Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

ALINE FRAMBES-BUXEDA
integration in Europe in reaction to their 1982 recession.
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLA or CEPAL), various situations enrich and favor integration.
On the one hand, “el actual proceso de democratización de la
región ha creado un nuevo ámbito que hace viable retomar con fuerza las
ideas centrales de los diversos procesos de unidad regional.” (The present
process of democratization in the region has created a new environment
which makes viable the reviving of the central ideas of regional unity). 6
This new scenario now allows political parties, pressure groups and trade
unions to support integration and consider it one of the principal goals
of their political struggle. In addition, since 1987, with the Esquipulas II
agreement, and with the momentum of the Contadora and Apoyo groups,
a reactivation of Central American integration could become viable. By the
same token, after 1987 an increase in the dynamism of the Andean Group
has occurred; the ALADI again constituted itself as a regional forum of
commerce and finance, and the SELA between 1987-1995 continues to
consolidate regional cooperation.
Before this, as is well known, there had been a stage of fruitful integrationist
activity that began in 1960 with the founding of LAFTA (Latin
American Free Trade Association) and the Central American Common
Market (MCCA) and which was vigorously extended until 1973-74, entering
its definitive crisis in 1976 until its general stagnation in 1982, as
mentioned earlier.
Why is Latin American integration reactivated at this time We know
that various theorists postulate that integration increases in force in certain
historical periods but not in others. 7 Integration from this point of view
is essentially a method of assistance, especially for the resolution of an
inherent crisis situation in the development of capitalism; integration constitutes
a mechanism used to reestablish conditions of economic growth
and political legitimacy within a group of nations.
y costos,” Opciones, No. 12, Santiago de Chile, Sept.-Dec. 1987, pp. 43-67.
c) “Alfonsín por la Confederación sudamericana,” El Nuevo Día, San Juan,
June 20, 1987, p. 32.
d) Jaguaribe, Helio, “La Integración Argentina-Brasil,” Revista Integración
Latinoamericana, No. 129, Year 12, Buenos Aires, November, 1987, pp.
3-15.
6
CEPAL, “Integración regional: desafíos y opciones,” Comercio Exterior, Vol.
40, No. 1, Mexico, January, 1990, pp. 67-76.
7
Cocks, Peter, “Towards a Marxist Theory of European Integration,” International
Organization, University of Wisconsin, 34, 1, Winter, 1980, pp. 1-3
and 4-15.
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