countries

Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (full title "His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings and Elect of God") has almost universally been remembered as a kindly benefactor, yet the evidence suggesting otherwise is overwhelming.

See also our 1900-2000: Iraq timeline

The historical processes that have transformed Thai society, and which are still in the process of transforming it, are no exception from the general world trend. Thailand has been changed out of all recognition during the last 150 years.

Panama has been traditionally controlled by its tiny European elite, less than 10% of the population. That changed in 1968, when Omar Torrijos, a populist general, led a coup that allowed the black and mestizo [mixed-race] poor to obtain at least a share of the power under his military dictatorship.

It wasn't just the events in El Salvador that were ignored by the mainstream US media during the 1970s. In the ten years prior to the overthrow of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, US television - all networks - devoted exactly one hour to Nicaragua, and that was entirely on the Managua earthquake of 1972.

The Revolution was the period which saw the Mexican state begin its transformation from an oligarchical-landowners' government to the one-party corporatist model which survived for so long

Making Guatemala a killing field

The crucifixion of El Salvador
For many years, repression, torture and murder were carried on in El Salvador by dictators installed and supported by the US government, a matter of no interest in the US. The story was virtually never covered. By the late 1970s, however, the government began to be concerned about a couple of things.

The genocide which occurred in Rwanda in 1994, in which majority-Hutu militias wiped out from 500,000 to a million of the minority-Tutsi population is well-known. The complicity and even help given the Hutu government by the UN and the French government is less well-known, however.