The “Militarism is Anti-Democratic” research team of UC Berkeley’s Democracy and Media Project sought to investigate whether or not this correlation holds true in the first two decades of the 21st Century. In particular, the team focused on US funding/ training of security forces in four countries in the Americas with proven records of contemporary, massive human rights violations such as extrajudicial executions: Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. In each country, covered in its own chapter below, the team’s research found that an ongoing correlation exists between high levels of US security “assistance” and gross human rights violations. 

 

In these case studies, the correlation reveals the same causal relationship  that Chomsky and Herman exposed. The U.S. government has increased funding and weaponization of security forces in these 4 countries, bolstering repressive regimes that have maintained a “favorable investment climate” for U.S. corporations while excluding the impoverished majority from meaningful, democratic power.

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