Shifting Centers of Gravity in Latin America by toni solo April 24, 2006
COPA, the Panamanian airline, is now flying the Brazilian company Embraer's E-190 commercial airliners on routes previously dominated by Boeing 737s. This detail highlights broader shifts in the economic balance of power in Latin America away from United States corporations. US businesses over-accustomed to hefty direct and indirect government subsidy and support are steadily going to have to make sharp adjustments. The Bush regime's desperation to force through "free trade" deals with Latin American countries is partly an attempt to soften, if not avoid, the blows to come. Embraer's sale of airliners to COPA indicates the incipient displacement of European and US aerospace industry in Latin America by Brazil. Last week President Lula decorated Brazil's first astronaut, who had successfully completed a mission with the Russian space program. Brazil is also developing its nuclear industry. Both Brazil and Venezuela are making significant widespread use of free software in preference to proprietary software like Microsoft's Windows operating system. Global trade links between Brazil and China, Venezuela and Iran combine with regional integration initiatives that are remaking Latin America's traditional networks of international relations. Patterns of investment and exploitation of natural resources are also shifting. A sign of this is the environmental concern now being raised in relation to an inter-governmental plan for a gas pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina to link much of South America's gas resources into a single network. But its proposed route passes through some of the world's most precious areas of biodiversity, forest and water reserves. Presidents like Hugo Chavez and Ignacio da Silva will have to square the conflicting demands their drive to regional integration imposes. full: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr06/solo24.htm -- www.marxmail.org
