Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

ALINE FRAMBES-BUXEDA
as a particular type of “industrialized capitalist integration.”
We can see that the “North American Super Region” (the U.S.-Canada
integration) was the driving force behind an informal monopolistic integration,
as described earlier with respect to Mexico, the Caribbean and
Central America. This process is generated above all by private economic
interest; the governments of the U.S. and Canada for many years did not
sign agreements of integration with the governments of all these countries
and, worse yet, the citizens were not cognizant of the economic integration
that is underway. The indebtedness of the region, the invasion of Panama,
the growing pressure on Cuba, and the continuous attempt to annex Puerto
Rico clearly attest to this scenario. The concrete experience and the theories
of integration show that this process is detrimental to Latin America
and the Caribbean at its present informal stage, and if it were formalized
(as it has been in 1993), the consequences, especially medium and long
term, will be devastating. Short term and medium term, the process can
create the illusion of modernizing benefits.
Mexico, Panama, Cuba and, of course, Puerto Rico, are the most affected
by this new, accelerated drive towards integration. But the “Caribbean
Basin Initiative” also has been experimenting with the integration
of economic markets. In a later section it will be necessary to analyze the
experiences of the informal and formal integration of Mexico, Panama,
Cuba and Puerto Rico, within their respective blocks. Of course, here we
can only make some preliminary observations. 17
5. PUERTO RICO AND INTEGRATION
Due to the length of the process and its results, it is necessary to reflect
upon the case of Puerto Rico and its experience of integration with
the United States. In this section it is necessary to understand how the
fundamental characteristics of the theory of integration apply to the case
of Puerto Rico.
For some 100 years a Latin American and Caribbean country has experienced
the results of a process of integration characterized by “subordinab)
John Dillon, “U.S.-Canada Free Trade: Latin America is Next,” NACLA,
Vol. XXII, No. 4, New York, July-August 1988, pp. 7-10.
c) Edgar Ortiz, “México y el Mercado Común Norteamericano: ¿Integración
silenciosa o concertada,” Revista Relaciones Internacionales, Vol. XII, No.
47, Nueva Época, UNAM, Mexico, January-April 1990, pp. 81-90.
17
Cuba’s experience with CAME and its present process of change is another very
specific example in the Caribbean. Also see: Gerardo González, “Cuba y la
integración: la experiencia del Caribe,” Nuestra América, Vol. VI, No. 13,
La Habana, July-Dec., 1989, pp. 152-172.
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