Psy-Ops, Co-Opts, and Preferential Optics: Latin American Pentecostalism in the Cold War Era

In Latin America, Pentecostal communities once relegated to the social periphery now exercise pervasive political influence, with Pentecostal leaders eager to fill the ranks of the political class.  Reflecting a penchant for ostentatious displays of political theater, Pentecostals have attracted scrutiny from critics. Narratives attributing Pentecostalism's Latin American rise primarily to US government intervention and backroom conspiracies have gained a recent resurgent popularity across social media platforms, painting a distorted picture.  A fuller assessment of Pentecostalism’s move from the social margins to the political mainstream reveals complex dynamics — at times instructive, at times cautionary. This paper reviews key points of disjuncture between existing research and popular narratives, revisits Cold War era sources, and theorizes about the popularity of these conspiracy theories.  We employ a preferential optic that centers the religion/s of the poor and interrogates North American religious interventions.