"World: Pattern of Terror." TIME 24 Aug 1970: n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2011.
This article is simply a collection of some of the more major incidents of various political assassinations that took place in Latin America in the 60's and 70's. Most of the assassinations are of ambassadors of various nations. The killings themselves seem to primarily be done by guerillas. Not much reason is given for these assassinations, except one mention of it being done based on “war crimes.”
The 60's and 70's were infamous for the assassinations and disappearances that took place in Latin America. These assassinations seemed to be similar to the situation in Firefly, to some extent. In the movie, the Operative is trying to hunt down the crew and fetch River Tam. Cold and willing to kill, the Operative ruthlessly hunts them down, and murders several people who get in the way. This is all done based on the escape of River Tam from an Academy that was training her to also be an assassin. Her brother helped her escape from the mental torture that they used to train her. In helping her get out, he managed to steal valuable secrets that could compromise the integrity of the Alliance. Although not for the same reasons as the Latin American assassinations, they are done in a similar vein. The Operative does fail in the end, but several crew members end up dying. The crew then manages to broadcast the history of the Reavers throughout the system, forever damaging the reputation of the Alliance, but not taking it down.
Maybe the assasins were brain washed similar to the assasins in firefly and therefore having only the motive given to them by their leaders.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good aspect of Firefly to focus on. Hostage situations were common in Latin America, and still are sometimes today. You can probably find instances of this in most nationalities, especially 2nd and 3rd world countries in Central & South America. Parts of Africa and Asia, along with more crime filled areas of Europe may contain more instances of kidnapping for various purposes.
ReplyDeleteOne famous example of an assassination attempt in Central America was the many attempts of the United Stats government to assassinate Fidel Castro. In fact, at one point they hired out mobsters to do the job. Obviously, they were never successful.
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