The traumatic experiences of Latin American countries from 1950s to
the 1980s clearly illustrate the region’s political circumstances during
the Cold War. Although many other regions shared authoritarian
experiences during this period, David Harvey asserts that the South
American dictatorial regimes of 1970s-1980s may be distinguished as
the direct consequence of political-economic engineering. I focus my
attention on Chile—and to a lesser extent Argentina—with the
purpose of providing a comparative framework to examine the
Southern Cone as an object of analysis in terms of the rise and social
and cultural impact of neoliberal policies. While sharing a similar
imposition of neoliberalism through authoritarianism, both nations
have nonetheless experienced significant divergences in their
respective socio-political trajectories during the last 15 years. In the
Argentine case, this has been driven by the after-effects of the 2001
financial collapse, when neoliberal economic policies were drastically
displaced, while at the same time making considerable progress in
addressing human rights issues. Until recently, Chile, on the other
hand, has continued to deepen and refine the implementation of
neoliberal agendas.