A New Start?

Abstract

As we enter the 1990s, the future of Latin America has never seemed more problematic. The major countries, particularly in the Southern Cone, seem likely to struggle on, always failing to realize their full potential. In a category of its own is Brazil, which, after an introspective phase, could eventually achieve the major power status to which it has for so long aspired. But at the other end of the scale, the smaller countries of both South and Central America seem fated to veer away downward from the path of development of their larger neighbours, into ever more serious problems of poverty.