Editing History of South America (section)

===Late 20th century military regimes and revolutions===

[[File:Presidentes unasur (cropped).jpg|thumb|240px|Presidents of [[UNASUR]] member states at the Second Summit on 23 May 2008.]]
By the 1970s, leftists had acquired a significant political influence which prompted the right-wing, ecclesiastical authorities and a large portion of each individual country's upper class to support coups d'état to avoid what they perceived as a communist threat. This was further fueled by Cuban and United States intervention which led to a political polarisation. Most South American countries were in some periods ruled by [[military dictatorship]]s that were supported by the United States of America.

Also around the 1970s, the regimes of the [[Southern Cone]] collaborated in [[Operation Condor]] killing many [[leftist]] dissidents, including some [[urban guerrilla]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.el-universal.com.mx/editoriales/34023.html |author=[[Víctor Flores Olea]] |title=Editoriales&nbsp;– El Universal&nbsp;– 10 de abril 2006: Operacion Condor |publisher=[[El Universal (Mexico)]] |access-date=2009-03-24 |language=es |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070628021303/http://www.el-universal.com.mx/editoriales/34023.html |archive-date=2007-06-28 }}</ref>
However, by the early 1990s all countries had restored their democracies.

Colombia has had an ongoing, though diminished internal conflict, which started in 1964 with the creation of [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[guerrilla warfare|guerrillas]] ([[Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia|FARC-EP]]) and then involved several illegal armed groups of leftist-leaning ideology as well as the private armies of powerful drug lords. Many of these are now defunct, and only a small portion of the ELN remains, along with the stronger, though also greatly reduced FARC. These leftist groups smuggle narcotics out of Colombia to fund their operations, while also using kidnapping, bombings, land mines and assassinations as weapons against both elected and non-elected citizens.
[[File:Chavez Kirch Lula141597.jpg|thumb|240px|Presidents [[Hugo Chávez]], [[Néstor Kirchner]], and [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]] met on January 19, 2006, in [[Granja do Torto]]]] [[File:Flag of UNASUR.svg|thumb|240px|Flag of the [[Union of South American Nations]]]]
Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships became common after [[World War II]], but since the 1980s, a wave of democratisation came through the continent, and democratic rule is widespread now.<ref>"The Cambridge History of Latin America", edited by Leslie Bethell, Cambridge University Press (1995) {{ISBN|0-521-39525-9}}</ref> Nonetheless, allegations of corruption are still very common, and several countries have developed crises which have forced the resignation of their governments, although, in most occasions, regular civilian succession has continued.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay were overthrown or displaced by U.S.-aligned [[military dictatorship]]s. These detained tens of thousands of [[political prisoner]]s, many of whom were tortured and/or killed (on inter-state collaboration, see [[Operation Condor]]). Economically, they began a transition to [[neoliberal]] economic policies. They placed their own actions within the U.S. [[Cold War]] doctrine of
"National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, [[Peru]] suffered from an [[Internal conflict in Peru|internal conflict]] (see [[Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement]] and [[Shining Path]]). Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships have been common, but starting in the 1980s a wave of democratization came through the continent, and democratic rule is now widespread. Allegations of corruption remain common, and several nations have seen crises which have forced the resignation of their presidents, although normal civilian succession has continued. [[Debt of developing countries|International indebtedness]] became a recurrent problem, with examples like the [[Latin American debt crisis|1980s debt crisis]], the mid-1990s [[Mexican peso crisis]] and [[Argentina]]'s [[1998–2002 Argentine great depression|2001 default]].