The United States of… South America?!?!
A big mistake is comparing individual countries, regardless of sizes and regional implicancies. The United States of America, for example, is composed of 51 states and 300 million inhabitants. Consider that the division between Latinamerica and North America (US and Canada), is a commercial division for business purposes invented by the US. At schools in the US, people learn there are two Americas: North America (until the Panama channel), and South America (from the Panama channel southwards). In South America, at school they teach that America is only ONE continent, since the Panama channel is man-made and should not count as division. I will stick to the US definition. Check out HDI for North America in the graph below. We see a big stretch. From US to Canada (most developed), to Mexico and Panama (mildly developed), to Central America (non-developed). Many times, when people in the first world think about Latinamerica they think about Central America, and consider it is all the same. Since under US definition Central America actually belongs to North America, I consider it is under US influence and it is the US, as North-America’s leader, that should be occupied in solving the region’s problems.
This differentiation is crucial: Nicaragua or Honduras, Ecuador or Argentina, is not the same. I will then focus exclusively in the South American region. The region of South America contains 10 countries with around 400 million inhabitants. It could be mainly divided in two: Brasil (Portuguese speaking – 200 million), and the rest (Spanish speaking – 200 milion). However, I will divide the Spanish speaking region as well in four: - South-south America: composed of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. More European influenced and highest ranked in the Human Developing Index (HDI). - Bolivia and Paraguay: the most indigenous today, and least developed. Also, culturally speaking, more reactive cultures. - North-South America: Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Composed mainly of mestizos and mulatos, they present criminality rates closer to the Caribbean region. - The Incas: Peru, as a link between South-South America and North-South America, it is also indigenous like Bolivia and Paraguay but it was house to the Incas, a very advanced civilization that populated the region before Spanish colonization. The Incas were the most developed indigenous people in the region.
Now, many efforts have been made towards achieving regional integration in South America, none of them have really led to good results. The creation of the Mercosur [50] was to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency, between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and later Venezuela. Whatever it’s original intentions, barriers to trade have exacerbated making the formation irrelevant. As it has happened in the European Union, every country started pushing towards their own interests. What is the point of having a trade union if barriers to trade are established? Politics will many times beat common sense.
On the West Coast, in 2011 the Pacific Alliance [51] was created. It is an initiative of regional integration comprised by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Perú. Its objectives are to move towards free movement of goods, services, resources and people within it’s members. To drive further growth, development and competitiveness of the economies of its members, focused on achieving greater well-being, overcoming socioeconomic inequality and promote the social inclusion of its inhabitants. And to become a platform of political articulation, economic and commercial integration and projection to the world, with emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
Let us not forget that the region was divided between “right and left” during the dictatorship period that lasted until recent years. Only in the beginning of the 2000s did the region start to become truly economically independent. Consider that, whereas the Mercosur countries took a tone towards the left, the Pacific Alliance has gone right (free-markets). Differences persist then in a region divided even today. Can the political leaders understand the benefit of joining both forces, left and right? Both economical regions, “The West and the East”?
That would be the best solution. The goal should be not to “choose” between Mercosur and Pacific Alliance, but to integrate both in a larger South American conglomerate. Both channels have it’s advantages. While the Pacific Alliance strengthens bonds with the US and the Asia Pacific region, the Mercosur integrates with Russia and China through Brazil and the BRICS. Why choose then? Argentina could use Chile’s already existing business channels to export indirectly to it’s commercial partners. Synergies could be found within the two countries: Chile importing raw goods from Argentina, adding value, and selling to US and Asia Pacific; while Argentina imports raw goods from Chile, adds value, and exports to Russia or China. These contacts and synergies should be performed at a higher level, in a comprehensive strategy. However, it is my impression that conflicts of the past and politics come between the common interest of these countries.
Different is the case of Bolivia and Paraguay. As explained before, these are the regions’ least developed countries. However, they present similar development levels to India and South Africa, so they are not as bad as people think. The greatest issue that these countries face is analphabetism and lack of proper education. This is, besides discrimination, what in reality makes them unattractive to the local Argentinian job market. People move from Bolivia to Argentina to get a better life, but because they do not have any skills, they are easily excluded from the job market. The solution is to attack the problem at it’s root. I mean, Bolivians and Paraguayans will always keep crossing the border, that cannot be stopped. The richer and more powerful South American nations should create a wealth fund to finance the countries’ development. By building schools, roads, hospitals and infrastructure, they can ensure healthy neighboring economies. This is key to the region’s success, and the mistake Europe has made.
As explained before, by strangling southern-european countries Northern Europe has graved it’s own graveyard. South America needs to understand the ring effect neighboring economies have on them as well. With a healthy Bolivia and Paraguay, there would be a larger consumption market to export products to. Also, if people stay in school at least until they are 15 years old, this will make them much more attractive to the job market if they decide to move to Argentina. Collaborating with Bolivia’s development, Argentina will solve it’s own migration issue, while getting the benefit of skilled labor for new industries as well as a larger market for their products or services. The region must finally come to terms with itself and understand it’s need for unification to tackle a global world. I hope it does.
https://alianzapacifico.net/en/what-is-the-pacific-alliance/#what-is-the-pacific-alliance
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