University History Essay: Latin America's Socio-Economic Issues

This essay delves into the historical context of Latin America, exploring the origins of its persistent social, political, and economic challenges. It examines the impact of the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution, and the rise of populism on the region's development. The essay analyzes the effects of economic policies, including land reforms and neoliberal approaches, and their contributions to issues like income inequality and debt crises. It highlights how these historical factors have shaped Latin America's relationship with the global economy and its struggle to achieve greater stability and prosperity. Despite these challenges, the essay concludes by acknowledging improvements in social indicators and a move towards greater globalization, democracy, and protection of minority groups, suggesting a more promising future for the region.

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HISTORICAL ESSAY ON LATIN AMERICA
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Introduction
Latin America still suffers from an unaccountable and destabilized social, economic and political
structure as compared to the rest of the United States and other parts of the world. The
democracies of most Latin American countries are threatened today, mainly due to major
historical implications, increasing risks of populism, unstable cultural and equality powers, social
and political problems related to corruption and government accountability, and a number of
economic challenges. It is not easy to understand this lack of social and economic structure in
Latin America and why most of these countries haven’t been able to reach the benchmark of
advancement, globalization and open trade relations with countries from different parts of the
world. As compared to the Western European and North American countries, Latin America
faces a major crisis. Such problems can be traced back to the unfavorable history, where Latin
America has suffered from negative influences of the Cold War, migration from other countries,
drug-wars, drug trade, and more (James Wood, Problems In Modern Latin American History,
310). This essay explores the history of Latin America to trace the origin of problems that
continue to impact the social, political, and economic structures of Latin American nations and
why these countries are unable to enjoy the same amount of freedom, enjoy their rights, and head
towards globalization and better external and internal security.
The History of Latin America
Problems for Latin America primarily began between 1945 to 1980, after World War II. While
the economies of most countries in America and outside grew and fostered in the postwar era,
Latin America’s share in total world production, trade relations, and per capita income, declined
considerably, which isolated Latin America from its share of democracy. Latin American

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countries were brought into the limelight by the media, which then resulted in unsuccessful
movements like military dictatorships and the popular Marxist Revolution. The shock and
aftermath of the Cold War affected led to the implementation of stronger and rigid economic and
social policies. After 1945, efforts were put into strengthening trade policies and better economic
integration. Such economic reforms took place in the form of land reform policies, standardizing
and subsidizing imports, and attain a greater economical scale. However, these reforms mainly
fostered the growth of Intra-Latin American trade and focus on removing as many trade barriers
as possible. Panama and Brazil were a few of the countries that witnessed remarkable economic
and social growth during this period, along with countries like Venezuela, Mexico, and Costa
Rica. There was also a boom seen in narcotics and drug trade, where Colombia was the main
export of cocaine and also marijuana during the 1970s, along with nontraditional commodities
like flowers and raw materials (Chasteen, Born In Blood And Fire, 128).
While the economic game was going strong in Latin America, an increase in the provision of
public health services result in huge population growth across different countries. This problem
of ‘populism’ continues to have an impact on the social and economic conditions even today.
With the introduction of social security systems and advancements in school education, the same
when combined with the problem of growing populism led to an increase in social inequality that
persists in Latin America till date (James Wood, Problems In Modern Latin American History,
178). Gradually, restructured land reforms led to the poor suffering greatly due to high inflation
rates in countries like Brazil and the Southern Cone, especially at a time when there was
extensive land distribution taking place in Bolivia and rich agricultural communities were
favored as compared to the poor or peasant community. This was another reason behind the
increasing gap or equality in the social status of different Latin American nations. Thus, the

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patterns of economic and social growth amongst Latin American nations resulted in restricted
and limited taxation of fiscal policies and programs (James Wood, Problems in Modern Latin
American History, 198).
Latin America during the Cold War
The postwar era saw Latin American countries highlight dependent on the United States’
provision for loans, grants, trades, and investments. During and after the Cold War between the
United States and USSR, Latin American countries were found to be more inclined towards the
US, despite the level of negligence from the US government and communism threat risks from
Asia and Europe (James Wood, Problems In Modern Latin American History, 271). As a part of
structured land reforms, the step taken by Jacobo Arbenz during his rule in the Guatemalan
government from 1951 to 1954 of attacking the United Fruit Company in support and
cooperation of local communists. This was seen as a major threat to Central America when the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) started using its influence in a number of Central American
countries at the time. The year 1973 saw powerful U.S. vendettas that overpowered and
economically harassed such countries, e.g., Nicaragua (Chasteen, Born In Blood And Fire, 212).
During this century, Cuba was clearly the most advanced and developed countries in Latin
America; and thus, the impact of the Cuban Revolution cannot be shaken off till date. The Cuban
Revolution was again one of the biggest challenges to the social and economic stability, along
with freedom of human rights and democracy of Latin American countries. The ruling of Fidel
Castro saw major involvement between Cuba and the Soviet Union, making it one of the first
communist states of the United States. Though the Cuban Revolution greatly improved education
and healthcare structures of the society, a serious productivity decline was observed owing to

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Castro’s authoritarian dictatorship in Cuba (Thomas Wright, Latin America Since Independence,
146). This model of defense from Cuba towards the United States was looked at as a model for
other Latin American countries, leading to a number of guerrilla movements. Such movements
led to the establishment of leftist parties, resulting in terrorism threats, greater social and political
instability, political repression and more guerilla conflicts. Thus began further influence and
interference from the United States to counter guerilla conflicts across Latin America and
attempts were made on land reforms aided by the Alliance for Progress under the then U.S.
President John F. Kennedy (Thomas Wright, Latin America Since Independence, 98). However,
not many countries could sustain the Cuban model that they were attempting to follow, and the
Cuban Revolution ultimately lost its foundation with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Once aid
from the Soviet Union was cut and Cuba ended up losing its chief ally, the country experienced
acute shortages and unstable social and economic structures due to Castro’s unruly policies and
management (Cristina Henríquez, The Book Of Unknown Americans, 156).
Increasing populism is another historical problem evident from the history of Latin America. It
started with the protection of social interests and the implementation of social programs by Juan
Peron of Argentina. This special interest in social policies and benefits led to a movement of
oligarchy and populism. The same was followed by the President of Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek
who wished to promote social services, which in turn led to populism increase throughout Latin
America over time. In efforts to counter leftist guerilla conflicts, Christian Democratic parties
with their presence in countries like Venezuela, El Salvador and Chile received tremendous
support from the US government and Alliance for Progress and resulted in Salvador Allende’s
victory as the president of Chile. During his rule, there was violence and dissatisfaction amongst
middle and upper-class Chileans, with short-term benefits provided to the working class in the

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midst of an ongoing populism problem (James Wood, Problems in Modern Latin American
History, 114). This example shows the way in which authoritarian and dictatorial rules had
slowed down the economic and social structures of Latin American countries like Chile, El
Salvador, and even Cuba, where the economy was plainly run by populist. Common people and
military personnel were often denied basic human rights’ and were subjected to great degrees of
harshness, violence, leading to a ‘bureaucratic authoritarianism’ (Thomas Wright, Latin America
Since Independence, 231).
By the end of the 20th century, a number of Latin American countries started looking highly at
neoliberal approaches to uplift their social structures and economies. Even countries like Cuba
started opening its door for liberal trade and international relations with other countries,
implement democratic procedures, and showing more interests in cash flows and trade and
investments and related policies throughout Latin America. Neoliberal approaches have greatly
helped to improve the Latin American economy, for instance, the Chilean model that was
primarily responsible in freeing and democratizing Chile in 1990 by removing trade barriers and
regulations, improving foreign and domestic policies for trade and investments, and privatization
of enterprises. Another example of neoliberal approaches to improve the economic conditions of
Latin America includes Mexico’s association with Canada under the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. This also helped other countries like Venezuela, Brazil,
Argentina, and Uruguay to open its trade relations for improving the economy by privatizing and
prioritizing social security systems (Thomas Wright, Latin America Since Independence, 176).
However, such reforms were to be conducted with the limits of the pertaining bureaucratic
authoritarianism systems where countries like Mexico and Venezuela were restricted from
privatizing their state oil firms, despite the countries being the highest oil producers at the time.

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Thus, the new economic policies still kept Latin America vulnerable to the open and
international trade markets, causing a rather volatile social and economic status at the global
level. The end of the 20th century saw only six percent of the world’s total exports belonging to
the Latin American region, as compared to the much higher numbers at the beginning of the 20th
century. Such rigid reforms also created a debt crisis for the region, even with two countries
being the world’s highest petroleum producers. The amount of debt was extremely high, which
eventually become difficult to repay. Aggressive and tactical policies were implemented by
financial institutions to urge and pressurize Latin American governments to borrow more in
order to safeguard their financial interests, leading to more than 1000 percent increase from 1970
to 1980. Except for Colombia, a number of Latin American countries had to face bad fiscal
conditions with the rise in interest rates in the United States, making it difficult to reduce
inflation and curb other economic and social security issues persisting in the region (Thomas
Wright, Latin America Since Independence, 155). Hyperinflation was observed in countries like
Argentina and Brazil, slowing social and economic growth in most parts of the Latin American
region. Latin America thus, remains unfamiliar and unknown to the dynamics of international
trade relations and world markets.
Conclusion
The modern history of Latin America has shown some unfavorable consequences over the social,
economic, and political structure of most countries in the region. Even developing nations like
Cuba, Chile and Venezuela were unable to sustain and appropriately practice neoliberal policies
that could improve the condition of the region. However, with the region’s awakening after the
20th century, social issues like life expectancy and literacy rates have rescued as compared to the
figures during the 1950s. The issue of populism in Latin America has been curbed to an extent,

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although population rates have varied with different parts/countries of Latin America.
Improvement in road transportation, international trade, the rate of globalization and social
transformations like exposure to television has helped Latin America become less isolated from
the world. Apart from social security and globalization trends, even gender relations and
protection of minority groups have improved a lot, directing Latin American countries to a more
realistic, democratic, and better future (James Wood, Problems In Modern Latin American
History, 223).
References
Wood, James A. Problems In Modern Latin American History. 4th ed., Latin American
Silhouettes. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, p. 323.
Wright, Thomas C. Latin America Since Independence. Latin American Silhouettes. Lanham,
Boulder, and New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017, p. 324.
Chasteen, John Charles. Born In Blood And Fire. 2nd ed., Latin American Voices, New York:
W.W. Norton, 2016, p. 329.
Henríquez, Cristina. The Book Of Unknown Americans. 2nd ed., Vintage Contemporaries, 2015,
p. 285.