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Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- LATIN AMERICA:
MOVEMENTS DEFY PRIVATIZATION POLICIES
By Alicia Jrapko
Despite all of the U.S. corporate media's efforts
to conceal
the deepening economic and social crisis in Latin America, they can no longer hide it. Articles in major newspapers now cry out for a "clearer" U.S. policy toward the region, reflecting a split in the ruling class here over how to respond to the crisis engulfing the entire continent. Although some economists still claim the region
needs more
"free-market" economic policies, others now admit that U.S. neoliberal policies--privatization, cutbacks, throwing open the market for U.S. products, prioritizing debt service to the banks--have worsened Latin America's huge gap between rich and poor. After almost 30 years of neoliberal policies in the
region,
a small elite enjoys enormous wealth, while poverty across Latin America stands at over 40 percent. The crisis that first erupted in Argentina has
spread
throughout the region, particularly in the Southern Cone. But the U.S. government and big business's main concern is to stem the growing tide of popular resistance and uprisings. That's why Washington abruptly changed its "no
loans" policy
for struggling economies in the region and says it is now willing to permit some International Monetary Fund loans. On Aug. 7, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill
urged a
speedy IMF pact for aid to Argentina. Just 10 days earlier, O'Neill had publicly suggested that aid to the region could "end up in Swiss bank accounts." The same day O'Neill made his about-face, the IMF
announced
a $30 billion loan to Brazil. Before that, Washington granted Uruguay a $1.5 billion emergency loan to keep its banks afloat. RESISTANCE TO PIRVATIZATION
U.S.-backed privatization policies face enormous
challenges
from peoples' movements throughout the region. After five days of rebellion against plans to
privatize two
power plants in Arequipa, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was forced to declare a state of emergency and agree to suspend the sell-off. In Paraguay, rebellions opposed to free-market
policies
forced President Luis Macchi to declare a state of emergency. In Mexico, poor peasants mobilized and stopped
President
Vicente Fox's plan to build a new airport on their lands outside Mexico City. In Uruguay, people responded to the banking crisis
by
expropriating goods from supermarkets. Unions protested the government's decision to close the banks for a week. Meanwhile in Brazil, the region's largest economy,
the
currency's value continues to drop. Will rebellion spread there next? For the most vulnerable people of Latin America,
the
gigantic amount of foreign debt in the region amounts to super-exploitation. The austerity plans imposed on local governments by the IMF and World Bank in exchange for more loans means cutting jobs and basic benefits like health care, education, retirement and social security. More loans are not the answer for economic recovery
in these
countries. It's a Band-Aid solution that will only put them further in debt and produce more austerity for the great majority of people. There is a growing movement in Latin America to
cancel the
entire foreign debt. After all, the Latin American countries really owe nothing to foreign banks, which have profited from centuries of imperialist plunder of the region. Just as U.S. big business and the government should
pay
reparations to the families of former slaves, imperialism should also be held responsible for paying reparations to the Latin American working people for all the stolen natural resources and labor. - END -
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