INTERNAL CONFLICTS IN LATIN AMERICA 1

Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance

of internal conflicts in Latin America

Logan Powell

Tallwood High School

Abstract

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

This paper goes over the problems in Latin America and how they affect the people,

governments, and economy of this country. While reading this paper, you will find out some of the core

concepts and reasons that Latin American countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts, and what it

does to their country. Over time, past historical events have shaped the way that certain countries

function and the people in that country live. Colonization takes a big hit on Latin American countries

through natural resource exploitation as some areas are still feeling the effects of that. Corrupt

governments are also just another problem on a long list of issues plaguing Latin America. In this paper

you will find some recommendations for how to fix these affected areas, and see that there is no one

solution to this problem, but many that have to work in conjunction with each other to reach a common

goal.

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Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Table of contents

Cover Page 1

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

Introduction 4

Limitations 6

Literature Review 7

Discussion 11

References 19

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Introduction

Within under-developed and developing countries in central and south America, you see

a lot of internalized conflicts which seem to happen a lot more often than others. These countries

stretch all the way from Guatemala to Argentina, Brazil to Chile, Peru and Venezuela as well and

all share very common variables, they are all under-developed and or developing currently, and

have corrupt governments in some way which exploit the hard working less fortunate throughout

the country that they occupy.

Each country listed has impoverished areas such as favelas or slums, where the listed

countries problems begin to arise. The people living in this area are forced to be there through

unemployment, poverty, and forced relocation no thanks to the governments who run the

country. Without having viable places for them to live in or replacement jobs for them to do and

make a living off of, they are only adding to the problems over crowded favelas and the increase

of probability of internal conflicts occurring in that country. The countries listed are just a

handful of impoverished areas and corrupt governments in this area of the globe.

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

While poverty is an obvious cue for an internal conflict, there are many other reasons to

be listed here as well, such as corrupt governments already listed above, poor communication

between the government and its constituents, and an ethnicity conflict between two groups of

people who cannot find a middleground. Many more can be listed but those are some of the

most important ones in today's society. Within central and south America these have happened

many times, often times being more than one that led to an uprising by rebels who disagree with

country wide decisions which they seem unfit. Often times such conflicts occur because of

national extremist who take a whole new stance on their pride for their nation.

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Limitations

My current location limitates me by not letting me be able to go to certain more popular

areas for my subject at hand. Although most of my project will be taking place on the western

part of the Globe, it is not in the south western part in which my projects main locations are.

The location I am in is good as on the Eastern Shore there are many refugee homes and places

for poor central and southern american refugees to go to to seek shelter and simple jobs they can

handle as they speak no english

My age is another limiting factor as because I am not 18 years old and a legal adult. This

limits my ability to travel alone and to speak to the refugees themselves as well.

Another limiting factor is that I am only 17 years old and i have a job that pays 9 dollars

an hour. My finances are not sufficient enough for me to be doing all of these things without

help and support of others or my parents, I won't be able to accomplish the things i have set out

to do.

Literature Review

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

P. (n.d.). Internal Conflicts | From a Thankful Nation. Retrieved November 21, 2017,

from http://rbsc.princeton.edu/thankful-nation/case/8

The United States has never had this problem occur and become a thing of issue because

of our being able to stand up to the british empire and its attempts to rule the ‘Newfoundland’.

The inability to fight back against the explorers who came with better equipment and training of

just the locals. The explorers were able to force their hands in taking their land from right

underneath them as they could do nothing but just stand by and watch, powerless against them.

Through this, many if not most Southern and Central American countries have now had to pay

the price of European expeditions wrath. These countries have endured hundreds of years of

poverty, barren land, and extreme exploitation of resources in their region.

The Spanish rule often never incorporated the indigenous people within the society.

Although they conquered the land and took it over from the local people, Spain often made life

very difficult for them and acted as if they were not human or to be included in their society.

Many locals tried to lead revolutions, but were quickly shut down by Spanish officials and

enforced all laws present in Spain in Latin America as well.

“Another political fault line separated proponents of a strong central government from regional

leaders who wanted to see the benefits of nationhood distributed more equitably among distant

provinces.”

“The wars of independence put families of European descent in power without changing the

social status quo.”

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Watkins, T. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/theconquest.htm

Portugal during this time was also working on colonizing this area when they heard of the

discovery by Christopher Columbus. A Portuguese navigator names Pedro Alvares Cabral

became the first european to discover the land of Brazil. In or around 1500 the Portuguese king

at the time, Manuel I of portugal, sent out Amerigo Vespucci to lead another expedition in that

uncharted area at which is now Brazil. Vespucci reported his new findings as an entirely new

continent, the original America, South America.

“Vespucci in 1501-02 led another expedition to the region of the Orinoco for the King of

Portugal. A Portuguese navigator, Pedro Alvares Cabral, had sighted the northeast coast of Brazil

in 1500 and the Portuguese king was interested in what else was nearby.”

Learning, L. (n.d.). Portuguese Exploration and Spanish Conquest. Retrieved November

21, 2017, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/portuguese-

exploration-and-spanish-conquest/

Portugal and their westward expansion started a whole new revolution and gave a new

definition of colonization. Colonization of Atlantic islands around 1400 began to get more and

more people in Europe interested in expanding their dominion. Soon thereafter around 1500

Spain began to surpass Portugal in their westward exploration.

“While the Portuguese didn’t rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands

and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of nautical trade routes and a global empire

of trading posts during the 1400s.”

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

(n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab48&scrlybrkr=f16ebf8

Throughout Portuguese conquering in the area they had certain areas which were of more

importance to their operations going on at the time. The one of most interest would be the slave

trade. As a result of the Transatlantic slave trade, portugal began looking for new areas they can

expand upon their empire. With westward expansion they began looking to what is now Latin

America.

It is not until around the time of 1530 that ways are formed to start colonizing this new

land. The first ever person to attempt to begin colonization in that area was John III. He

promised the heirs who were accompanying him on the expedition that any land found by them

would be automatically theirs to own to do whatever they wish with. These people were called

donatarios. Out of the 15 donatarios who went on to establish their own land and colonize, only

two donatarios were able to prosper and found their own territories.

“On the west coast their interest is in the slave trade, resulting in Portuguese settlements in both

Guinea and Angola.”

“The Portuguese call it Brazil because of a valuable natural product - pau-brasil, a red wood

much in demand for the dye which can be extracted from it.”

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Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Discussion

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Throughout history, Central and Southern American countries have had a conflicts within

that country, mainly concerning freedom and independence for some sort of demographic in that

area being either the minority or majority of that country. This started mainly when European

land expansion was starting to move westward during the 15th century and so on. During this

time mass chaos and confusion became a common thing through the craziness of it all. More and

more people became aware of their surroundings and what was going on, realizing that their land

and belongings were being taken out from underneath them as they were defenseless and unable

to do anything but watch in fear.

Since the 15th century, colonization in Latin America was very popular among two main

explorer groups, Spanish Conquistadors and the Portuguese Explorers. The spaniards were the

first of the Europeans to cross the equator and here begins the journey of the ‘New World’. Only

2 spanish ships, commanded by Bartolome Ruiz, sail in the general direction of which is now

Peru (History World, nd). They come across a small vessel, closest to a raft and see that on this

ship there are many riches and and items to be desired by the spaniards. This first contact starts

the relationship with the incas. Francisco Pizarro who is the leader of the entire expedition sailed

to these lands to discover if what was said was true. He arrived and sent some men to scout out

the local civilization and confirmed that the rumors heard are indeed true about the local people,

land, and opportunities. Pizarro sent back a request for a conquest of this land as he promised

riches and everything to be desired by the Spanish empire.

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

This small discovery at the time turned into extreme exploitation of the land that they

conquered. Some countries who suffered through the times of colonization are severely feeling

the after effects in todays society. One country in Latin America whose is feeling the extreme

effects of early Spanish colonization is Venezuela. Venezuela was colonized by the Spanish in

1521. The country declared its independence from spain in 1810 and in 1811 they established

the republic of Venezuela. Through time Venezuela began to dig themselves in holes by not

paying their debts and not investing in its country or people leading to a decline in infrastructure.

In an article on a mining website, it states that Venezuela is a very gold rich country now

and is number fifteen in the world for the largest gold production (AZo Mining, 2012). Knowing

that during those times that's what was sought after by explorers, that made Venezuela a very

important victim of colonization and exploitation. When the Spanish came and took over most

of the country, they also took over government roles or some sort of ruling in the land. This act

has caused some serious repercussions to be felt by the people in today's society.

Today Venezuela suffers from corrupt government and socialist values which impede on

their potential for growth as a country and as a result they struggle to provide for their people and

for themselves. Their corruption is based on the same practices that early Spanish colonist used.

The Spaniards often neglected the indigenous people in society, and acted as if they were never

there to begin with. Similarly, todays corrupt government has not taken into consideration of the

needs of their people. According to the OEC, Venezuela exported $34.3B total for 2015, and

$24.9B, or 73%, of that money was all made from crude petroleum and 16% was refined oil

(OEC, n.d). This has lead to Venezuela being the 57th largest exporter in the world. Throughout

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

the past seven or so years, they have been on a steady decline, in 2010 the country was making

on average $93.2B in exports. Since then, Venezuela has only been slowly decreasing the

annualized rate of -11.7%. As a result of this they have only been able to export only a fraction

of what was in 2010. Being one of the world largest crude petroleum producers, the country is

expected to be much better off than now. Due to a corrupt government they have recently been

unable to take advantage of their jackpot natural resource.

Venezuela’s current President is Nicolas Maduro who assumed office in 2013 after the

death of Hugo Chavez. Maduro is part of the socialist party, so his ideas consist of everybody is

equal and that the people end up controlling society and how they want to be governed. Due to

an unstable government many purchasing countries for crude petroleum have withdrawn their

business from Venezuela. The steady decline in exports and incoming funds goes to show that

change within the government and economic structure needs to be re-evaluated and re-imagined

to better work within the boundaries of Venezuela and its people.

The problems in Venezuela not only have severely impacted them, but also

neighboring countries as well. Colombia and Peru have recently been feeling the effects of

Venezuela's internal economic and government struggles. Venezuelan citizens have been

pouring over into Colombia to find jobs and a living by which they can support their family and

themselves. The lack of government has become apparent to the outside public and therefore

only adding to the ongoing problems in Colombia. As a result of Venezuelans coming to

Colombia, Colombians are having harder times keeping and finding new jobs as the Venezuelans

come to work for less money than they do, as long as it is a job for them to fill. Another result of

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

this refugee crisis are overpopulation in already poor areas. According to VICE News, Colombia

has an estimated 1.5 million refugees that have escaped since Hugo Chavez came to power in

1999, and over 150,000 have left just in the passed year (Ellis, 2017). Neighboring countries

such as Colombia are at a loss as they too also have internal conflicts, but have not come up with

a solution to solve them yet. Having people from another country come to theirs to reside until

their countries problem has been resolved only causes more trouble and problems that they have

to solve in their own country already. As more and more people begin to flood over, things will

only get worse from there as each countries problems become others.

For this problem common among many Latin American countries, there is no one

solution. This is a complicated problem requiring a multifaceted solution interlocking like gears.

Many countries with similar situations have had some sort of outside intervention to help guide

them down the right path to success within their country benefiting them. As a result of not

having one set solutions, some countries may not see this as the way they wish to handle their

internal conflict or conflicts. Some countries like Venezuela prefer to not receive outside

intervention as they see to it that the problem is solved internally, as a show of being

independent and a strong nation.

A Possible solution for underdeveloped and developing countries in Latin America with

internal conflicts include improving the overall infrastructure through replacing weak already

existing governments with a democratic republic. Within a democratic republic the people

would have direct representation so their voices will be heard within the government. In a

democracy, people have representation so that their needs would be heard by the government.

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Through this process, the people would have the power to remove corrupt government officials

and to remove unfair laws. Within a democratic republic, every branch would have a check and

balance to keep one branch from having too much power.

Another part of the solution would include reframing the economic system to effectively

utilize their natural resources and establish a new working currency and to decrease inflation

within that country. Due to the failing economy, industries are no longer making profits in these

regions. The closing of these industries yields higher unemployment rates. Underdeveloped and

developing countries need to find ways to attract industries which would help to provide jobs and

economic stability within the country. In order for industries to survive, they need the support of

a strong stable government. To support industries in Latin America there needs to be incentives

put in place for companies to be profitable. More gainfully employed people would have more

money to put back into the economy, which would help to strengthen a new currency when

implemented in the future, which would help to lower current inflation rates in countries.

One of the most important solutions would include developing a system to determine

employment needs within each country. The data collected from this system would help provide

jobs and education for specific careers or jobs. According to a news article written on reuters,

the last reported unemployment figures from Venezuela were received more than a year ago in

April of 2016 (Chinea, 2017). The most recent results received from there stated that 7.3% of

the countries population was unemployed, and 92.7% are employed. These statistics may or may

not include unreported jobs which are not real, but informal ones. Inaccurate data makes it

difficult for the government to assess the employment needs of their people. The government

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

could use this vital information to determine needs, provide education and training, and supply a

workforce to industry.

Brazil is another example of a Latin American country affected by internal conflict. In

2014 Brazil decided to host the World Cup soccer tournament. This came as a surprise as

nobody would have expected Brazil to host the World Cup as the country already suffers from

extreme crime, poverty, and corruption. The World Cup caused a number of problems in the

Global community. In order to host, Brazil had to build accommodations for players and

spectators from all of the world. Over 250,000 people were evicted from their homes with an

unfair compensation of $22,000 (Kaufman, 2014) Their homes were replaced with stadiums

that became obsolete when the games ended a couple of weeks later. Another result of Brazil's

choice to host the World Cup was severe infrastructure problems leading to rushed and

unfinished infrastructure projects in preparation for the games. This inability to complete these

infrastructure projects was the cause of loss of life in two workers, and due them having

insufficient funds and not enough time, they were only able to finish a total of 10 of 56 projects.

The way that Brazil handled hosting the World Cup did not yield the positive outcome they were

hoping for their country. On the contrary, the people of Brazil have become more vocal in their

country (Guardian Youtube, 2014).

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

Underdeveloped and developing countries in Latin America have a higher chance of

internal conflicts because of past events which were conflicting during those times. Both Brazil

and Venezuela had previous colonization problems leading to the current issues of corrupt

governments and no stable form of government. While some countries accept outside

intervention by more developed countries, others like Venezuela refuse help as they see it a

problem that can be solved within the country. Due to poor economic choices made by

government, these countries have severe trust issues with their government, and believe that the

government's interest are not in favor of serving the people. These poor choices only affect the

lower or more less fortunate part of the society who are the main factors in actions being taken

by the government.

In order to solve the problems of internal conflict within these countries, there needs to be

a complete overhaul of the current governments and need to have a better way of representing

the people and giving them a say in the government. They need to also provide another form of

currency as a result of inflation and implement this currency within their society through jobs

that are created by industries who seek value in that country.

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

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 Why underdeveloped and developing countries have a higher chance of internal conflicts in

Latin America

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Latin America

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