"Latin America began a process of reform two
decades ago" to restore growth and to overcome the debt crisis,"
begins Monica Aparicio-Smith, a current Fellow at the Weatherhead
Institute for International Affairs. According to Ms.
Aparicio-Smith, the proposed reforms included both structural
reforms such as changes in market efficiency, improvements in trade
policy, and financial policy and non-structural reforms such as
changes in monetary policy, exchange rate policy, and fiscal
discipline. These reforms were not coordinated efforts by Latin
American leaders but rather "an extended general understanding that
something needed to be made" according to Ms. Aparicio-Smith. Latin
America was in the middle of an economic crisis with a stagnant
market in the 1980s.
Voters and scholars alike have questioned the
utility of the measures taken during the last two decades because of
their inadequate results. The public support of this movement went
from 52% in 1998 to 28% in 2003. Reforms have been stagnant in the
recent few years as Ms. Aparicio- Smith demonstrates to the audience
with a graph of the progress of reforms across the last few years.
Ms. Aparicio-Smith explains that Chile is the only country that has
completed some of the areas of reform and that all other Latin
American countries have yet to near the completion of reform. Some
countries such as Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador, have made some
progress in their reforms, but many countries such as Bolivia and
Ecuador have made little progress. In some cases, such as Argentina
and Venezuela, there is regression rather than reform.
According to Ms. Aparicio-Smith, more than 50%
of Latin Americans are disillusioned and do not believe in the
success of the current reforms. "The reforms were incomplete"and an
incomplete reform is worse than no reform," explains Ms.
Aparicio-Smith, because it allows the opposition to have influence.
In conclusion, Ms. Aparicio-Smith believes that
"all the social indicators in terms of poverty and inequality are
growing and" there is a lot to do for the governments to come."
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