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The URSS clearly influenced the movement and supported it, but "created" is a strech.
Please allow a comment from someone who lives in south america:
For al long time the corrupt ruling parties (or simply dictators) in this region oppressed the people and created an ideal breeding ground for this kind of movement. In the cold war era anyone who professed "anti communism", at least in words, was granted help and military assistance from the US and this of course left a very sour taste in anyone who aspired to a different kind of society. Nobody likes to have friends or relatives tortured by someone who just came from the Escuela de las Americas, and let me tell you the vast majority of these people were not even extremists in many countries.
So, the USA was in fact an ally of corrupt/tyrannical goverments in the region and this helped to create the Theology of Liberation as much as the URSS support.
Jimmy Carter is seen as an idiot and weakling by many people in the US, yet for many people in south america he was the first US president that put real pressure on the dictators/juntas and helped a transition towards democracy, a bumpy road that still continues today.
Seems like history repeats itself over and over, doesn't it?
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