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The State of the Left in Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeffrey Gould and Doug Bell discuss recent political trends in Latin America.

Jeet Heer

June 28, 2023

Demonstrators protest against the constitutional process during a meeting of the Constitutional Convention outside the former Chilean National Congress in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.(Cristobal Olivares / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Time of Monsters: The State of the Left in Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua
byThe Nation Magazine

This week we return to Central and South America with Jeffrey Gould, a scholar and filmmaker who has a long history of documenting social movements in the region. Currently distinguished visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Gould is author of many books on social movements in Latin America, including the recent Solidarity Under Siege (2019). In this discussion we’re joined by journalist Doug Bell. This episode is a follow up to a previous conversation with Gould and Bell in February.

Gould has just returned from a trip to Chile and El Salvador. He discusses developments in those countries, including the difficulties the left in Chile is facing in its efforts to amend the constitution. While the Chilean left is meeting resistance, it is still much more robust than the left in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Gould discusses why once vibrant political movements in those countries have gone into abeyance. Among the themes of the discussion are the need for movements to be grounded in working class activism and also the problems issues like immigration and crime present to the left.

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This week, we return to Central and South America with Jeffrey Gould, a scholar and filmmaker who has a long history of documenting social movements in the region. Currently distinguished visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Gould is author of many books on social movements in Latin America, including the recent Solidarity Under Siege (2019). In this discussion we’re joined by journalist Doug Bell. This episode is a follow up to a previous conversation with Gould and Bell in February.

Gould has just returned from a trip to Chile and El Salvador. He discusses developments in those countries, including the difficulties the left in Chile is facing in its efforts to amend the Constitution. While the Chilean left is meeting resistance, it is still much more robust than the left in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Gould discusses why once-vibrant political movements in those countries have gone into abeyance. Among the themes of the discussion are the need for movements to be grounded in working-class activism and also the problems issues like immigration and crime present to the left.

Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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