Ryan Reeder
History 490
William Hamblin
February 20, 2001
Secondary Focus: Latin American attacks against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1988 and 1992, including attacks in Peru, Bolivia and Chile
Primary Focus: The assassination of Elders Jeffrey Brent Ball and Todd Ray Wilson in La Paz, Bolivia on May 24, 1989.
Thesis: The assassination of Elders Jeffrey Brent Ball and Todd Ray Wilson in La Paz, Bolivia on May 24, 1989 was one of the more tragic incidents of violence directed against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1988 and 1992, resulting from opposition to United States policies in Latin America during that period.
Question: Why did these politically motivated attacks on The Church take place in Latin America during the Bush administration?
Initial Point-While the Church has been targeted and often attacked throughout its history, these attacks have rarely been politically motivated (Exception-Mexican Revolution). As an indicator, looking at missionaries that have been killed. Motivations for these attacks included anti-Mormon sentiment in the 19th century, some cases of disturbed individuals in the 1970s, and random killings not specifically directed against neither the Church nor the missionary in the 1990s. Yet during the Bush administration, between 1989 and 1993, various attacks occurred against The Church in Latin America. One missionary was shot in the Dominican Republic. Many LDS Chapels were bombed in Peru and Chile. And five missionaries were killed-two Americans in Bolivia and three Peruvians in Peru. Why were they killed? In this paper, I plan to look at one of the more publicized attacks, the murders of Elders Jeffrey Brent Ball and Todd Ray Wilson who were gunned down in La Paz, Bolivia on May 24, 1989, as a case to determine why these acts of violence took place.
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