ABSTRACT
Latin American history since independence has been marked by the violent struggle for political power. While there were exceptions, the vast majority of countries failed to escape the violence generated in the process of independence and the creation of nation-states in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Likewise, few Latin American countries escaped the political instability and, in many cases, political violence associated with the emergence of mass-based politics in the early part of the twentieth century or the subsequent emergence of military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s, which were characterized by an unprecedented level of state violence.
