Banana Republics

I encountered a certain someone on Medium, an intelligent man to be sure but still mistaken, who believes most authoritarian regimes from the 20th century were “Left Wing” as well as various Banana Republics, citing obvious Cold War propaganda as truth.

Most of the information I have found over the years and from people who actually remember that bloody war from 60 years ago gave explanations which always shifted to the right of the political spectrum. There was also this rather bad habit of comparing current political contexts to ones from the past, as if they were similar or congruent. I digress.

When discussing Banana Republics, keep in mind governments changed rather quickly during the periods outside interests, such as the US, got involved. Actual socialist governments elected democratically by the people were quickly undermined by other countries, mostly the US. They were smeared by the West as communist without a shred of proof. The alleged brutality of these regimes only manifested after these democratic governments were dissolved and a new right-wing dictatorship, sympathetic to Western interests and its corporations, took power. Here is an essay on the subject from 1997 by P. Landmeier.