In recent weeks, many observers of the Latin American military situation have detected what could be the beginning of a new arms race in the region. Brazilian President Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva was photographed boarding the Tikuna, his country's first conventional, domestically built submarine. He used the opportunity to highlight his support for the Brazilian military.
Similarly, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has broadcast his intention to purchase Russian MiG fighter jets and Brazilian low-flying surveillance aircraft, and to expand military expenditures. He is doing so, perhaps, because of recent problems with Colombia. Even Chile, after a lengthy process of weighing its options, is still pondering whether to acquire a dozen American-built jet fighters or a joint Swedish-Brazilian alternative.
Is there a new arms race underway in Latin America? If so, is there any conceivable way it could help address the hemisphere's economic and social dilemmas?
Regional wars and border conflicts have existed since time immemorial in Latin America. There was the Chaco war and the Chilean-Bolivian conflagration in the nineteenth century, the so called "Soccer War" between Honduras and El Salvador in the 1960s, the clash between Ecuador and Peru in the 1980s, and Antarctic border disputes between Chile and Argentina that were finally settled in the early 1990s. But the main reason for heavy military spending in Latin America has always been chiefly domestic.
Either the military ran various countries, and gorged itself with hardware and troop increases, or weak civilian governments, terrified of military coups or blackmail, placated their armed forces with all sorts of unnecessary martial goodies. By international standards, arms spending in Latin America is low relative to GDP; but it is nonetheless excessive relative to the region's needs.
Today the situation is more complex. In Venezuela, keeping his former comrades in arms happy is obviously a concern for Chavez. But festering conflicts with his Colombian neighbors are also a factor, particularly in view of the constant accusations and suspicions that Chavez comforts and supports the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. High oil prices allow Venezuela to go on this military spending spree, and there seems little that anybody can do about it.
In Brazil, matters are somewhat different. Lula has been able to neatly dovetail his socialist roots with traditional Brazilian nationalism, which has always been strong in the country's armed forces. "O Brasil, pa's grande" is a universal slogan in South America's giant -- a country that has borders with nine neighbors and fears that its distant jungle frontiers cannot easily be patrolled.
Similar sentiments are apparent elsewhere in the region. But the question everywhere in Latin America is whether it would not be a better idea to implement former -- and perhaps future -- Costa Rican President Oscar Arias's idea of Latin American disarmament, to turn "spending on swords" into investments in ploughshares. Arias, the 1987 Nobel peace prize recipient, has a good reason for pushing this idea: his country has no standing army. Still, it is a bold initiative that should be revived in view of Latin America's incipient arms race.
Indeed, it could be the cornerstone of a new program for the next secretary-general of the Organization of American States, who is to be elected in the coming weeks. Obviously, I am rooting for the Mexican candidate, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez. But whoever wins will need new ideas and initiatives to reinvigorate a dormant institution. Stopping Latin America's budding arms race is about as good an idea as there can be.
Jorge Castaneda is a former foreign minister of Mexico and currently a candidate for Mexico's presidency.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry