A Glimpse at the Other Side of the
Neoliberalism Coin
Latin American governments saw a change in political
views during the 1990s that impacted the lives of the few, middle class and
above, in a positive way and the lives of the majority, the poor, in a negative
way. During the 1990s Latin America
placed most of its Nationalist views aside, and adopted the views proposed by a
political movement known as Neoliberalism.
This political movement mainly emphasized free trade, export production,
and comparative advantage [1]. Since
Neoliberalism emphasizes the idea of a “free market,” it implemented new ideas,
such as, the privatization of social services and state-run corporations. In
addition, Neoliberalism slashed import tariffs which had been implemented by
Nationalist to protect local business, and deregulated capital flow which was
there in the first place to regulate the profits that multinational
corporations could take out of the country of investment.
By the turn of the millennium Neoliberalism became the
ultimate law of the land in Latin America.
One might wonder how Neoliberalism became popular, and the answer is
simple, during the 1980s Latin America had huge external debts, totaling to about
400 billion dollars. The two Latin
American countries which had the largest debts were Mexico and Brazil [2]. Neoliberal
politicians and leaders were able to control this enormous debt crisis, and gained
the support of many people. With that brief background on how Neoliberalism
became popular in Latin America, now it is time to take a glimpse at the other
side of the coin. Yes, Neoliberalism favored
some people, but it favored the ones that needed the least help. In Latin America, these are people from the
middle class and above, which are the few.
Since several Latin American countries created “free trade agreements”
the price for consumer goods decreased due to tariff reductions. The majorities
of Latin Americans are, by other countries’ standards, considered poor and
therefore saw no benefit from the access to consumer products that
Neoliberalism provided.
In fact, foreign investors took advantage of the low
tariff prices that they had to pay, and billions of dollars flowed into Latin
American countries for investment. This affected local producers of different
types of products. For example, many
investors invested their money in Mexico in maquiladoras,
which are by basic definition assembly plants usually, along the United States
and Mexico, to which foreign materials and parts are shipped and from which the
finished product is returned to the original market [3]. These assembly plants also exist in other Latin
American countries, not just in Mexico, but they are not referred to by the
same name. These maquiladoras use cheap labor and pay very low wages for long hours
of work. They usually hire women, but men, kids and teenagers also work in
them. The image below shows what a
typical maquiladora in Mexico looks like, and for this particular one
the workers are sewing and stitching different textiles [4]. Myself having grown up and lived in the city
of Leon in Guanajuato, Mexico until my teenage years did not work in one of these
assembly plants, but had the opportunity to experience the typical environment that
one might encounter from being around the people that worked there.
The different types of assembly plants and
factories in Mexico, and in other Latin American countries, do not only take
advantage of poor people using them for cheap labor, but at the same time they contribute
heavily to the pollution of the environment.
Foreign investors know that in Latin America for the “right amount of
money” almost anything can be done, and since what matters most to them is
making a profit from their investments they take advantage of poor people and at
the same time pollute their environment.
Yes, there has been opposition to Neoliberalism’s views from Zapatistas in Mexico, several indigenous
movements, and other groups in other Latin American countries, but their
respective success has been limited.
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