By Nathan Gill and James Attwood Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Cia. Sudamericana de Vapores SA, Latin America’s biggest container ship company, fell to the lowest in a month in Santiago trading on speculation that rising costs and falling demand will reduce earnings. Vapores declined 2 percent to 705 pesos, the lowest since July… Read More Vapores Falls on Concern Costs Will Rise, Demand Slip
By Nathan Gill and James Attwood Aug. 18, 2008 (Bloomberg) — Sigdo Koppers SA, which controls Chile’s largest explosives maker, rose to the highest in two months in Santiago trading after announcing a $23.2 million pretax gain from the sale of assets in Peru. Sigdo Koppers climbed 2.6 percent to 390.1 pesos, the… Read More Sigdo Koppers Rises After Disclosing Peru Sale Profit
By Nathan Gill Aug. 12, 2008 (Bloomberg) — President Michelle Bachelet will keep the 2009 budget “as tight as possible” to help slow the rising cost of living, Economy Minister Hugo Lavados said. While saying higher public spending isn’t the leading cause of the fastest inflation in 13 years, Lavados told reporters today in… Read More Bachelet to Keep Budget `Tight’ in 2009, Economy Minister Says
By Nathan Gill Aug. 11, 2008 (Bloomberg) — Tenaris SA fell the most since April 2003 in Buenos Aires on speculation a stronger U.S. dollar will hurt commodity prices and curb demand for its products. The world’s biggest supplier of seamless pipes used by oil and gas producers retreated 8.2 percent to 78… Read More Tenaris Falls Most Since 2003 as Commodities Decline
By Sebastian Boyd and Nathan Gill Aug. 7, 2008 (Bloomberg) — Chile’s central bank policy makers considered a 0.75 percentage point rate increase at their July meeting, before voting unanimously to raise interest rates by half a point, the bank said on its Web site. The bank raised the rate to 7.25 percent… Read More Chile’s Bank Considered Bigger Rate Increase in July
By Nathan Gill and Sebastian Boyd Aug. 5, 2008 (Bloomberg) — Chile’s economic growth will accelerate in the second half of the year, Finance Minister Andres Velasco said. “The economy is taking off and we are going to have a second half that will be better than the first,” Velasco told reporters today… Read More Chile Second-Half Growth Will Be Better, Velasco Says
Citation Caillavet, Chantal. “A Native American System of Wetland Agriculture in Different Ecosystems in the Ecuadorian Andes (15th-18th Centuries).” Environment and History 14, no. 3 (August 1, 2008): 331–53.
The resignation of the president of Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly, Alberto Acosta, on June 23 is the latest in a series of setbacks for Latin America’s 21st century socialists. With political conditions deteriorating in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, it makes sense to ask – what happened to Latin America’s socialist revolution? Where is the change their… Read More Democracy Strikes Again: The End Of 21st-Century Socialism?
June 12 , 2008 (Southern Affairs) — This is a link to a radio show about Unasur and the state of US-South American relations called Unsure about Unasur. The show’s guests are Larry Birns, founder of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and Nathan Gill, publisher of this page. It was produced by Your Call KALW… Read More Interview About Unasur With KALW 91.7FM San Francisco
June 9, 2008 (Southern Affairs) — Peru’s Transportation and Communications Minister Verónica Zavala announced May 27th that Unasur’s highest profile project, an inter-oceanic highway connecting the Brazilian Atlantic with the Peruvian Pacific, was being investigated after discovering that it did not have a budget or engineering plans. The minister told a Congressional Committee that while… Read More Peru’s Halts Jungle Highway Construction After Investigation Shows Design Wasn’t Done
June 7, 2008 (Southern Affairs) — It is unclear what the recent Unasur summit in Brasilia actually accomplished. Six months late and set against the backdrop of the worst regional conflict since the 1990s, the 12 presidents of South America tried hard to hide the growing divisions between their governments with lofty rhetoric of fraternity… Read More Unasur 2008 Summit: All Circus No Bread
Citation Milton, Cynthia E. The Many Meanings of Poverty: Colonialism, Social Compacts, and Assistance in Eighteenth-Century Ecuador. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2007.
May 28, 2008 (Southern Affairs) — Ecuadorian foreign policy is caught in a puzzling Catch 22. According to the Constitution of 1998, “The Foreign Service is in charge of conducting the international affairs of the Republic, pursuant to the Political Constitution of the State…”[1] but, as of September 30, 2007 this constitution was dissolved by… Read More Ecuadorian Foreign Policy 2008
What are the relevant historic issues in Ecuador’s foreign policy? Ecuador’s diplomatic history has focused strategically on the preservation of sovereign territory and resources; politically on the amplification of its national prestige and influence through multilateral institutions and economically on the promotion of national trade through close relationships with the United States, the Andean Community,… Read More Ecuadorian Foreign Policy Traditions
Who are the relevant actors in the creation of Ecuador’s national foreign policy and what structures do they operate within? As mentioned, the current foreign policy organization is based on the institutional structure established in the 1998 Constitution. According to Article 2, “The Head of State, as Supreme Representative of the country and its sovereign… Read More Ecuadorian Foreign Policy: Actors and Institutions
There are four regional integration institutions in South America; CAN, MERCOSUR, ALADI, and UNASUR. The first two are subregional blocks representing nine of the 12 South American member countries of Unasur; neither is fully functional. [1] All the nations of South America, except for Guyana and Surinam, are members of ALADI. Its goals are similar… Read More South American Regional Integration Institutions: Unasur, ALADI, CAN and Mercosur
What is Chile’s current foreign policy? Chile’s current foreign policy strongly resembles the foreign policy of the Portales period, emphasizing political neutrality, non-intervention, sovereign equality, regional stability, and commercial expansion. The types of problems it faces are also similar to that era, but not specific to it, insofar as it has yet to resolve territorial… Read More Chilean Foreign Policy: 2008
What are the relevant historic issues in Chile’s foreign policy? Since the early 1830s, Chile has developed a reputation for its pragmatic foreign policy, traditionally letting national interests take precedent over ideology. Starting from at least as early as the Prieto administration there was an explicit understanding of the challenges of Chile’s situation, isolated from… Read More Chilean Foreign Policy: Traditions
What are the historic conditions of Brazil’s foreign policy? Like Argentina, we will divide the historic conditions of Brazil’s foreign policy into three groups; strategic, political and economic. Strategically, Brazil (and Portugal during colonial times) has sought to expand its influence in South America and the South Atlantic. At times this involved aggressive policies with… Read More Brazilian Foreign Policy: Traditions
(Apr. 14, 2008) Here are some of the big issues to follow this week around Latin America. The EU begins a visit to Bolivia Monday to help mediate in the conflict over the new national constitution; the lower eastern half of the country has threatened secession over the current draft. Ecuador and Colombia renewed the… Read More Latin America News Review
What are the relevant historic issues in Argentina’s foreign policy? The historic conditions of Argentina’s foreign policy can be divided into three groups; strategic, economic, and political. Strategically, Argentina has been preoccupied with containing Brazil and Chiles’ influence in the southern cone, Perú in the Northwest, settling border conflicts with Chile, and regaining sovereignty of… Read More Argentina’s Foreign Policy: Traditions
Our next several sections will focus on the national foreign policy goals of six South American nations; Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Our criteria for selecting these countries are as follows, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile were chosen because of their historical importance in regional balance of power politics. Venezuela was chosen because of… Read More South American Foreign Policy: Six Case Studies
The terms “Open” and “closed” regionalism refer to the degree in which regional blocks allow nonmember nations to access their markets. In this sense, an “open region” is one with few, if any, external trade restrictions while a “closed region” can be defined as one whose external trade policies seek to restrict commerce with nations… Read More “Open” and “Closed” Regionalism Theories
Regionalism studies are those studies that focus on the middle layer of governance, between the state and the global, that emerge out of concerted processes of regional integration like the EU, the Arab League, NAFTA, CARICOM, and ASEAN. The first two theoretical explanations of this process in South America that we will discuss are New… Read More ‘New’ and ‘Old’ Regionalism Theories
Citation Becker, Marc. Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
(Mar. 31, 2008) The last explanation we will analyze here is what we are referring to as the “Brazilian hegemonic” explanation. This position holds that Brazil, given the much larger size of its population, economy, and territory relative to the rest of the region, is the natural hegemon in South American regional affairs.[1] This position… Read More Historiography: Brazilian Hegemony in South America
(Mar. 29, 2008) There are several ways of approaching the question of South American integration; depending on which facet of society you choose to analyze you get a different answer. The most popular explanations are economic, historical/cultural, and Brazilian. The emphasis on economic explanations is succinctly explained by Vanden and Prevost who note, “In Latin… Read More Historiography: Economic Explanations of South American Integration
(Mar. 26, 2008)The decision to analyze the countries of South America as a regional subsystem of Latin America is based on the membership criteria of UNASUR itself. While it may be debatable that all of the territory southeast of Panama actually forms a single analytical subsystem, given that the region has opted for a union… Read More Definitions and Limitations I: Initial Assumptions on UNASUR
Geographically, South America refers to the territory located roughly between 12.5 degrees north and 56 degrees south latitude, and 34.5 east and 81.5 degrees west longitude, corresponding to the nations located southeast of Panama: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. Physically it is bordered by the Caribbean Sea… Read More Definitions and Limitations II: Physical Borders
The broad geographic zones outlined in the last entry also correspond to the general separation of historic interests in South America. According to Atkins, the economic and political interests of the Caribbean states of Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname have been predominantly influenced by the hegemonic influence of the United States and their respective European… Read More Definitions and Limitations III: Regional and Extra-Regional Powers
The interplay of different cultures in South America is another important factor in analyzing regional politics. The interaction between European immigrants, Africans, and later on immigrants from all over the world with the indigenous communities already living there has created a unique social atmosphere of syncretism and conflict. A crude division can be made along… Read More Definitions and Limitations IV: Perceptions of Shared Identity in South America
(Mar. 26, 2008) In South American integration literature there is a puzzling divide between primary government sources and secondary analysis. On the one hand you have a series of regional declarations signed by the 12 presidents of South American nations stating their intent to form a new continental block. On the other hand you have… Read More Problematizing Regional Integration in South America: UNASUR in the 21st Century
(Mar. 24, 2008) The Colombian government announced Monday that the second man killed and removed during its attack on a FARC base camp in Ecuador territory was in fact Ecuadorian. The announcement seemed likely to trigger further diplomatic protests by Ecuador’s government after President Rafael Correa threatened to reopen the case last Saturday if he… Read More Ecuador Threatens More Diplomatic Problems with Colombia
