Summary
- The typical government of most Latin America countries is Republic
- The major religion in Latin America is Roman Catholicism
- The number of Latin American countries is 22
- The three major economic problems of Latin America are:
- Wealth depended on export
- U.S. is the main customer and many countries have a dependence on US
- Large urban areas not developed around industries
- The biggest economic problem dealing with the distribution of wealth is the tremendous gap between the incomes of the rich and the poor
- The poverty in the major cities in turn causes other problems like population expansion and inflation
- Venezuela and Argentina are tow countries that used the export model to produce wealth as well as produce poverty. The export products from Venezuela are oil and from Argentina are meat and grain.
- The two possible solutions to the economic problems of Latin America are:
- Rapid Industrialization
- Increasing trade with one another
- A third possible answer is communism
Summary - 48. Latin America. Economic Problems
The people
South of the U.S.A. are the twenty-two nations which form Latin America. Most of the republics have a great deal in common. All were once the colonies of European powers such as Spain and Portugal. Most Latin Americans speak either Spanish or Portuguese and nearly all are Roman Catholics. Because of these common factors, there has been in the West a tendency to regard the different peoples and countries of Latin America as alike and to emphasize their similarities.
The problems
#fix
Certainly the republics share common problems, most of which arise out o their unique history. Firstly, their wealth has always hinged on the export of a few raw materials. Chile as depended on nitrates and copper; Venezuela on il; Argentina (after the invention of the refrigerator hip) has relied on meat exports. And because the republics spent their profits from these exports on the purchase Of imported manufactured goods, to take root in Latin America. industrialization was sl Secondly, the U.S.A. as traditionally been both the main customer and sup lier of Latin America. Thirdly, large urban areas whi h have not depended on the growth of industries h e developed; this is in complete contrast with the gro h of large towns in most other parts of the world. Tod y Latin America is dotted with large cities such as Cara as, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro—all of which have a of •a million or more. And it s not just the upper and middle classes who direct Latin America’s trade who live in these large cities; tens o thousands of very poor people are condemned to live i the •shanty town’ areas. This has caused one of the biggest problems facing Latin America: the tremendous gap between the incomes of the rich and the. wages of the poor who since 1968 have suffered from a rise in the cost of living far more serious than that experienced in Western Europe. And as it is usually the poor family which have the most children they in turn cause Latin America’s other great problem: a population explosion.
Examples
Venezuela
More than 90% of Venezuela’s wealth comes from her oil exports to the U.S.—yet only about 2% of her people work in the oilfields. still scratch a living on the soil. They can only afford wooden or adobe houses. The floors are made of earth and few of the windows have any glass in them. These people are ‘living on an unsatisfactory diet or maize, beans or roots and tubers’. In 1920 Venezuela’s population was 2+ million: in 1966 it topped 8+ million—and half of these were young people under 18. Yet the oil profits have built motorways that would put British roads to shame.
Argentina
Argentina has different problems. During his dictatorship (1946—55), President Peron and his attractive and highly popular wife Eva tried to raise the standard of living of the poor city dwellers. Peron increased their wages and gave them holidays with pay; in return they formed trade unions and gave the President their enthusiastic support. But Peron failed to improve the lot of the peasants and, after the droughts and bad harvests of 1952. their discontent grew. Eva Peron died in the same year and soon the dictator’s power began to wane and he finally gave up office in 1955. * Nevertheless, Argentina had become the world’s biggest meat exporter and an important grain producer. Her population explosion is less marked than in the other republics and her educational standards are higher.
Solution
Most of the other republics have even more difficult problems and many hope to find a solution in rapid industrialization and by increasing trade with one another. In this way they might reduce their dependence on the U.S.A. So they have formed a Central American Market and a Latin American Free Trade Association. Brazil led the way in new methods of industrial and agricultural — put at no small cost to humanity. For example, in a determined attempt to reclaim land for arable crops and for growing sugar to make alcohol (Brazil’s replacement fuel for petrol), she destroyed millions of hectares of Amazonian rain forests. Thousands of Amerindians died in the process; and the rest of the world is in danger of losing its most important rain forest — a major source of oxygen.