The Americas

Laboratorio de Paz

In recent years Latin America has been able to maintain itself on the margins of the economic crisis that is hitting most countries in Europe as well as the United States. The region is showing positive macroeconomic indicators that speak of growth and poverty reduction. These figures, which have to be interpreted with care due to their quantitative emphasis – leaving qualitative evaluations unaccounted for – are defended by the majority of governments, from the most conservative to the so-called 'progressive' ones, as an expression of the 'success' of their social policies. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), which permanently compiles these sorts of statistics, affirmed that in 2012 the continent showed the lowest percentage of people living in poverty (28.8 % of the total population) in the last 30 years.

Moving towards a ‘post-extractive model’ and living well?

By César Padilla*

The increase in mining activities in Latin America has not slowed since the middle of the 90s. The region attracts around 27% of all investment in this sector and there are many projects which are yet to start. Some countries base their exports on mining and others are trying to join the list.

Chile and Perú top the ranking of mining countries par excellence, whilst Colombia is trying to start the “mining engine” so as to be part of the club and Argentina is fighting to compete for the investments of the major transnationals. Bolivia, traditionally a mining country, this year has managed to revive the stagnant sector, reaching mineral export figures which are on a par with hydro-fuel exports. An effort to nationalise mining and sectoral law reforms are giving renewed spirit to this activity, which is increasingly in the hands of the State.

It is in Europe where War Resisters' International (WRI) was founded. It is also there and in the USA where it has its bigger number of members and supporters. Clearly this is reflected in the way it functions as also in the issues that takes on. For the same reasons the groups that identify most strongly with the international are those in Europe plus War Resisters League in the USA. Through the years WRI has worked to become - as its name says - truly international, by adding groups and having activities with groups in other regions of the world.

Within the global antimilitarist movement, Latin America has had a tradition based on its own particular history. During a large part of the 20th century, the region was governed by military dictatorships. Some of those non-democratic regimes were encouraged or supported by the United States (the majority of cases) or by the Soviet Union during the period known as the Cold War.

It seems that we are always announcing a new attempt at co-operation between antimilitarist organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean. From time to time it is good to establish when a period ends and a new one begins, but at the same time, always trying to pretend to reinvent the wheel, or to focus our energies on trying to build something new, can burn you out and be unreal.

Despite an effort to appear otherwise, the countries of South America do not represent an exception to the military - industrial complex (the relationship between governments and the arms industry that favours the latter and underlies an endless arms race). Although the military – industrial complex does not manifest as brutally in South America as in the United States, the pressure of the war industry on politics is unquestionable.

Mexico

Conscription exists for men aged 18-40, recruitment is via ballot, as only 60000 recruits are needed from a pool of 975,000 men reaching conscription age annually. Conscientious objection is not recognised.

El Salvador

Conscription has not been enforced since the peace treaty of 1992. The right to conscientious objection is not recognised.

ELOC 96 in Guatemala Preparations for ELOC 97, Quito, Ecuador, 25-31 August 1997 First Bilateral Youth Meeting Peru-Ecuador -- Quito, 20-23 August

ELOC 96 in Guatemala

The Third Latin American Conference on Conscientious Objection (ELOC 96) took place last year in Guatemala City, from 20 to 26 October.