Aid and Activism: The UK and Latin America in the Late Twentieth Century

Concerns over human rights in Latin America during the closing decades of the twentieth century prompted organisations in the UK to engage in various ways, from campaigns to raise awareness to sending delegations to assess the situation on the ground. I visited the Modern Records Centre (MRC) on the University of Warwick campus and Senate House Library in London as part of my Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) project on non-governmental British involvement in Latin America. The range of English and Spanish-language sources that I viewed in these archives revealed the solidarity that UK citizens felt with those they perceived as suffering in Latin America.

The influence of second-wave feminism in the UK during the 1990s increased scrutiny of women’s situations in Latin America. The Central American Women’s Network (CAWN) collection in the MRC demonstrates the concern among women in the UK, and the material illustrates the specific campaigns in which the network was involved. One long-running campaign addressed workers’ rights, particularly in female-dominated industries such as textiles, which included maquila factories. These are defined as ‘foreign-owned assembly plants’ which exploited cheaper Latin American labour for products destined for markets such as the United States. Informational pieces on the impact of maquila factories on women in countries like Honduras were produced, highlighting issues such as physical and sexual abuse, as well as a lack of trade union representation. These served to inform CAWN’s members about these issues and to create a network for organising solidarity events and fundraising. It is difficult to gauge the effect of these campaigns, particularly as CAWN was an awareness-raising network rather than an organisation conducting its own projects, but it does reflect significant interest in Latin American affairs within the UK.

Broader concerns about human rights abuses and voting irregularities in the region meant that attention was by no means limited to female-focused organisations, prompting groups from the UK to travel to the region to investigate further and to monitor election processes.

The recent US elections offer contemporary parallels, as the media has reported on controversies surrounding election observing, so it was interesting to see mentions in the London archives of delegations being sent to Latin America to observe elections. A leaflet from 1994 details an appeal from a group called the Latin American Media Project for funding for an election observation mission to Chiapas, Mexico, which was embroiled in the Zapatista uprising that year. Whether this appeal and the delegation were successful is unclear, but it demonstrates that UK organisations believed they could make a positive difference to the challenges in Latin America.

Similarly, concerns about human rights abuses being perpetrated prompted action by UK-based groups. A source from 1998 describes ongoing problems in Chiapas, with the report drawing on information from a delegation that included university academics, an MEP, journalists, and activists. Part of the report is devoted to discussing the situation of the Catholic Church, titled ‘Catholic Church Under Siege,’ and describes how priests and bishops faced reprisals for standing up to Mexican security forces that committed human rights abuses. This report demonstrates awareness in the UK of broader issues in the Latin American world, including the involvement of the Catholic Church in radical social movements.

British involvement in Latin American events during the late twentieth century took various forms, from raising awareness to delegations visiting regions most affected by human rights abuses and conflict. The sources I have described are only a small part of larger collections held in archives such as the MRC and Senate House Library, and I have not attempted a comprehensive assessment of the involvement of UK-based organisations. I hope that this brief overview provides some insight into the contribution of individuals and non-governmental organisations to addressing some of the seemingly intractable challenges in Latin America during that period, and perhaps piques some interest in exploring these resources further.

Involvement in events in Latin America during the final years of the twentieth century by the British public took various forms, ranging from raising awareness to delegations visiting the regions most affected by human rights abuses and conflict. The sources I have described are only a small part of larger collections held in archives like the MRC and Senate House Library, and I have not tried to offer a comprehensive assessment of the involvement of UK-based organisations. I hope that this brief overview provides some insight into the contribution of individuals and non-governmental organisations to addressing some of the seemingly intractable challenges in Latin America during that period, and maybe piqued some interest to explore these resources further.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Central America Women’s Network Newsletter, Issue 7, February 1997; Central America Women's Network (CAWN), Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick (1143/4/29/9).

Chiapas, Before It’s Too Late: A Report by an Independent Delegation to Mexico, March 1998; University of London, Institute of Languages, Cultures and Society, Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (D 320 PAM/3/16).

The Forthcoming Elections in Mexico: A Proposal, 1994; Mexico: Political Pamphlets, University of London, Institute of Languages, Cultures and Society, Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (D 320 PAM/2/10).

Secondary Sources

Chidi, George, ‘Fulton County Brawl with Georgia State Election Board Escalates as Election Approaches’, The Guardian, 10 October 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/10/fulton-county-georgia-election-board [accessed 11 October 2024].

Cooney, Paul, ‘The Mexican Crisis and the Maquiladora Boom: A Paradox of Development or the Logic of Neoliberalism?’, Latin American Perspectives, 28 (2001), 55–83 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3185149 [accessed 12 October 2024].