V.

SOUTH AMERICA AFTER 1945

21 states
604 million Inhabitants (2013)
21 million square km

Although it is a large and very heterogeneous territory, there are some important common features
during the decades after WW II: Economic development, Demography, Society, Political evolution:
influence of the US.

1. Economy
End of WW II: strong economic growth until the acute crisis of the 1980s. Reasons for the growth:

International demand (raw materials, agrarian products).

Nationalist politics of some governments: substitution of imports and nationalization of

some economic sectors. Most important example of these nationalist economic politics:
Argentine.
Juan Domingo Pern, member of the Justicialista party, was leader of a populist
regime (1946-55).
Important role: his wife Eva Duarte (Evita). Political measures in favor of the poor.
Her death in 1952 deprived the regime of its charismatic figure. This decay, the
economic crisis and the conflict with the Catholic Church provoked a military coup
d'tat in 1955.
Pern escaped to exile (Madrid); 1973: after his return and an electoral victory, he
started his third term. He died in 1974.

1946-73: The South American average GDP increased by 5,5 %:

More than the growth of most countries in Africa and Asia.

More than the growth of the western industrialized countries (4,7 %).

Obstacles: unbalanced economic growth; demographic growth *; dependence on foreign

capital.

*Demography:

Fast demographic growth: 1945: 140 million; 1965: 232; 1980: 348; 1997: 476; 2000:
540; 2013: 604

Inner migration, urbanization (2010: 79 % of the population in urban centers).

South America: demography

Example: Mexico City (1960: 8,6 million; 1995: 15; counting suburbs: 23 = 24 % of the
total Mexican population).

Biggest city in the world: Tokio (28), second: Mexico; third: Sao Paulo (22)

Poverty quarters: favelas in Rio de Janeiro; barriadas in Lima, etc.

2. Society

Ethnically heterogeneous: black population, mulattos (black and white parents), white,
mestizos (Indian and white parents), indigenous people.

Unbalanced social structure: in Brazil, about 70 % of the rural population lives under the
poverty level.

Poor life and work conditions; cultural underdevelopment. Guatemala, 40 % illiterate

(1994).

2.1. Evolution of the labor force:

Importance of the agrarian sector (decreasing).

Industry: less important, but increasing.

Remarkable increase of the tertiary sector. Reason: waves of migration to the big cities,
formation of a new urban proletariat offering different kinds of services (street vendors,
street sweepers, etc.).

2.2. Three different patterns of society:

1.Developed countries:
Majority white population; mild climate; integrated society without radical social disequilibrium;
smaller influence of agriculture; high level of urbanization; lower poverty rate; no illiteracy.
Examples: Argentine, Uruguay, Chile. South America: society

2.Underdeveloped countries:
Archaic social structures (tribes, clans, etc.); importance of indigenous people, living in
marginalization; minority of population with European roots, who form the urban elites; weak
middle classes; chronic poverty and hunger; high birth rates. Examples: most of the countries in
Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras), but also in the Andes area (Bolivia, Peru,
Ecuador) and in Paraguay.

3. Mixed societies:
Rather than underdevelopment, the main feature is a completely unbalanced development; archaic
social structures coexist with modern ones; wealth together with poverty. Examples: most of the
Latin American countries (in 1994 about 70% of the total population): Brazil, Mexiko, Venezuela,
Colombia, and, for some observers, even Cuba.

3. Politics
Samuel Huntington: The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (1991):
First Wave: from the early 19th century to the interwar period between WW I and II.
Ebb tide 1922-42: dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.
Second Wave: from 1945 onwards.
Ebb tide 1958-74: dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.
Third Wave: 1975-89/90 (from Portugal and Spain to the dissolution of the USSR).

3.1. This squeme is also valid for Latin America:

Dictatorships and authoritarian regimes:

Paraguay (General Stroessner, 1954-89)

Nicaragua (Somoza family, 1936-79)

Bolivia (General Hugo Bnzer, 1971-78)

El Salvador (military governments, 1931-79)

Ibid. Guatemala (1954-86), Brazil (1964-85), Peru (1974-80)

Chile (1973-90), Ecuador (1973-79), Uruguay (1973-85), Argentina (1976-83): Coups d'tat
and dictatorships.

3.2. Basic reasons for these antidemocratic regimes:

Heavy social and economic problems.

Active support from the US.

3.3. Main features of the transition towards democracy:

Peaceful transitions: Argentina: after the shameful defeat in the Falklands War (1982),
resignation of the military Junta and transition towards civilian governments. Chile: Augusto
Pinochet lost the referendum on his continuity as president (1988); tutelary Transition.

Common basic problems: desire for freedom; examples of Portugal and Spain; estructural
economic problems, intensified by the crisis of the early 1980s; the main offer made by the
authoritarian regimes lost its attraction: the promise of economic development (due
especially to the radical increase of foreign dept). US presidents Carter and Reagan became
aware of the failure of those regimes.

The economic growth between the 1990s and 2010 consolidated the new
democracies and changed the situation of different states (example: Brazil).

Return of populism: Hugo Chvez in Venezuela (1999), Evo Morales in Bolivia (2006),
Rafael Correa in Ecuador (2007), Nestor and Cristina Kirchner in Argentina (2003, 2007).

4. The role of the US

Since the 19th century, the US had a strong influence on Latin America both in economic
terms and through military intervention.

After WW II, neocolonialist policies became unpopular. Ideal of national democratic

sovereignty.

Influence of the Cold War: Washington's return to interventionism.

Important tool: Organization of American States (1948): rejection of any kind of leftist
policy; 1962: exclusion of Cuba.

Direct and indirect military interventions: 1954 in Guatemala, in defense of the United Fruit
Company's interests and against the leftist president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmn.

Strategic turn in 1961 (Cuban Revolution; Kennedy new president; failure of the Bay of Pigs
invasion in April 1961): best ally of the US in south America is economic growth; Alliance
for Progress (1961): the US and all Latin American states, except Cuba.

After Kennedy's death in 1963 and during the Johnson administration: return to
interventionism and the strategy of the big stick in order to prevent another revolution like
the Cuban one: support for military dictatorships (Trujillo in Santo Domingo, Somoza in
Nicaragua; 1960s: 11 coups d'etat) and direct interventions (1965: Santo Domingo).

1970s: radicalization of some dictatorships supported by the US: 1973 Pinochet in Chile;
1976: military Junta in Argentina.

Strategic reassessment: president Carter (1977-81) and Reagan (1981-89) became aware of
the unstoppable decline of the authoritarian regimes. Gradual withdrawal of support and a
search for democratic alternatives.

5. Challenges for the future

Problems of security and violence: paramilitary groups and drug cartels, in many cases
mutually linked: parallel power estructures. In violent clashes between guerrilla and army in
the 1980s about 160,000 people died and from 2 to 3 million displaced. 1992: in Latin
America there are 20 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, in Colombia the number is 77.

States of the Andes, especially Colombia and Bolivia: yearly production of 1,000 tons of
cocaine.

Distribution of wealth and the exclusion of important sectors of society.

Suffocating foreign debt. 1996: 626 million dollar. The money needed to pay interest in
countries like Mexico or Brazil amounts to nearly half of the total tax revenue for that year.

Strengthening of domestic trade through cooperation: 1969 Andean Pact (Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru); 1991: Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay); 1994:
NAFTA = North American Free Trade Association: US, Canada, Mexico.