Page 14 - MONTT GROUP LATIN AMERICAN MAGAZINE JANUARY, 2020(Ingles) .pdf

electorate disappointed with the performance of the Pink Tide drove the rise of centre-right governments. First it was Mauricio Macri in Argentina on November 22, 2015, which ended 12 years of socialist experience. Then, as a domino effect, similar changes occurred in many other countries. The only exceptions were that of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in Mexico and that of El Salvador with Salvador Sánchez Ceren.
But the current conservative wave failed to stop this growing popular discontent or the displacement of people, true human masses among the countries of the region, many of which initially received those groups with a policy of open borders. While these emigrants tried to recover, the emerging local middle classes saw their expectations and dreams sink deeper and deeper into a reality that threatened their consolidation and stability.
Migrations: Source of Poverty
But worst than that, a new phenomenon not yet very clearly identi ed, but existing, ocurred in the most brutal way. The poorest of the receiving countries, those who thanks to the boom of raw materials at some point were steep to get out of poverty, those who were on the same social an economical level as
newcomers from Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru discovered they had to compete with them for a salary. One of the few who noticed this tragic situation has been the academic of the University of Santiago and a graduate of the University of Cambridge, José Gabriel Palma, who points out that among the most important factors that explain the unemployment in the lowest quintiles in Chile, and also the stagnation in the reduction of poverty and inequality,is immigration. Precisely because of the increase in the entry of foreigners to Chile, the economy went from a situation of over-demand for cheap and unskilled labour, to one of oversupply. What other analysts do agree is that migration is very harmful during recessive cycles or of economic slowdown. In this case the arrival of foreigners is transformed into an undoubted source of poverty, something that is happening now in Chile and producing, according to some experts, part of the current social outbreak.
This is how, mixed all these elements, widespread discontent travels the region with all kinds of protests and all kind of public demonstrations.
The Curse of The Raw Materials
The key question for the future is how the region can move forward despite
the problems it faces.
For some experts, what happened in Latin America is nothing more than the nal e ect of the so-called the “Dutch disease”. This refers to the boom in the primary sector when Holland discovered large deposits of oil and natural gas in 1959, while the manufacturing sector was paralyzed due to the loss of competitiveness. Many analysts of the Latinamerican reality believe that the production of natural resources is not enough, because they can build a real trap for the people, with serious destabilizing and ungovernable e ects because it makes the economies very dependent on the prices of primary products. It is necessary, they add, to take measures to be more innovative and competitive, with industries of the new economy, with good quality education, technological clusters. The boom in raw materials is positive, provided it is accompanied by the development of other industries.
In this case, to trust only in the economic results of commodities delayed reforms, moved away or suspended much-needed changes throughout the region, prevented the application of important measures that had to be taken much earlier, and not at the pace of street violence.
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