The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean

The next decade promises to be one in which Latin America will be at the forefront of global affairs. Early in the 1980s the economies and societies of its states from largest and richest to smallest and poorest have become embroiled in difficulties that pose a major challenge to the existing world order. The revolutions in Cuba and Nicaragua combined with severe social conflict throughout most of Central America continue to be a major preoccupation for the United States and a flashpoint in international relations. The debts of countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Mexico are today the subject of permanent concern for banks, companies and governments throughout the world. States that English-speaking peoples have long considered colourful but fundamentally marginal are experiencing dilemmas and upheavals of crucial importance for all of us in a smaller and more integrated world.