América Latina: ¿De dónde viene y hacia dónde va?

Latin America's deep financial crisis during the economic depression of the previous five years has drawn attention to external debt servicing rather than the underlying structural problems. Adjustment policies have been relatively successful in reestablishing some balance in the external sector, but they have intensified social disequilibrium, and external dependency. The crisis was unleashed, not just by some immediate short-term factors, but also by certain characteristics of the traditional development model: indiscriminate insertion in the world economy, as well as persisting inadequate schemes of social participation and of wealth and income distribution. A new development strategy must urgently be designed, with two basic objectives: strengthening Latin American autonomy, and widening social participation in the struggle and the benefits of development.