Studying or at least familiarizing yourself with the modern history of Latin America should be mandatory in the Arab world. The region was the original laboratory for neoliberalism; the playground for “the Chicago Boys” (the economists taught by Milton Friedman at the Chicago School of Economics; the architect of neoliberalism).
It is a history that is both horrific and inspiring, because of the tremendous repression and the phenomenal popular struggles against it.
In Bolivia, for example, you have the bloody “Cocaine Coup” in 1971 literally financed by CIA-protected drug lords, and organized under the supervision of Nazi war criminal Kaus Barbie. This was followed by systematic persecution of labor unions, banning political parties, decimating civil society, and ramming through neoliberal economic policies. It was a government that could actually say publicly “anyone who opposes the government should walk around with a copy of his written will under his arm”.
The people continued, however, to defy the regime, mobilizing en masse year after year, until some semblance of democracy was restored. Every time the government betrayed the population, the population rose. When multinationals imposed their control, the people fought them. It was in Bolivia that Bechtel monopolized water to such an extent that they were able to make it a criminal offence for people to collect rainwater. But Bechtel was ultimately driven out.
All of these experiences; in Bolivia, in Chile, in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Argentina, and Brazil; are deeply informative for us as we face the onslaught of neoliberalism and corporate occupation in our lands. If we are wise enough to acknowledge that what we are facing is not something unique, not something unprecedented; and if we choose to learn from the experiences of those who have experience.