|
 Latin
American countries started to be emancipated at a time when the great European
powers began to apportion the world into different colonies and areas of
influence.
The
division of Latin America can also derive from European hegemony and the
dispute for the New World territories.
As
a possible consequence of this worldwide process, among the local political
and economic projects there was always the thought of uniting the States
within the continent, so that a more fluent relationship could be achieved.
The
Organization of American States, established in 1948, is regarded
as a precedent for Latin American unification. Although such organization
basically operated under the control of the United States, the other countries
could increasingly make their weight felt. On the other hand, the geographic
situation of different groups of countries resulted in the formation of
particular political and economic frameworks, such as the ODECA (Organización
de Estados Centroamericanos, Organization of Central American States),
created in 1951.
The
first step towards the formation of a common market was the creation, in
1960, of the ALALC (Asociación Latinoamericana de Libre
Comercio, Latin American Association of Free Trade). At first, it was
compounded by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay;
a year later, Ecuador and Colombia entered into it. Finally, Venezuela and
Bolivia were included in 1966 and 1967 respectively. This organization sought
to free the inter-regional trade from customs barriers, without setting
a common import tax nor providing for co-ordination measures of domestic
or foreign policy. They intended to come to some agreements for tariff reduction
in every good in particular and other supplementary agreements. However,
this could never be put into practice. |
Surfing the South 
