Cracks appear - Letters - Letter to the Editor

New Internationalist, August, 2003 by William Van Lopik

I very much enjoyed David Ransom's article 'The liberation of Latin America' (NI 356). There certainly are signs throughout Latin America that the neoliberal prescription for economic development is really a 'house of cards'. In fact it is an economic model that continues to push more and more people into living in casas de carton.

President Bush visited El Salvador in March 2002 as part of his promotional tour for the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement. He cited the country as 'one of the really great stories of economic and political transformation of our time.' He was eager to compliment the right-wing majority government on its commitment to free trade and economic reform. Unfortunately, the benefits of the so-called 'neoliberal reforms' that El Salvador has put into place have not filtered down to millions of Salvadorans. According to 2001 statistics, the national poverty rate in the country has increased from 47.3 per cent in 1999 to 49.7 per cent. A deplorable 22.1 per cent of Salvadorans live in extreme poverty, unable to satisfy their basic food and housing needs.

As opposition to neoliberalism has continued to grow throughout Latin America--exemplified by changes in the control of political power throughout the region--there is also evidence of dissension within the ranks of those espousing it. Stephen Byers, who headed up the British delegation to the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, recently stated that he now believes the free-trade policies pushed by international financial institutions are 'wrong and misguided' (The Guardian, 19 May 2003). Even the IMF admitted in a recent report that globalization may not be the panacea for all poverty-stricken countries and that it may even contribute to 'increased vulnerability to crises' (Reuters, 19 March 2003).

David Ransom questions whether Latin Americans can overthrow the global orthodoxy of neoliberalism. I believe there is growing evidence that it is starting to crumble on its own.

Dr William Van Lopik Keshena, US