Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, numbered RTT 95-10039 and dated October 1995, presents the proceedings of a conference held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored the conference. In it, academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials examined ethnic conflict by region, covering Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. The report also discusses what these conflicts mean for US policy. It does not deal with UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Nevers”25 pages
Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268 The Ethnic Challenge to National and International Order in South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean During the 1990s: Geographical . Perspectives Gary S. Elbow Professor of Geography Texas Tech University Introduction As in so many other regions of the world, there is much ethnic diversity in Latin America and the Carib- bean. In addition to the well-recognized Amerind, African, and Iberian elements, one finds representa- tives of nearly all major European ethnic groups as well as many Middle Eastern and East and South Asian groups. In contrast to many other areas of the world, most of these ethnic populations are immi- grants to the region who lack longstanding historic associations with New World territory but who have generally been well integrated into the national cul- tures of the countries in which they reside. As such, most are not considered ethnic minorities but rather members of the national culture whose ancestors came from a non-Hispanic area. Two countries, Argentina and Peru, are currently governed by non-Hispanics, Carlos Saul Menem, a Syrian-Argentine, and Alberto Fujimori, a Japanese-Peruvian, respectively, and members of these and other non-Iberian immigrant groups are locally important in politics, business, or industry. For example, the Bucaram, Nebot, and Saad families are important in Guayaquil, Ecuador, as are various families of Syrian and Lebanese descent in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and of Japanese descent in Brazil. In general, Latin America is less prone to ethnic con- flict than many other regions of the world. Conflicts within the region are more often related to class differ- ences, declining standards of living, and unequal distribution of access to resources, employment opportunities, oripolitical power than they are to purely ethnic factors. For example, the guerrilla insurgencies of Sendero Luminoso and Tupac Amaru in Peru, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the civil war in El Salvador, and recent outbreaks of vio- lence in Venezuela are largely nonethnic conflicts. Although these conflicts may involve disaffected members of nonruling ethnic groups, the root causes of the violence lie more in nonethnic issues. Fre- quently, ethnic groups are drawn unwillingly into political conflicts or are duped into participation by one side or the other, even though there is no explic- itly “ethnic” agenda in the objectives of the opposing sides. Thus, the presence of minority ethnic groups on one side or the other of a Latin American political or armed conflict does not necessarily mean that it has its origin in ethnic issues. Although Latin America is not an area in which ethnic conflict is likely to escalate to a level of international importance on a par with, for example, the Middle East, Africa, or the Balkan states, considerable tension does exist among ethnic groups in South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. There have been frequent ethnic conflicts in the past, and the potential for future conflict, either armed or through political action, exists in several parts ofthe region. The most active conflicts at present, and probably for the remainder of the decade and longer, are in areas of traditional Indian occupation and involve encounters between Indians and the state.‘ Indian Populations and the State The regional b"as"es"of conflict between the Latin American states and their Indian populations may be divided conveniently into highland and lowland. In a 1 Indian is a very complex term as used in Latin America because it refers to cultural identity not biological characteristics. Thus. Indi- ans are people who self-identify as Indians and who retain distinc- tive characteristics of dress, language, economy, and beliefs that set them apart from the Hispanicized population of the country in which they reside. People who are bom Indians may pass into the mestizo majority by learning Spanish. leaving their community of birth, and adopting other Hispanic cultural traits. This process has occurred since early colonial times and accounts for a large share of the mestizo population in many Latin American countries. 86 Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.