Editing South America (section)

===Rise and fall of military dictatorships===
Wars became less frequent in the 20th century, with Bolivia-Paraguay and Peru-Ecuador fighting the last inter-state wars. Early in the 20th century, the [[ABC countries|three wealthiest South American countries]] engaged in [[South American dreadnought race|a vastly expensive naval arms race]] which began after the introduction of a new warship type, the "[[dreadnought]]". At one point, the Argentine government was spending a fifth of its entire yearly budget for just two dreadnoughts, a price that did not include later in-service costs, which for the Brazilian dreadnoughts was sixty percent of the initial purchase.<ref>Richard Hough, ''The Big Battleship'' (London, England: Michael Joseph, 1966), p. 19. {{oclc|8898108}}.</ref><ref>Robert Scheina, ''Latin America: A Naval History, 1810–1987'' (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987), p. 86. {{ISBN|0-87021-295-8}}. {{oclc|15696006}}.</ref>

[[File:Soldadosargentinos3.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|left|Argentine soldiers during the [[Falklands War]]]]
The continent became a battlefield of the [[Cold War]] in the late 20th century. Some democratically elected governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay were overthrown or displaced by military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s. To curtail opposition, their governments detained tens of thousands of [[political prisoner]]s, many of whom were tortured or killed on [[Operation Condor|inter-state collaboration]]. Economically, they began a transition to [[neoliberal]] economic policies. They placed their own actions within the US Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from [[Internal conflict in Peru|an internal conflict]].

In 1982, Argentina invaded the [[Falklands War|Falkland Islands]], a British [[British Overseas Territory|dependent territory]]. The [[Falklands War]] began and 74 days later [[Argentine surrender in the Falklands War|Argentine forces surrendered]].<ref>{{cite web|title=June 14, 1982: Falklands War comes to an end as Britain accepts Argentina's surrender|url=https://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/june-14-1982-falklands-war-comes-to-an-end-as-britain-accepts-argentinas-surrender-11363986434075|website=BT Group|access-date=6 December 2020|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806081007/http://home.bt.com/news/on-this-day/june-14-1982-falklands-war-comes-to-an-end-as-britain-accepts-argentinas-surrender-11363986434075|url-status=live}}</ref>

Colombia has had an ongoing, though diminished internal conflict, which started in 1964 with the creation of [[Marxist]] [[guerrillas]] (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.

Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships became common after World War II, but since the 1980s, a wave of democratization passed 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, on most occasions, regular civilian succession has continued.

[[Debt of developing countries|International indebtedness]] became a significant problem in the late 1980s, and some countries, despite having strong democracies, have not developed political institutions capable of handling such crises without resorting to unorthodox economic policies. This was illustrated by Argentina's [[Argentine economic crisis (1999-2002)|default]] in the early 21st century.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leslie Bethell|title=Bibliographical Essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6tNWbywFXhkC|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39525-0|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=1 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101123048/https://books.google.com/books?id=6tNWbywFXhkC|url-status=live}}</ref> There has been an increased push towards [[Integration of Latin America|regional integration]], with the creation of uniquely South American institutions such as the [[Andean Community]], [[Mercosur]] and [[Unasur]]. Starting with the election of [[Hugo Chávez]] in Venezuela in 1998, the region experienced a [[pink tide]] – the election of several leftist and center-left administrations in most countries, except the Guianas and Colombia.