Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

ALINE FRAMBES-BUXEDA
of formulation and it is the topic of fruitful discussion. The emphasis of
political and economic aspects in each case will cause the existing type
of integration to vary. In integration among underdeveloped countries,
political aspects play a primary role because the economic conditions for
accelerating integration do not exist yet; the State in different ways plays
a primary role in the initiation and continuity of the process.
Almost 40 years of integrationist practice and discussion in Latin
America and the Caribbean has permitted the accumulation of extensive
experience (as well as studies and statistics) on integration and regional
cooperation. Attempts such as: ALALC (Latin American Free Trade Association),
MCCA (Central American Common Market), CARICOM,
Pacto Andino, ALADI (Latin American Integration Association), SELA
(Latin American Economic System), “Tratado de la Cuenca de Plata”
and “Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica” permitted the accumulation
of a vast amount of knowledge, even when their results have apparently
been minimum. Notwithstanding, the multiplier effect of the integrationist
proposals reflect the universal tendency towards the internationalization of
economic life. The integrationist models are the result and reflection of this
general tendency. For this reason, even though these models of integration
were not effectively fulfilled, Latin American and Caribbean countries are
now in fact more intimately related than 40 years ago; formal integration
has been only one of the manifestations of these growing ties of regional
cooperation that we know as informal integration, a reflection, as was
mentioned above, of the internationalization of world economic life.
The Latin American and Caribbean models of integration began as
development alternatives in response to the economic stagnation that the
region suffered in the 50s and 60s, as stated above. On the other hand,
integration would be proposed as a neutralizing alternative for regional
sociopolitical instability and the alternative that the Cuban revolution represented
in 1959. This served its purpose until 1974 when integration was
definitely discarded as an alternative and principal development strategy;
at that point neo-liberalism prevailed.
2. TOWARDS OPPORTUNITY IN THE DECADE OF THE
NINETIES
As part of the multiple changes observed in world politics and economics,
we see the development of “regional blocks” with a rapid integrationist
dynamic. “Super regions” begin to consolidate, especially in North America,
Europe and Asia. On the one hand, and as a result of this tendency,
the debate demonstrates that Mexico and the countries of the Caribbean
Basin have integrated more and more into the North American political
and economic arena. But, it is warned that in the industrial centers (U.S.,
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