The Empire Strikes Out?

Abstract

For much of the developing world, concerned now with the implications of a ‘New American Century’ – presumably all around the world this time – Latin America has much to teach. Since the colonies of the western hemisphere, from Mexico south, emerged from that status to become independent states, what has cast them as a region has been their vulnerability to domination and exploitation. The lament of South America’s great liberator, Simón Bolívar, has been echoed by nationalists across two centuries: ‘The United States seems destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty.’