Friendly Observer
By Arthur Keefe
Cheer the voice
of the people
The history of Latin America is one of deep
tragedy. The Incas and other war-like tribes imposed barbaric regimes across
Central America before the arrival of Europeans. Human sacrifice and slavery
were the foundation of the Inca Empire.
The Spanish and Portuguese displaced them with their own
version of barbarism and genocide. Many tribes were virtually exterminated by a
combination of military massacre and virulent diseases against which the
'Indians' had no resistance. Some countries today, such as Chile and Argentina
have only small pockets of indigenous people remaining and in the more Northern
areas, these are the rural peasants, until recently ruled by the landed white
descendants of the Spanish and, in Brazil, Portuguese settlers.