Answer:
The people of Latin America had very little experience with self-government.
Explanation:
As it has been documented, most of the military dictators in Latin America were trained in the School of the Americas, an institution that in the context of the Cold War guaranteed the fidelity of the Latin American armies to the foreign policy of the United States. In the case of Latin America, the threat of communism was commonly used as a pretext.
The typical military dictatorship in Latin America is led by a board or a committee composed of the leadership of the military's General Staff. This was how it happened in Argentina, between 1976 and 1983, in Uruguay between 1973 and 1984, in Chile between 1973 and 1990, Bolivia, between 1971 and 1978. In Paraguay, from 1954 to 1989, Dominican Republic, from 1930 to 1961, Peru , from 1968 to 1975, Ecuador, from 1972 to 1976. Colombia, between 1953 and 1957, Nicaragua between 1936 and 1956, Brazil from 1964 to 1985, Venezuela, between 1953 and 1958.
Like all dictatorships, a military dictatorship can be official or informal (some military dictators, such as Omar Torrijos Herrera and Manuel Noriega in Panama, appeared nominally subordinated to the civil government, despite being the strong man of the regime). The degree of control by the military over civil society is variable, there being more or less mixed situations, where the military exerts a very strong influence without being entirely dominant.
