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• 1 2019-12-01T21:58:35-08:00 U.S. Interventions in Latin America 7 plain 2019-12-10T10:15:07-08:00

  The mural “Prevent World War III”, which includes Raya’s “The Fallen Dictator” mural, was originally created in the 1980s, originally in response to Ronald Reagan’s prospective election, and with it, the looming threat of nuclear war and other global and environmental disasters. The mural was created guerrilla style by 10 muralists from the midwest, which included John Weber, Carlos Cortez, José Guerrero, and Caryl Yasko. Marcos Raya, throughout the years returned to the mural to update it. He added references reflecting the current political atmosphere of the U.S ., such as racist immigration policies, and U.S. involvement in narco-states. In 2016, Raya was granted $10,000 to update the mural with a small crew. “Prevent World War III” is one of the few murals in Chicago that is still relevant after almost 40 years. What used to be Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter fighting over a missile was updated to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fighting over it in light of the 2016 presidential election by Mirella Campos.  U.S. politics are constantly changing, but there are some things that still stay relevant after years, even decades, such as U.S. involvement in other countries, immigration policies, and the war on drugs.  
  
  Marcos Raya makes some very strong political statements in his mural. The first section of his mural (all the way to the “USA out of Colombia” part) is criticizing the U.S. involvement in Latin America. The U.S. has a long history of military coups that lead to dictators taking over, making the country worse than before. This mural is an obvious attack to the United States, because it sees itself as a savior. It sees communism as a disease, and intervenes in things that would only prevent the U.S. from being the World’s top superpower. What appears to be guerrillas are portrayed, ready to fight. Guerrillas were the groups fighting for Latin American countries. 
  
  
  
   

  On the far left of the mural, the words “STOP PLAN MERIDA” are written, referring to a security initiative between the U.S. and Mexico in order to stop drug trafficking. This is a reference to Plan Colombia, in which the U.S. funded what they thought was going to be the prevention of Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups in Colombia. However, this failed drastically and only led to more violence and a more unstable country, as a result of the increase in military weapons and U.S. presence. The war between the Mexican government and the cartels has gotten worse, and the demand for drug consumerism in the U.S. has not changed. Instead of focusing the efforts in lowering the demand for drugs in the U.S., the U.S. instead is using violence to stop this, which proved to be ineffective. The struggle for democracy in Latin America is heavily influenced by U.S. involvement, and are still dealing with the effects of the U.S. trying to stop the spread of socialism in the second half of the 20th century. There are revolutions happening 
  
  The reason why many people from Latin America immigrate to the United States is because of the effects that U.S. interventions have had in those countries. Raya is showing this and criticizing it in "The Fallen Dictator".