The New Union
by Jorge Vargas
To the leaders of Latin America, so esteemed though some of them may be, the following question must be posed: Why do the republics of Latin America insist on following in the examples of Europe? Few Latin Americans would agree that Latin America imitates Europe but, regardless of how much pride we may have in our countries, it is difficult to deny such a claim. To what extent must we imitate Europe in our official policies? Is it not enough that the basic social layout of Latin America was handed down to us, in part, by Europe.
When speaking in historical and geographical terms, Latin America and Europe are arguably similar. The Europeans had the ancient Greeks and the Roman Empire, whereas Americans have had the Mayans and the Incan Empire. Both regions were building great cities, whereas their North American neighbors were living a far less advanced lifestyle. The Europeans had bloody wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants; Latin America also had such conflicts, between the Spanish and Portuguese Catholics and the native religions, conflicts which left the natives of the Americas extremely weakened. European history is filled with shifting alliances amongst close neighbors that led to savage conflicts, and so is Latin America - one need only analyze the Chile of the 1866 war against Spain and then the Chile of the War of the Pacific against her former ally, Peru, to see this similarity. Europe has been home to the cruelest dictators in human history – Hitler, Stalin, and Franco to name a few - and Latin America has also seen brutal authoritarian regimes - the Argentine junta run by Videla, for example -, although the dictatorships in Europe were far more costly that anything in Latin America, but that could be a result of greater U.S. interest in Europe than in her neighbors, along with stronger militaries in Europe than in Latin America. Geographically, the European continent is small but divided into various different nations, as is Latin America, which is considerably smaller than Africa and Asia.
In Latin America, the European conquerors carried out vicious war against the natives that left the latter group so weakened that their culture was no longer dominant, and still isn’t, despite the group’s superiority in numbers. Thus, the prevailing culture in Latin America is derived from Europe, whereas Asia’s culture is, despite colonization, Asian. The predominant religion is, without a doubt, European, whereas in Africa, tribal religions are still highly prevalent. To not bore one with history and sociology, Latin America was, for many years, the only region in the world where soccer had attained mass popularity, aside from Europe, although in recent decades, with the introduction of powerful and competitive African sides, this has begun to change.
Therefore, the similarities do exist, but are these superficial or not? The social structure of Latin America is composed of an elite ruling class, with a small middle class, and then an astoundingly enormous lower class. Western Europe, due to economic development, has no substantial lower class, unless one were to count immigrant populations.
The goal of every nation is to achieve the social structure that exists in Western Europe, excluding, of course, the U.S, whose extreme capitalist system is built upon a lower class to sustain it, and here some, such as Robert Kagan in his book entitled ‘Of Paradise and Power’, would argue that the United States, by spending vast amounts on defense, allowed Europe to attain the financially secure social system that it has attained since the end of World War Two, although this is not a relevant argument to the subject at hand.
But the social structure of Latin America was installed by the European colonizers, so even that is, at its roots, European. What is Latin American then, if that region appears to be following in the footsteps of Europe? Is it the poverty that has attained such a strong grip on our region? Was that poverty also not installed with the end of the colonial establishment of Spain and Portugal?
How much of that Incan culture can still be revived to maintain something authentic? How much of the Aztec folklore can be used in Mexico’s globalized society? Or is it already too late? Has South America become so European that the continent’s only option for progress is to continue down this road of imitation?
Cusco, Peru. Site of the creation of the South American Union in 2004.
But that is not all. The South American Union has been an idea floated around for a few years now but was recently inaugurated in Cuzco, which is a symbolic city since it was the capital of South America’s mighty Inca Empire, in the last year. The idea is that economic integration will create a powerful Latin America that can grant jobs to its people and that can defend its borders and its financial interests when dealing with the United States, the EU, and other rising powers. It calls for a merger between the Mercosur trade-bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and associate-member Chile) and the Andean Pact (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela), although it also includes Guyana and Suriname.
The skeptic that has long since lived in most South Americans would ask what, aside from more bureaucracy and paper-work, will this pact bring to South America? What prosperity can come from uniting a relatively stable nation like Uruguay with a war-torn Colombia? How can Chile work together with Bolivia when the former won’t even grant Bolivia an opening to the sea? How can Peru and Venezuela work together when Venezuela tried to keep Vladimiro Montesinos, one of the most corrupt individuals in Peruvian history, from justice?
The European Union originally consisted of wealthy states that didn’t face the severe social conflicts of nations such as Colombia. It’s true, however, that integrated trade will bring better communication between the nations and thus, understanding and even a deeper sense of fraternity than the one that already exists in South America, and it can’t be denied that the creation of such a union would, if the integration is done to an extent similar to that of Europe, create a super-state with a population larger than that of the United States. It’s also evident that the construction of roads, like the one already being planned out between Peru and Brazil to unite the Pacific with Brazil’s Amazon region, and ports to make his integration physically possible will lead to a massive creation of jobs in the short-run, but once these projects are completed and all that is necessary is maintenance, what will become of these workers in the long-run?
The idea isn’t being criticized so strongly as it may appear, but it is being called into question, and the leaders of the American states should remember that most of the great ideas of Latin America failed not because of the implementation, but because of the lack of sufficient planning. If the SAU does bring growth to our America, then it can be said that South America is like Europe, but if it is just another failure, then it will be another example of a failed attempt at being European.
Our leaders must understand that their schemes and games, when unsuccessful, help only in retarding the progress that we, the people of Latin America, have been dreaming of since the 1800s, and which we enjoyed, if however briefly, after our years of independence, during which South America was more technologically and industrially advanced than the U.S. The years for dreaming passed us by and now it is time that we, regardless of how much we may regret it, step down and away from the clouds that we so much wish to inhabit, and face our reality so that we can better perfect ourselves.
To contact Jorge Vargas, email him at jorgevargas@crossingsmagazine.org or fill out the form below:
