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Latin American Affairs: Abundance, Inequality, and Violence
In his seminal 1973 work, Open Veins of Latin America, the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano
argues that the process of European state formation was financed by a massive repatriation of
Latin American wealth to the continental metropole. The advent of modern commerce, industry,
and international trade was enabled by the extraction of capital from the American colonies at
the hands of profligate Iberian monarchies who, in turn, used this revenue to pay down massive
debts owed to northern European banking houses. ‘Our defeat’ writes Galeano, ‘was always
implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the
prosperity of others— the empires and their native overseers.’
Despite the abundance of natural wealth in the Americas, the region has historically remained
underdeveloped and dependent on more powerful northern powers. Forty years after Galeano
published his critique of imperialism, the Latin American reality has progressed, yet it continues
to be encumbered by recent and longstanding challenges to its development. To this day, the
region retains a quasi-feudal class structure, and despite recent advances it continues to rank as
the most unequal on the planet according to Gini coefficients compiled annually by the UNDP.
This vast disparity in income directly relates to other pressing issues facing Latin America.
For one, Latin America also has the distinction as being the most dangerous region on the planet.
Indeed, the ten most dangerous cities in the world are all found in Latin America. A combination
of factors contributes to this growing lawlessness: an increase in urban poverty, corrupt law
enforcement, weak judiciaries, and an alarming proliferation of drug-fueled violence throughout
the region. Urban gangs and drug traffickers alike are taking advantage of weak institutional
frameworks to further their own goals with apparent impunity, and at the expense of the civilian
population, in countries like Venezuela, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Historically plagued by authoritarian dictatorships and military interventions, almost all Latin
American countries to date are considered to be democratic regimes. Yet the legitimacy and
efficiency of many governments in the region leaves much to be desired, as many states never
successfully consolidated democracy or created popular civic engagement in the democratic
process. A centralization of power in the executive via constitutional and legislative reform has
led to electoral authoritarianism in countries such as Venezuela and Nicaragua, while the
interference of non-state actors in the electoral process has greatly hampered democratic
governance in places like Colombia, Honduras, and Paraguay. The military and security services
continue to operate autonomously from civilian oversight in most countries, leading to ongoing
human rights abuses.
These challenges aside, and having suffered two decades of economic stagnation following the
Latin American debt crisis of the early 1980s, Latin America is experiencing impressive growth .
From 1980 until 2000, the region registered an abysmal 0.3% per capita GDP growth rate
compared with 1.9% between 2000 and 2010, an increase that demonstrates a newfound ability
to manage economic liberalization with interventionist policies that also maximizes the benefits
of the region’s integration into the global economy. Tellingly, the Latin American middle class
has grown some 50% over the past decade, increasing its presence to encompass one-third of the
entire regional population. Numerous projects and initiatives to further develop regional
integration have been established, most notably the integration of both Mercosur and the Andean
Community into UNASUR. Two hundred years after obtaining independence from the Spanish
and Portuguese empires, Latin American nations are finally heeding the advice of their founding
fathers and pursuing paths to development via regional cooperation rather than looking to distant
powers to help them realize their goals.
Given that the region is finally emerging from an extended period of poor economic
performance, it is important that each country finally achieve a sustainable level of development
in order to preserve and consolidate these recent successes while ensuring that non-state actors
are not able to undermine this progress for their own ends. The only way that Latin America will
realize this goal is to move forward together through a cooperative process of regional
integration that promotes collective goods projects to benefit each and every Latin American
citizen while simultaneously making them more competitive vis-à-vis their counterparts in the
developed world. To this end, dialogue on Latin America’s most pressing social and political
issues-- political economy, security, and inter-American relations, among others--are important
avenues for greater appreciation of the ways in which Latin American nations can meet their
goals.