Latin America

Latin America

this week exposition was about Latin America, this a region conformed by 21 countries, it has an area of 21’069.501 km2 approximately and includes Mexico, Central America and islands such as Cuba and Dominican Republic, and South America.The most important cities in the region are Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Lima, Belo Horizonte, Santiago, Guadalajara, Porto Alegre

Historical components of current affairs Latin America

When talking about latin America, it’s important to mention its political background and actual situation, since the region has been really affected because of it.

Revising the notes of my classmates of the last semester I found out that In Latin-America there exist 3 political regimes around the countries

1.Center- Left: Are political formations of moderate left, moved away of the revolutionary left or the Communism.

•It includes the social democracy, the social christianism and the socio liberalism.

•Professes reformist and non-conservative ideologies.

•Defends the mixed economy and regulation of the market to guarantee equality.

•They are opposite to privatization.

COUNTRIES FROM CENTER LEFT: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala and Dominican Republic.

2.Radical- Left: Are political formations of radical left.

•Their policies turn around the equality, based in Stalinists, Marxist, Leninists theories and Trotskism.

•At the moment they include the democratic socialism.

•Total opposition to Capitalism, tendencies to Populism.

•Distribution of the richness only freed to the free game of the forces of the market, only will produce inequity that will take to low income sectors of the population to be excluded.

COUNTRIES FROM RADICAL LEFT: Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua.

3.Center- Right: They have more preservative ideas, although without going to the ends, they are not radically conservative.

•They are in favor of the free market:–Reduced levels of taxes.–Reduction of the public cost.–Promote FDI

Foreign direct investment in Latin America

Around 56,400 million usd was invested in 2004 in Latin America:

· Brazil was the largest recipient of resources, with 18,000 million dollars, followed by Mexico with 17,000 million.
· In the third place was Chile with U.S. $ 7.603 million.
· Colombia was the fourth Latin American country to receive FDI of $ 2.352 million, an increase of 34 percent over 2003 when the amount reached 1.746 million dollars

The growth rate of FDI to Latin America and the Caribbean was above the world average and above the average for developing countries in general.

If both regions are separated, FDI to South America climbed 24% to US$ 89.862 billion, while FDI to Mexico and the Caribbean fell 5% to US$ 38.438 billion.This difference is explained by the differentiated effect that the international crisis has had on both regions.


Corporate social responsibility of foreign firms operating in Latin America

In general we can say that there is a huge gap between the most developed countries of
the Americas (Canada and the US) and the rest of the region. As deep as this gap is, a similar gap exists between the most advanced developing countries of the region and the rest. (Haslam, P, 2004) Overall, it is possible to say that there are four different levels of CSR activity in the Americas, in declining order of activity:

• Running (Canada and US);
• Catching-up (most developed Latin American
countries, such as Argentina, Chile and Mexico);
• Walking (rest of South America), and;
• Stalled (Central America and the Caribbean).

In the most industrialized of the Latin American economies, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, (Brazil and Uruguay could probably be included in this list, but were not examined in the study) we see some important CSR activity. It is worth emphasizing the huge drop that occurs when this level is compared to that of Canada. For example while Canada generated 917 search “hits”, it was 140 in Argentina, 105 in Chile, and 63 in Mexico. This constitutes a seven to fourteenfold drop over the Canadian level. (Haslam, P, 2004)

How has been latin America growing, regardin integration processes?

Latin America has a growing economic highly dependent from United States. In April 1994, Brazil launched its proposal for a South American Free Trade Area, or SAFTA. In the absence of progress during the FTAA negotiations, SAFTA would provide MERCOSUR with an "insurance policy" against the risk of northern protectionism.South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA), will be the result of the integration of the big blocks of the region; the Andean Community and de MERCOSUR. MERCOSUR, is the largest regional trade bloc in Latin America. MERCOSUR remains a state-led, primarily commercial initiative, and its evolution and sustainability have been fundamentally linked to strategic factors and power configurations at the regional and hemispheric levels. The alignment of forces are determined by an evolution of the Latin American has been part of an expansive process of national and regional economic transformation, which has influenced the character of the process of integration.



References

Arango, Maria Isabel. Organisations and Culture. Class notes. 2009

Burlyai, Jan. 2002. Integration Processes in the Western Hemisphere. International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy & International Relations, 2002, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p36-43

Haslam, P. 2004. The corporate social responsibility system in Latin America and the Caribbean. Available at: http://dev6.itao.de/uploads/tx_jpdownloads/csr_Latin_America_Caribbean_04.pdf Accessed on October 20th 2009