Chile, Argentina, Venezuela: Democratic culture, the crisis of neo-liberalism

Beatriz Sarlo, Argentine literary critic, social historian Margarita López Maya (Venezuela) and the political scientist Véronica Valdivia Ortiz (Chile) in conversation with Silvia Fehrmann, cultural studies (Buenos Aires / Berlin)

In 1989, with Pinochet in Chile and Stroessner in Paraguay, the last remaining dictatorships in Latin America collapse. The 'Transición' begins. The fact that democracies do not necessarily stand for non-violence is demonstrated by Venezuela: mass uprisings in Caracas directed against a package of neo-liberal economic measures are brutally suppressed. In conformity with the Washington Consensus, Argentina pursues radical liberal economic reforms. Brazil follows suit. Today, however, the uprising in Venezuela is considered the birth of the 'Revolución Bolivariana'. In a talk with Silvia Fehrmann, Argentinean literary critic Beatriz Saria, Venezuelan historian Margarita López Maya, and others examine the implications of 1989.

In co-operation with the Ibero-American Institute.

See also:

Memoria del Saqueo - Chronicle of a Plundering (Film), Sat 21.2., 16:30 h, repeat: Tue 24.2., 20:00 h More...

Jorge Volpi reads from "Ashes of Time" (Reading), Sun 22.2., 14:00 h More...

Redefiniciones del campo intelectual tras la caída del muro - Beatriz Sarlo at the Ibero American Institute (Lecture), Mon 23.2., 19:00 h More...

The participants

Silvia Fehrmann, Cultural Scholar and Journalist, Berlin. Born in Buenos Aires, then worked at the Goethe Institute as Coordinator for press and sponsoring, and wrote for daily and weekly newspapers on cultural and political topics. After a stint as correspondent for Argentine media in New York, she was head of publicity from 2004 to 2007 at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. Today Fehrmann is head of the communications department at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Margarita López Maya, Professor of Development Studies, Caracas. For the last 25 years, López Maya has been researching and teaching the political history of Venezuela. Her posts include: Notre Dame Visiting Fellow at the Helen Kellogg Institute, Indiana/USA, Andrés Bello Fellow at the University of Oxford, Oxford, and Tinker Foundation Fellow at Columbia University, New York. She is currently a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, where she is working on the research project "Participatory Innovations in Bolivarian Caracas.” López Maya is Honorary Professor at the Center for Development Studies (CENDES) at the Central University of Venezuela, Caracas.

Verónica Valdivia Ortiz, Professor of History, Santiago, studied Visual Arts at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, where she received a doctorate in American Studies. Currently, she is a lecturer at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile and Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago/Chile. Her research focuses on the Chilean military dictatorship. Her publications include: "Terrorism and Political Violence During the Pinochet Years: Chile, 1973-1989" (in: Radical History Review 85), and "Chile: The Coup after the Coup" (in: World Trends 49).

Beatriz Sarló, Professor of Argentine Literature, Buenos Aires, studied literature at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires/Argentina. She focuses on the history of media, film and pop, as well as on urban culture. During the military dictatorship in 1978, she founded the magazine Punto de Vista. Sarló has taught in Columbia, Maryland and Berkeley and was Simon Bolivar Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge. She received scholarships from the Wilson Center, Washington/USA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. She has published numerous books, including "Una modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930" (1988), "Borges. A Writer on the Edge "(1993) and "Literatura/Sociedad "(with Carlos Altamirano, 1997).