GDP of Countries in North and South America

1. GDP of Countries in North and South America Source: IMF 2010

2. C. Periphery Countries falling behind in development • Several Latin American countries are dominated peripheries • Some benefit from price explosions in raw materials • Trinidad & Tobago – petroleum • Majority suffer from weak economies with no added value • Tropical fruit, aquaculture in Ecuador and Central America • Single export countries – e.g. Bauxite from Surinam

3. 2. Major gap separating countryside from the city • Agriculture unequally competitive & often for self-consumption • Previously flourishing in Cuba, severely affected by fall of USSR & US embargo • Coca crops for cocaine trafficking both an alternative and a blight

6. 3. The Poorest Populations and States excluded from the globalized economy • Haiti one of least developed countries • Indigenous populations (60% in Bolivia & Guatemala) first people struck by poverty • Corruption slows down development • Natural disasters add to the vulnerable situation (cyclones, earthquakes in Haiti & Honduras)

7. Poverty Rates in South America 2002 & 2011

8. II. An increasingly integrated Continent • Key Question: How do exchanges and cooperation reinforce continental integration?

9. A. Reinforcement of Regional Integration • Integration of the Americas based on regional economic agreements and free exchange • MERCOSUR and NAFTA are the 2 motors of integration on the continent • Aim to eliminate customs barriers and facilitate cross-border exchanges of goods and services • Level of integration remains far inferior to the EU

10. Inside DealsExports* within Free Trade Areas as % of total exports *Merchandise Trade Source: WTO

12. 2. Less powerful alternatives to MERCOSUR & NAFTA • Andean community (CAN) • Pacific Alliance (right-wing/free-trade policies) • Central American Integration System (SICA) • Caribbean Community (CARICOM) • Bolivian alliance for peoples of the Americas (ALBA) Bear testimony to the desire of small States to not depend exclusively on large regional powers

13. 3. Organization of American States (OAS) • Unifies all States of the Western Hemisphere • Political and security objective more than economic • Promotion of democracy • Defense of human rights • Fighting drug trafficking and corruption • 2 major issues not addressed • Environmental protection • Risk management

14. B. Intensification of Flows • Regional economic groups favor commercial exchanges • Values within MERCOSUR increased by 10 in 20 years • Exchanges very unequal & dominated by Brazil • NAFTA exchanges similarly dominated by US supremacy

15. 2. Many exchanges occur outside of regional groups • 50% of migrants entering the US come from the continent Origins of immigrants to US • Money earned in US represents 30% of Haiti’s and Guyana’s GDP and 15% of Honduras’ and Jamaica’s • Mexicans living in US transferred record sum of $24 B towards their country of origin in 2007

16. 3. The Dynamics of Integration destabilize territories • Energy (hydrocarbons) and transportation networks expanding rapidly • Twin cities have emerged on most active borders due to the complementarities between States (Brazil-Uruguay; US-Mexico) • Intensification of mobility in Tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina & Paraguay • New language emerging: mix between Spanish & Portuguese

17. C. Limits of Integration • Continent remains divided between liberal economic model and anti-imperialist tendencies • Rise to power of politicians with anti-capitalist positions demonstrates defiance of the populations towards free trade • Bilateral agreements with the U.S. numerous (Dominican Republic, Chile, Mexico, Columbia)

18. 2. Free Trade Area of the Americas (US initiative)on hold • Several countries have blocked the process and created the Union of South American Nations in 2008 UNASUR • Joins the 12 countries of South America and aims primarily the energy integration of the region

19. 3. Certain social groups remain particularly excluded from integration • On the national scale, indigenous populations remain economically & politically marginalized (even when they represent the majority, e.g. Guatemala) • On the continental scale, obstacles to the free circulation of people are common, e.g. US-Mexican border

20. III. The Americas: Between Tensions and Appeasement Key Question: How have tensions recently evolved on the American continent?

21. A. The Rejection of US Domination • US Hegemony of Latin America is long-lived • US foreign policy, legacy of the Monroe Doctrine 1823 accompanied by the support of military regimes and banana republics (named after the supported of the US firm – The United Fruit Company) during the Cold War

22. 2. US Military Presence • Major US influence in the Caribbean basin • Guantanamo Bay military base • embargo against Cuba since 1961 • Numerous Military interventions in last 50 years • Panama, Grenada, Nicaragua, etc… • US army active in the struggle against drug trafficking

23. 3. Anti-American Attitudes persist in several South American countries • Impact of the world crisis on economies highly dependent on US consumer markets reinforced anti-imperialist axis embodied by Hugo Chavez • Stability of American democracy continues to serve as a model and a powerful pole of attraction

24. B. Sources of tension: drugs and access to resources • The Americas are confronted with major social inequalities which lead to violence • Highest rates of homicide in the world • El Salvador, Honduras & Venezuela • Armed gangs (maras) seminate violence from LA to Central America • Property and access to land – major factors of dispute and violence in Bolivia & Paraguay

25. Maras: Violence common to many countries Source: Clare RibandoSeelke, Gangs in America, Congressional Research Service, 2011

26. 2. Drug Trafficking – source of violence • Impotence of Mexico to control drug cartels (criminal organizations) explains high crime rate in cities along the US Mexican border • Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana And in Central America • Guatemala, El Salvador busting bad - The Daily Show

27. 3. Control of resources generates some conflict • Oil is cause of tensions between US and Canada (Arctic) and between Venezuela and Guyana • Bolivia demands access to the sea from Chile • Argentina continues to demand its rights over the Falkland Islands from the UK – fishing waters

28. C. National and International Tensions towards appeasement • In 1980’s democratization swept away many Latin American dictatorships supported by the U.S. • Peace treaties put an end to civil wars (El Salvador, Guatemala) • Columbia remains only country confronted with an internal armed conflict (FARC) • Return to democracy favored the rise to power of former guerilla soldiers (Nicaragua, Uruguay) or indigenous peoples (Bolivia, Peru)

29. 2. International tensions on the continent are rare • Last conflict took place in 1995 on the contested militarized border between Peru and Ecuador • 2008 Columbian incursion in Ecuador during an offensive against the FARC led to diplomatic relations being cut off between the 2 countries

30. 3. In contrast with the U.S., Latin America is the region which spends the least on national defense • Latin American States are tied by no military alliance • Armies in Chile, Brazil, Argentina & Uruguay have worked together in maintaining the peace missions (e.g. Haiti) where political instability remains strong