Transnational student activism during the Latin American Cold War: The case of the Organización Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes (OCLAE) (1966–1980)

Abstract

This article examines the case of the Organización Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes (OCLAE – Latin American Continental Students Organization), considering it an example of transnational student activism. It analyses the OCLAE’s ideological positions and actions during the Cold War, considering the shift in left-wing activism between 1960 and 1980 in the Americas. A clear anti-imperialist and revolutionary commitment during the long sixties in Third World countries seemed to dilute partially with the emergence of dictatorial right-wing regimes between the mid-seventies and the late eighties in South American countries. Since 1973, human rights activism in countries under dictatorial governments was presented by the OCLAE as another means of Latin American and internationalist – and even anti-imperialist – solidarity. Finally, this article proposes a transnational periodisation of student activism. In this regard, analysing the actions and positions of a Latin American organisation with links to local geographies allows us to think of cycles and substages without resorting to the sum of national cases.