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LATIN AMERICA: The Century of Development?
By Elisa Marincola
MILAN, Italy, Oct 18, 2005 (IPS) - This could be "the century of Latin America", as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has proposed, if the region succeeds in more fully consolidating its integration process and building a development model that fosters greater social cohesion and governability.
This was one of the main conclusions to emerge from the Second National Conference on Latin America held Monday and Tuesday in Milan, capital of the northern region of Lombardy and a major industrial centre, 600 km north of Rome.
Italian-Latin American relations have taken centre stage this week, largely due to the presence in the European nation of Presidents Ricardo Lagos of Chile, Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, as well as Lula from Brazil.
In addition, delegations from almost every government in the region are attending a meeting of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) underway this week in Rome.
At the conference in Milan, participants discussed the consolidation of democracy, and observed that the persistent institutional instability in many of the region's countries is closely linked to the severe economic hardships faced by large sectors of their populations.
As Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza pointed out, there are 224 million people living in poverty today in Latin America and the Caribbean - 40 percent of the total population, although the proportion climbs above 70 percent in some countries.
An estimated 96 million live on less than one dollar a day, Insulza added, despite the fact that the region as a whole recorded the greatest growth in gross domestic product (GDP) ever in 2004.
Structural reforms resulting from the adoption of neoliberal economic policies combined with a decline in state participation in the economy have led to a general sense of deterioration and uncertainty reflected in the level of confidence in democracy, he noted.
"People still believe in democracy as the best form of government, but they are not satisfied with the form it currently takes," said Insulza.
This dissatisfaction has reached such critical levels in recent years that it has led to what some of the experts at the conference in Milan defined as "civilian coups", in which significant sectors of the population have risen up in massive social mobilisations that have toppled democratically elected presidents in countries like Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia.
According to Insulza, these rebellions were not aimed at overthrowing democratic regimes, but rather governments incapable of solving the real problems facing the population, such as poverty, unemployment, crime and the lack of social services.
He highlighted the fact that Chile is the only country in Latin America that has already met the majority of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ten years before the deadline established for their fulfilment.
The MDGs, agreed by the international community in 2000, include reducing by one half the proportion of people who suffer from extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015, along with other goals related to development, gender equality, education, health and the environment.
Insulza maintained that the results achieved in Chile were politically engendered. "Without a good government, consensus cannot be obtained, neither from the political opposition nor from the majority that upholds the government," he noted, adding that "participation leads to a sense of responsibility on the part of the citizens, who should be the guarantors of governability."
Venezuelan President Chávez, for his part, stressed the need for integration, pointing to the efforts made by countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela, and stating that "Above all else, Latin America must find itself again."
Chávez praised the decision recently made by the current member countries of Mercosur (the Southern Common Market) - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - to accept Venezuela as a full member by the end of this year, a move that will expand and deepen the bloc's potential, he said.
The Venezuelan leader also commented on the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an initiative spearheaded by the United States to create a free trade zone encompassing all of the countries of the hemisphere except Cuba, which was supposed to have entered into effect in January of this year.
The establishment of a strong, integrated Latin American axis is an essential condition for the region's political and economic independence, he insisted.
But integration is not an easy process. The first Meeting of Heads of State of the South American Community of Nations, held Sept. 30 in Brasilia, ended without an agreement on the programme of action draw up over the ten months since the summit in Cuzco, Peru where the 12-nation bloc was founded.
Chávez also referred to the internal situation in his own country, and noted that the Venezuelan constitution establishes the possibility for the general population to demand a recall referendum, through which elected officials can be voted out of power. Representative democracy is necessary, but not sufficient, he said. "We are constructing a truly participative democracy," he added.
Lula addressed the conference in Milan through a video hook-up, and emphasised the crucial importance of regional integration, which will enable the Latin America economies to grow more equitably and forge closer relations with the rest of the world.
The 21st century "will be the century of Latin America only if its leaders succeed in establishing a development model that is sustainable, and above all, if they are able to develop strong social policies that take into account the most disadvantaged sectors of the population," he concluded.
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