Hemisphere Volume 4 Article 1 Issue 1 Fall 1991 Volume 4 Number 1, Fall 1991 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere Part of the Latin American Studies Commons Recommended Citation (1991) "Volume 4 Number 1, Fall 1991," Hemisphere: Vol. 4 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere/vol4/iss1/1 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Kimberly Green Latin American and Carribbean Center (LACC) Publications Network at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hemisphere by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 4 Number 1, Fall 1991 This issue is available in Hemisphere: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/lacc_hemisphere/vol4/iss1/1 Hemisphere A MAGAZINE OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN AFFAIRS Fall 1991 Volume Four • Number One Seven Dollars Argentina: Menem’s Neoliberal Campaign William C. Smith, Aldo C. Vacs The Caribbean: Elections and Beyond Robert A. Pastor, Gary Brana-Shute, Cheddi Jagan Castro’s Premature Biography Lisandro Perez Huber and Stephens on Caribbean Development Options Constable on Reevaluating Chile’s Transition Barrios Moron on the Psychology of Bolivia’s Drug War Rich on Free Trade and Mexican Ecology Maingot on the Legacy of Gordon K. Lewis ' 18 Hemisphere A MAGAZINE OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN AFFAIRS Fall 1991 Volume Four • Number One Seven Dollars EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Anthony P. Maingot LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Deputy Editor: Richard Tardanico Associate Editors: Eduardo A. Gamarra, Mark B. Rosenberg Assistant Editor: Sofia A. Lopez Book Review Editor: Kathleen Logan COMMENTARY Bibliographer: Marian Goslinga Editorial Assistant: Rene Ramos Caribbean Development Options by Evelyne Huber Circulation Manager: Raqueljurado and John D. Stephens Copy Editor: Michael B.Joslyn Production Assistants: Cristina Finlay, Pedro P. Women in Public Office by Kathleen Logan Garcia, Teresita Marill, Sontha Strinko CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Janet M. Chernela Raul Moncarz Elena de Jongh Lisandro Perez REPORTS Damian J. Fernandez Luis P. Salas John D. French Kevin A. Yelvington Chile: The Perfect Transition? by Pamela Constable Dennis J. Gayle Bolivia: The Psychology of Drug War by Raul Barrios Moron EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Mexico: Free Trade and Ecology by Jan Gilbreath Rich Don Bohning Guido Pennano Ettore Botta Alejandro Portes In Memoriam: Gordon K Lewis by Anthony P. Maingot Wolf Grabendorff Sally Price Alistair Hennessy David Ronfeldt Harry Hoetink Selwyn Ryan Franklin W. Knight Steven E. Sanderson Vaughan Lewis Saskia Sassen FAXFILE Larissa A. Lomnitz Andres Serbm Abraham F. Lowenthal Carol A. Smith Andres Oppenheimer Yolande Van Eeuwen Robert A. Pastor Arturo Villar AnthonyJ. Payne Juan Yanes FEATURES Hemisphere (ISSN 08983038) is published three times a year (Fall, Winter/Spring, and Summer) Menem’s Neoliberal Campaign by the Latin American and Caribbean Center of Florida International University. Copyright © 1991 Restructuring Argentina by WiUiam C. Smith by the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Flor­ ida International University. All rights reserved. Abandoning the ‘Third Position” by Aldo C. Vacs Hemisphere is dedicated to provoking debate on the problems, initiatives, and achievements of Latin The Caribbean: Elections and Beyond America and the Caribbean. Responsibility for the views expressed lies solely with the authors. Lessons from Caribbean Elections by Robert A. Pastor EDITORIAL, CIRCULATION, AND ADVERTIS­ Suriname Tries Again by Gary Brana-Shute ING OFFICES: Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, University Vision for a Free Guyana by Cheddi Jagan Park, Miami, Florida 33199. Telephone: (305) 348- 2894. FAX: (305) 348-3593. Please address manu­ scripts and editorial correspondence to the Deputy Editor. REVIEW FORUM SUBSCRIPTIONS: US, PR, USVI: $20 a year; $36 for two years. Elsewhere: $27 a year; $50 for two years. Please make check or money order (US Castro’s Premature Biography by Lisandro Perez currency only) payable to Hemisphere. Credit card orders (MC/VISA only) are also acceptable. PUBLICATIONS UPDATE This document was produced at a cost of $6,263.00 or $3.13 per copy. Structural Adjustment Policies in Argentina by Marian Goslinga Environmental Challenges along with the new Regional Con­ The primary reason for the servation Units, (see my article, international celebration of De Lori Ann Thrupp’s article, “Costa “Saving Costa Rica’s Environment,” Soto’s book (which is subtitled Rica’s Resource Challenges,” (Hemi­ Hemisphere [Fall 1989]), attempts to The Invisible Revolution in the Third sphere [Winter/Spring 1990]), is do precisely that. Of course, it faces World) is that it provides a thor­ both provocative and frustratingly enormous potential resistance and ough analysis and policy map, not incomplete. One can hardly argue obstacles and its effectiveness re­ only for solving problems regard­ against her analysis of the severe mains to be proven. ing the subterranean (informal) and continuing degradation of the I would suggest, however, that sector but also for moving Third natural resources of Costa Rica. we contribute very little to solving World economies toward a new de­ Likewise there is little question Costa Rica’s problems by dam ning velopment path. De Soto’s book about the contradictory economic the country’s dependence on ex­ represents the freshest and most and environmental policies of the port agriculture without offering significant contribution to Third government. solutions for handling the difficult World development policy in the Her vision, however, seems par­ transition between an export- last two decades. As such, the book tial and shortsighted in many other oriented economy and a less- did much to rescue international respects. Her allusions to the major­ dependent, domestically oriented developm ent policy from a rapid ity o f Costa Ricans’ lack of interest economy. Social justice is indeed a slide into obscurity and irrele­ in wildlife, tourism, and science are radical aim, but with intelligent vance. Contrary to Portes’s asser­ totally lacking in evidence. Indeed planning it may also be a realistic tion, De Soto certainly did not there is substantial evidence that goal. “appropriate and reassert what was carefully managed environmental already known.” projects not only integrate local Jack W. Hopkins The failure of the formal sector communities into the projects, but School of Public as an engine of growth and devel­ also help to raise their environmen­ and Environmental Affairs opment in the Third World has tal consciousness. Daniel Janzen Indiana University given impetus to the informal deserves praise rather than criti­ economy. To be sure, the informal cism for saving one of the last re­ sector has failed to lower unemploy­ maining tropical dry forests in ment rates, raise wages and salaries Central America. Prior to the estab­ to keep pace with inflation, in­ lishment of Guanacaste National crease the availability of basic Park, the area was under imminent goods and services, and improve threat of destruction from export- A Promising Path? the economic infrastructure. oriented cattle ranching. Blaming In “An Informal Path to Develop­ Nevertheless, it represents the Janzen for perpetuating inequi­ m ent?” (Hemisphere [Winter/Spring Third World’s citizenry’s spontane­ table development, as Thrupp 1991]), Alejandro Portes criticizes ous, creative, and rational response does, is ludicrous. The Other Path, by Peruvian econo­ to the incapacity of national states Thrupp also appears to ignore mist Hernando de Soto. Unfortu­ to satisfy their basic needs. Poverty the major initiatives of the Costa nately Portes fails to support his and misery have prom oted self- Rican government through its Na­ contention that De Soto’s “message reliant, survival networks in the tional Strategy for Sustainable De­ is little more than the long-familiar form of the informal sector. These velopment. This policy, adopted ‘magic-of-the-marketplace’ doc­ networks are a sensible response to after widespread public debate, is trine.” W hat Portes gives us is a decades of economic oppression based exactly on what Thrupp ar­ lame ideological diatribe, devoid brought on by state-interventionist gues: “that the social dimensions of of any analytical or policy alterna­ policies. conservation cannot be ignored tive to De Soto’s work—a work Portes’s notions concerning the and that the political-economic based on exhaustive field research benefits of subsidized credit are roots of the problem must be di- and a sound methodological frame­ misleading. Although access to recdy confronted.” This policy, work. credit is an important aspect of the Hemisphere • Fall 1991 continued success of the informal Hope tells us, “the exhaustive field which may explain why The Other sector, economic evidence shows research and a sound methodologi­ Path is distributed by US consulates that subsidized credit has had disas­ cal framework” used by Hernando and embassies throughout the re­ trous consequences for Third De Soto and his followers have fi­ gion. Nevertheless, this glowing World development. The major nally revealed the truth. Informal- portrait has little relation to the ac­ beneficiaries of subsidized credit sector activities that we had seen as tual condition and prospects of in­ have been public enterprises and an ingenious but frequently desper­ formal entrepreneurs and their the non-poor.