Introduction : the changing status of the Latin American left in the recent past -- The political left in Chile, 1973-1990 -- Radicalization and the left in Peru, 1976-1991 -- Popular liberalism, radical democracy, and Marxism : leftist politics in contemporary Colombia, 1974-1991 -- Mexico : the perils of unity and the challenge of modernization -- Armed struggle and popular resistance in El Salvador : the struggle for peace -- The crisis of Bolivian radicalism -- The Venezuelan left : from years of prosperity to economic crisis -- The Argentine left since Peron -- Left political ideology and practice -- Guerilla warfare in the 1980s. Trade union struggle and the left in Latin America, 1973-1990 -- Something old, something new : Brazil's Partido dos Trabalhadores.