• Latin America: focus on three countries

    Argentina: from Carlos Menem to Fernando de la Rua Fernando de la Rua’s victory in the Argentine presidential elections of October 24th marks the end of ten vears of ‘Menemism’. But what are the reasons for this major political change in Argentina and what overall assessment can be made of Carlos Menem’s two terms in…

    Continue reading


  • MERCOSUR and the challenge of the Brasilian financial crisis

    In a recent article (Acque & Terre no. 6, 1998) we described the situation in Brazil to the background of the international financial crisis. Although stressing the structural weaknesses – still present – in the Brazilian economy and society, our analysis concluded that the enormous progress made by Brazil in the 1990s (a more open…

    Continue reading


  • Brazil and the international financial crisis

    The financial crisis so sorely afflicting Asia and Russia has had extremely serious repercussions on all the so-called emerging countries. This has also been the case for Latin American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. The first Asian crisis of 1997 had already driven Brazil to introduce protective measures in order to minimise…

    Continue reading