Deuda, soberanía y democracia en América Latina

Abstract

The external debt of Latin American countries cannot be fixed within the traditional adjustment of international payments. It is not possible to generate in acceptable conditions the trade surplus and the current account of the balance of payments, to pay the debt services. The crisis has three culprits: the debtors, the central countries and the creditor banks. But the adjustment is being paid by the first. This element of inequity in the adjustment process inhibits the viability of the orthodox scheme. Debt has become a question of the use of the internal resources of each debtor country. The adjustment strategy refers to how to allocate these resources and not to how to finance debt services with external funds. We argue that debt should be conceived as an important problem within the development strategy, income distribution and external adjustment.