava Jato scandal 2024: Luke Auld-Thomas discovers the ancient Maya city of Valeriana in Mexico Nov 2024: Peru inaugurates the Chancay megaport built by Chinese company Cosco Shipping 2024: 303 previously unknown geoglyphs are discovered in Peru's Nazca region Nov 2024: Eight people are killed by cartel gunmen in Apaseo el Grande of Mexico's Guanajuato state Dec 2024: The European Union negotiates a trade deal with Mercosur (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) to establish one of the largest trade zones in the world TM, ®, Copyright © 2008-18 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. |
| (Copyright © 2018 Piero Scaruffi) |