Roberto Veiga González
Lawyer and political scientist. Collaborator with the Alternativas Foundation. Editor of the magazine ‘Espacio Laical’ (2005-2014) and director of the Laboratory of Ideas ‘Cuba Posible’ (2014-2015)
Events have shattered the post-1945 ‘world order’, weakening its institutions and norms, and the nations that will be the two prevailing world powers, i.e. the United States and China, are evident. This is in conjunction with other second-tier powers such as Germany, Japan, the European Union and Russia.
In this new global context, perhaps there will be blocs as in other eras; remember the two, respectively, around the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1945 and 1991. But it may be otherwise, in other words, that both major and minor powers will coexist in countries and regions where, depending on local and occasional circumstances, one or the other will have greater influence.
This, together with a historical course in which a change of epoch, including a cultural one, and a crisis of democracy converge. For sectors of various societies, democracy has become above all a technique of elites and bureaucrats at their service, and this has led them to perceive a lack of empathy of democratic politics with their problems.
The response to this is populism, right and left, in all cases nostalgic for absolutes, homogeneity and unanimity. While left-wing populism is suffering from wear and tear, right-wing populism is often considered by these sectors to be capable of resolving their difficulties.
However, also in this era, the need for development, if not survival, will require global efforts, as the economic and political resources of all countries are limited. In this sense, perhaps Latin America and the Caribbean can aim to be a stabilising factor in the emerging ‘world order’ and thus benefit its own development and equilibrium.
II
This may sound ‘delusional’, or perhaps it really is, in a way. Nevertheless, the Latin American space will be important for the development ‘of’ and competition ‘between’ the major and minor powers; this will be a challenge for the region, but perhaps also an opportunity.
Europe could stop depending on China for the lithium it demands, receiving it from Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. It could get the cereals it needs from South America, instead of Ukraine. It could source green hydrogen for the configuration of a productive structure based on renewable energy from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. Latin America and the Caribbean, in turn, would have a market for all of this that is currently lacking.
This would require a strategic and beneficial bi-regional agreement, capable of accepting that free trade brings more growth, more investment, more exports and lower costs, and that this requires managing protectionist tendencies on both sides of the Atlantic with political maturity.
US import preferences from Latin America and the Caribbean could prove to be a major resource for the region’s development. The US imports from Latin America, for example, petroleum oils, bituminous minerals, monolithic integrated circuits, radiotelephone, radiotelegraph, television and radio broadcast receivers, parts and accessories of machines of heading 84.71, natural gas in gaseous state, copper ores and concentrates, iron ores and concentrates, soya beans and gold for non-monetary use. At the same time, Latin America and the Caribbean is an important market for US exports, especially in goods such as machinery, chemicals and automobiles.
Such interests could increase US investment and finance concessions to these areas, and this would contribute to the improvement of the infrastructure for the production of goods and services, employment, wages and social welfare. There are US financial institutions and private organisations that offer loans to individuals and businesses in the region, such as Avant, Loan Provider, OneMain Financial, Rocket Mortgage, Upgrade y Upstart.
This would also require a Latin American and Caribbean agreement with the United States on investment, credit, business protection, free trade, labour rights and legal and environmental security. But this would require prior Latin American consultation, based on the assumption that the development of each country in the region will in some way be a cause and effect of the development of the other countries.
This intra-Latin American concertation to make such strategic agreements possible, with Europe and the United States, would require shared interests, and not only political or ethical principles. It would be useful to incorporate what the coal and steel community was for the European Union as an element of rapprochement and shared development. Some point to agriculture and the food industry, among other things.
This would also include developing economic cooperation with, for example, Canada, China, Russia, India, the United Kingdom and Japan.
III
However, some counter that such projection may be ‘delusional’ because it requires politicians of extraordinary human, political and strategic stature. Sometimes, however, when survival is the challenge, the impossible can be possible.
Certainly, in the current global context there is a prevailing populism that seeks to overturn income distribution, labour rights, social equity and commitment to general welfare, as well as international cooperation, except for free trade; democratic forces that seem bent more on survival; and a political class with little quality, largely turned into a ‘trade’ to support greed or ambition.
This is why the increasingly significant presence of a democratic politics, with solid strategies and effective agendas, that opts in a ‘radical’ way for would be favourable:
A democratic state and good governance, guaranteeing freedom and human rights, and democratic and pluralistic civil and political societies.
A democratic economic strategy that ensures the centrality of work and is oriented towards development and general welfare.
Universal access to comprehensive education, health care, a sustainable pension and social security system, child and adolescent development, and a qualitative environmental policy.
Empowerment of vulnerable social groups, care for the disabled, care for the elderly, the fight against all forms of violence and civil defence in response to disasters of all kinds.
Military and police institutes – of a ‘civilian’ nature – also with international responsibility for peace and against organised crime, in accordance with local constitutional and legal norms and international law.
International relations based on the defence of human rights, cooperation and peace.
I refer to a policy that would also need the capacity to advance its projection with growing legitimacy in contexts with dissimilar and powerful adverse ‘values’, including at times in itself.
The ‘political map’ of Latin America and the Caribbean does not show such political projections with sufficient capacity, and such forces also suffer from deficits throughout the world. The first challenge, then, would be to bring them closer together and to make it possible to reach shared strategies and management, with the ‘radical’ commitment to establish a ‘new politics’, not in the centre or at the extremes, but forward.
