Preface to the 2016 Special Issue on Latin America and the Caribbean

As a result of the submission of several excellent manuscripts on Latin America and the Caribbean, we decided it would be appropriate to publish a special issue of the Journal of Developing Studies (JDS) on this important region. To expand the scope and the contributors to this special issue, we invited some of our editors with expertise in this region to contribute to the issue. As a result, the articles in this special issue of JDS examine most of the major political, economic, sociocultural, and environmental issues in contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean.

The last special issue of JDS on this region of the developing countries was published in June 2012 (Volume 28, Number 2). It was edited by Barbara Hogenboom, who is one of the most distinguished members of the JDS editorial board with expertise in this region. Professor Hogenboom is also one of the contributors to this special issue. The 2012 issue which she edited on Latin America was focused on the politics of mineral extraction in the region, and this remains an important political issue in the region today. In this new special issue on the region, Hogenboom joins with Karolien van Teijlingen to examine the political conflict over the new El Mirador copper mine in Ecuador. They focus on the challenges of applying the indigenous-inspired philosophy known as Sumak Kawsay in Kichwa (a dialect of the Quechuan-language family) and Buen Vivir (in Spanish) to the ongoing effort to devise a post-capitalist mode of sustainable development in an economy dependent on extracting oil and minerals for export. This type of extractive economic activity is difficult to reconcile with the community-centered, ecologically sustainable, and culturally sensitive nature of the Buen Vivir philosophy of life in the Andean societies of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru (see Gudynas, 2011).

In December 2005, JDS published a special double issue (Volume 21, Numbers 3–4) on Inter-American relations. It was organized and edited by JDS’s Latin American editor Jorge Nef and his well-known Latin Americanist colleague Harry Vanden, and it contained a series of forward-looking articles on the relations of the Latin American and Caribbean countries with the United States of America. My contribution to this special issue (Harris, 2005) examined the growing opposition and resistance to the existing neoliberal regimes in the region and to the proposed hemispheric “Free Trade Area of the Americas” (FTAA) advocated at that time by the US government, the US-dominated international financial institutions (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Inter-American Bank), the US-based transnational corporations, and the upper-class elites in the region.

Like most of the other contributors to the special double issue in 2005, my article argued that the widespread popular opposition to neoliberalism throughout the region represented a serious challenge to the existing neoliberal regimes, US hegemony in the region, and the transnational capitalist elites in the region. It seemed highly probable in 2005 that the new social movements and popular new left political parties in the region would bring about an end to US hegemony and install progressive post-neoliberal regimes throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Indeed, that year the US-backed campaign in favor of the proposed FTAA was soundly defeated and alternative projects for the regional integration of the Latin American and the Caribbean countries soon gathered considerable support.

Throughout the 2000s, significant progress was made in transforming the balance of political forces and the political status quo in the region, and what has been called the “Pink Tide” of left-leaning governments was elected by popular majorities in a diverse array of countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela (Sankey, 2016). These regimes enacted state-centric reforms that in varying degrees rolled back the neoliberal policies and privatization of public services carried out by their predecessors. They reduced poverty and social inequality and, to some degree, redistributed wealth in these countries along with increased public access to health care, education, housing, and social services (Sankey, 2016; teleSUR, 2015).

However, since 2012, declining economic conditions stemming from the falling global demand and prices for the primary commodities (especially oil) produced in the region have given rise to increasing political discontent and a revival of the rightist and centrists political forces in many of the Latin American and Caribbean countries (Sankey, 2016; teleSUR, 2015). In Venezuela, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has recently suffered a major electoral defeat and the future of the leftist government which has been in power in that country since 1999 appears to be short-lived. In Argentina, the recent election of a right-of-center president, Mauricio Macri, represents the first electoral defeat at the national level of one of the largest countries with a progressive government of the Pink Tide. Meanwhile, in the largest Pink Tide country Brazil, the anti-government opposition in that most important country in the region recently succeeded in bringing to an end the left-of-center government of President Dilma Rousseff, but not through the electoral process rather through her impeachment in what has been appropriately called a constitutional coup d’état. Several years earlier in 2012, this is what happened in Paraguay to President Fernando Lugo Méndez and his left-of-center government. Finally, in Bolivia, the hold of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) on the government appears to have been weakened by the recent national referendum in which the majority of voters rejected extending the constitutional term limits for the country’s leftist president Evo Morales (Sankey, 2016).

The lead article in this special issue by Kyla Sankey and Ronaldo Munck deftly frames the current decline of the Pink Tide and addresses all of the above mentioned developments. It points out that the original goals of most of the progressive Pink Tide governments in the region were to build an alternative hegemonic bloc that would replace US hegemony and bring an end to the neoliberal order in the region created under US tutelage during the preceding decades. As the authors of this insightful article note, most of these governments hoped to create a new post-capitalist order based on alternative forms of industrialization, trade, finance, and politics; and they supported regional integration initiatives such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), which were created to provide a regional framework for alternative forms of South–South cooperation based on mutuality, equity, complementarity, and solidarity. Sankey and Munck assess the various attempts made by these left and center-left governments in the region to construct alternative, post-neoliberal, and in some cases post-capitalist modes, of development. They argue that while the progressive reforms of the Pink Tide governments did indeed succeed in improving the material and social conditions of the poor and working classes in their societies, the recent economic downturn in the region has exposed the gaps, limitations, and shortcomings in the efforts made by these governments to bring about a profound political, economic, and social transformation in their societies and in the region.

The following article in this special issue by Mônica Dias Martins focuses on democracy and popular rebellion in contemporary Brazil. Dias Martins is another Latin American member of the JDS editorial board, and her article complements the lead article by Sankey and Munck. In contrast to the mainstream media’s portrayal of Brazil as a country on the brink of a political abyss, Dias Martins contends that the contemporary political situation in Brazil following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff offers potentially valuable opportunities for the progressive social movements and the leftist parties in Brazil if they organize to defend the political rights of the citizenry and reaffirm their commitment to popular democracy. Her article reveals that the Brazilian bourgeoisie, which is represented by the conservative parties in Brazil’s national legislature, seeks to roll back the working-class gains made in recent years under the left-of-center governments of presidents Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.

Dias Martins provides an optimistic view of the current crisis in Brazil and contends Brazilians today are living through an ideological struggle that is rich in possibilities for increasing popular political participation, the redistribution of wealth, and protecting the country’s national sovereignty. Dias Martins also argues that Brazil, which has the biggest economy and the largest population in the region, will be the key player in any effort to bring about the regional integration of South America, and it is important for the future of the region that this regionalization not serve the interests of the USA and the other major capitalist states and their transnational corporations. For this reason, she contends the destiny of the region is at stake in the current political struggle in Brazil. Indeed, the future of the region appears to depend on Brazil’s political leadership as does the larger effort of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) coalition to transform the global order from one based on US hegemony to a multipolar and multilateral world system (Harris, 2015).

In this regard, Ronn Pineo’s article on the declining US influence and the victories of Evo Morales in Bolivia complements the Dias Martins and the Sankey and Munck contributions to this special issue as well as the article on Ecuador by Karolien van Teijlingen and Barbara Hogenboom. Pineo’s article provides an assessment of the economic and social progress that have taken place in Bolivia under President Evo Morales. He examines the leading factors that explain Bolivia’s turn to the left, and he also focuses on how the policies and actions of the US government contributed to the collapse of the previous regime. This analysis is followed by a discussion of the process of creating a Bolivian understanding of democracy that is deeper and richer than the nation has previously experienced. Pineo contends the indigenous (Andean) model of democracy in Bolivia does not conform to the US model of political parties, elections, and liberal representative government. Pineo’s focus on Bolivian democracy and the country’s indigenous population is complemented by the article in this special issue on the effects of climate change on the livelihood and living conditions of the Mapuche people in Chile.

This article by Elvis Parraguez-Vergara, Jonathan R. Barton, and Gabriela Raposo-Quintana focuses on the impact of climate change in the Andean foothills of Chile and the economic and cultural vulnerability of the indigenous Mapuche communities. It reveals that they have the highest levels of vulnerability in Chile in terms of income, basic needs, and access to services as well as to the increasingly extreme weather in the Andean foothills where many of them live. The article in based on field research in three Andean municipalities in the Araucania Region of Chile from 1990 to 2015. This research included the collection of climate data, interviews with local officials, and the examination of the adaptive responses of the Chilean State to climate change. This research provides evidence of both the social and economic effects of climate change and the increased vulnerability of the Mapuche community in the Araucania Region. The results show trends in the scarcity of water, reduction of agricultural production, the colonization of plants and population shifts to higher altitudes, the increased pressure on the Andean ecosystems, and the displacement of traditional Mapuche knowledge and practices.

Based on these findings, the authors of this article argue it is necessary to change the conditions in which the Mapuche communities develop their livelihoods. This involves strengthening the knowledge of local actors in order to increase their resilience through adaptation initiatives that are suited to their local context. The authors also argue their research indicates the capacity to respond to municipal emergencies needs to be greatly enhanced, and suitable adaptations need to be made in the local infrastructure, housing, communications, and agriculture. At the national level, they contend there needs to be much more recognition of the specific vulnerabilities of Chile’s indigenous peoples. In this regard, they note that the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan does not make a firm commitment to these indigenous communities nor recognize the particular conditions of their exposure to extreme weather events. In terms of future policy, the authors of this article make a series of recommendations that address the urgent need to strengthen the capacity of the local governments in these communities to develop local adaptation plans and build these into their operations in order to increase the local population’s resilience and adaptive capacity.

Erica B. Sausner and Nicole Webster’s article on migration and community resilience in Nicaragua’s Afro-Caribbean coastal communities complements the articles in this special issue that focus on the indigenous peoples in Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia. It also reveals a dimension of social change in Latin America and the Caribbean that is often not given sufficient attention. Their article focuses on research they carried out in the small city of Bluefields on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. This city is a complex and relatively poor community that has a diverse array of cultures and languages. It has a population of around 100,000 and its inhabitants are Mestizos, Afro-descendant Creoles, and indigenous Miskitu, along with smaller communities of Garifuna, Chinese, Mayangnas, Ulwas, and Ramas. Bluefields is Nicaragua’s chief Caribbean port, from which hardwood, seafood, shrimp, and lobster are exported.

As their research reveals, the local youth face complex issues due to their geographic, cultural, and linguistic differences from the rest of Nicaraguan society, which is largely Spanish speaking and predominantly located on the Pacific side of the country. This article examines the marginalization of youth in Bluefields that encourages their migration away from the community, and which exposes the local youth to a future of isolation. Sausner and Webster focus on the role that education can play in reducing these conditions and reinforcing the cultural assets of the Bluefields community. As they indicate in their article, this autonomous region of Nicaragua suffers from the fact the central government does not provide sufficient support for the local public services. They argue, therefore, that in this area which experiences increasingly complicated migration patterns and a languishing economy, long-term investment and adequate social support offer the best hope for the future of the cultural minorities in this region.

The last article in this special issue on Latin America and the Caribbean focuses on the region’s relations with the People’s Republic of China and the insertion of the Latin American and Caribbean countries in the global economic system. This article examines the extent to which China’s relations with the Latin American and Caribbean countries have benefited them, promoted their development, and strengthened the international influence and role of the Latin American and Caribbean countries in world affairs. The co-authors Richard Harris and Armando Arias contend the Chinese government and state corporations have sought to establish a long-term relationship with the Latin American and Caribbean countries that is based on various forms of South–South economic and political cooperation that mutually benefit all the parties involved in these cooperative relations. They argue that between 2000 and 2012, the exponentially rising Chinese demand for the primary commodities produced in the region and the accompanying inflow of Chinese goods, direct investments, loans, and technical assistance was on the whole beneficial for the region.

The exponential growth in trade with China helped many Latin American and Caribbean countries avoid the worst of the financial and economic crises that gripped much of the world after 2008, and it provided extra revenue for poverty alleviation programs that eased the region’s notorious inequality and poverty. The imports of manufactured goods from China have also helped to contain inflationary pressures and broaden access to consumer goods for the most disadvantaged segments of the population. And imports of intermediate and capital goods from China have expanded the range of suppliers available to industries and retail companies in the region, thus making them more competitive. Furthermore, Chinese trade, investments, and loans have helped bolster the left-leaning governments in the region, which have in many cases found it difficult to obtain loans and credit from other sources.

This article points out that over the last two decades, the center of gravity in the world economic system has shifted away from the advanced capitalist economies toward China and other large developing economies such as India. The international economic and political relations of the Latin American and Caribbean countries have shifted toward China as a result of this transformation in the world economic system and will in all probability continue to be influenced by future Chinese trade and investments in the region (Harris, 2015). Harris and Arias argue that the changing nature of the region’s relations with China challenge the Latin American and Caribbean countries to adopt specific policy reforms that will contribute to their development through improving their South–South cooperative relations with China. These suggested reforms include establishing the appropriate conditions for Chinese investments that will help close the region’s large infrastructure gap, diversify the region’s exports, and encourage Chinese banks and corporations to invest in developing alternative energy projects and important regional manufacturing networks that produce higher value-added products than at present. This final article in the issue concludes that the future of the Latin American and Caribbean countries will depend to a significant extent upon how well they meet their respective development challenges, and this will depend on strengthening the South–South cooperative partnership they have established with China over the course of the last decade and a half.

Like the previous special issues JDS has published on Latin America and the Caribbean, this special issue of the journal seeks to provide our readers with an up-to-date description, analysis, and evaluation of the nature and course of developments in this important region of the world. We hope that it will advance the current body of knowledge on the major political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental issues in this region and their effects on the course of human development and world affairs in general. We encourage our readers to give us feedback on this special issue and suggestions for future special issues.