The Ecuadorian proposal for a new regional financial architecture

The neoliberal experiment in Latin America has consumed more than a generation of enormous resources with very little economic results, disastrous social and environmental effects, and a deterioration in democratic legitimacy that will have to be recovered. A necessary, although insufficient, condition to recover a hopeful horizon on these fronts is the qualitative advancement toward a continental integration process that includes monetary and financial dimensions, even while the classic themes of trade and tariff integration are still far from being resolved. The Ecuadorian plan that was introduced at the multilateral negotiations in relation to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez's initiative to create the Banco del Sur proposes the simultaneous and coherent promotion of a process to construct a New Regional Financial Architecture, in which the Banco del Sur would be the nucleus of one of the three fundamental pillarsâthat is, the transformation of the development bank. The other two pillars include the enrichment and coordination of the continental tasks of the central bank, connecting stabilization with development, and the convergence toward a common monetary scheme.