Brazilian Journal of Latin American Studies
A Brazilian Journal of Latin American Studies (Cadernos Prolam/USP) é uma revista científica especializada em difundir conclusões de pesquisa, análises e interpretações, bem como pensamento e teorias sobre a América Latina. Criada em 2002, pelo Programa de Pós-graduação Integração da América Latina (PROLAM/USP), desde sua criação é uma revista voltada para autores e público de nível de pós-graduação. Na fase inicial o foco das publicações da BJLAS era as relações internacionais. Com o passar dos anos, o periódico ampliou seu universo disciplinar e temático, e hoje publica trabalhos nos diversos campos das humanidades, artes e ciências sociais. Assim, tem como eixo organizador incluir temáticas (a) de impacto regional para a América Latina ou (b) trabalhos com metodologias comparativas sobre dois ou mais países deste continente. Considera-se que os manuscritos devem contribuir de modo significativo ao avanço do conhecimento científico em temáticas sensíveis à América Latina, por este motivo, as propostas publicadas são elaboradas por autores com nível de pós-graduação. As problemáticas que tratam de América Latina exigem perspectivas transdisciplinares com abordagens sobre tópicos transversais em questões sociais, políticas, econômicas, jurídicas, históricas, culturais, artísticas, de comunicação social. Finalmente, a BJLAS tem interesse em divulgar resenhas de livros recentemente publicados ou de obras de grande relevância para a região, como clássicos do pensamento latino-americano, e aceita também críticas de arte ou ensaios de qualidade.
Universidade de São Paulo - Programa de Pós-graduação em Integração da América Latina
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Mapping state and private actors in energy generation in South America: an empirical analysis based on Global Energy Monitor
This article maps the ownership and control structure of operating power generation plants in South America and analyzes, from an interpretive perspective, how the institutional heterogeneity it reveals relates to the challenges of regional energy integration. Using public data from the Global Energy Monitor (October 2025 database), 5,795 operating plants across the twelve South American countries were examined, covering six generation segments: hydropower, gas- and oil-fired thermal power, solar, wind, coal, and bioenergy and cogeneration. The methodology is based on the standardization of ownership information at the asset level and the classification of controllers into state-owned, private, and mixed categories, while also distinguishing the national or foreign origin of capital, according to predominant economic and decision-making control. Two metrics are used: plant count (presence) and installed capacity (systemic relevance). The results reveal three governance models — statist, hybrid, and liberalized — and a systematic gap between numerical presence and systemic weight: private capital dominates the number of projects, especially in variable renewables, while state and mixed control remains decisive in installed capacity, anchored in large hydropower plants. The mapping provides a comparable and replicable basis for debates on South American energy integration.
Integração energética regional; setor elétrico sul-americano; governança energética; estrutura de propriedade; controle de ativos; geração de energia elétrica; Global Energy Monitor; América do Sul
Copyright (c) 2026 Marcos Felipe Almeida Dias da Silva, Miguel Edgar Morales Udaeta, Dorel Soares Ramos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The historical trajectory of labor studies in Latin America: Interview with Julio César Neffa
Julio César Neffa, an internationally renowned Argentine professor and researcher, discusses various topics within labor studies in this interview. These studies have been made possible through the collaboration of intellectuals who contributed to the founding of important institutions and the establishment of research groups in Latin America, often in contexts of political adversity, such as dictatorial regimes. By emphasizing the history of the institutionalization of these studies in the region, Neffa argues that, as they have consolidated into a multidisciplinary field of knowledge, they have focused on topics such as trade unionism and the relationship between the meanings of formal and informal work. He also problematizes the definition of work as a socially grounded activity that involves the worker in their entirety, highlighting that, even in contexts of super-exploitation, it often leads to physical, psychological, and mental illness. Finally, Neffa argues that changes in the mode of production have enabled the development of technologies that simplify labor, so that its management is no longer limited to the body. Thus, this interview, in addition to addressing topics that remain relevant in labor studies, invites reflection on the definition of work and its broader epistemic, theoretical, and methodological implications.
trabalho; historia del Trabajo; Latinoamérica; modo de producción
Copyright (c) 2026 Julio César Neffa, Patrícia Marília Félix da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Impact of the non-renewal of the Brazil–Argentina maritime transport agreement and potential competitiveness gains
This paper analyzes the effects of the non-renewal of the Maritime Transport Agreement between Brazil and Argentina, in force from 1985 to 2021, on the dynamics of bilateral trade, national merchant fleets, and freight rate behavior. Using a qualitative approach, based on the descriptive analysis of secondary data, the study examines the period between 2013 and 2023, combining documentary and bibliographic research with statistical evidence from official public databases. In light of international trade theory and regulatory economics, the Agreement is interpreted as a mechanism restricting competition, with potential implications for allocative efficiency and logistics costs. The results indicate the absence of robust evidence that the Agreement contributed to the development of Brazilian and Argentine merchant fleets or to the expansion of bilateral trade. Furthermore, no systematic relationship is observed between its revocation and changes in freight rate volatility. On the other hand, the evidence suggests the existence of costs associated with the previous regime, arising from barriers to entry and intermediation mechanisms in market access. It is concluded that the non-renewal of the Agreement is aligned with the principles of greater openness and regulatory efficiency, with no identifiable negative impacts on the variables analyzed.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bernardo Pinheiro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Hyperrealism and strategic dissonance in Latin America: methodological operationalization of contradiction and its application to the case study of Chile within the context of Sino–American rivalry
This article presents the first empirical application of the Hyperrealism Index (IHR), a methodological tool designed to measure strategic dissonance between discourse and behavior in international politics. Within the field of International Relations, the study engages with the literature on Latin American autonomy and the systemic rivalry between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, incorporating paraconsistent logic as a formal foundation to model the coexistence of contradictory evidence. Methodologically, the IHR operates through an evidence-based evaluation matrix composed of favorable (μ) and unfavorable (λ) inputs, from which the indices of contradiction (C), certainty (S), and uncertainty (U) are derived, and weighted through explicit parameters (α, β, γ). The model is applied to the case of Chile during the administration of Gabriel Boric, within the context of contemporary geopolitical competition. The findings identify a pattern of moderate hyperrealism, consistent with strategies of adaptive pragmatism under conditions of systemic pressure. The study advances the IHR as a replicable methodological prototype for comparative analysis in Latin America and other international contexts.
Copyright (c) 2026 Gustavo A. Báez Castillo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The peoples of the world: a decolonizing and counter-hegemonic vision and its necessary updating
This article synthesizes a work comprising fourteen updated volumes (2025–2026) on the peoples of the world, based on the principle of ethnographic systematization through a decolonizing and counter-hegemonic approach. A complex reinterpretation of cultural diversity is necessary as a means of countering attempts at global homogenization, given the large number of sources—particularly Western ones—that continue to uphold a colonial view of cultural identities, encompassing languages, geographical location, ethnonyms, social characteristics, religious beliefs, and other aspects, thereby defining the research objectives and their outcomes. The operational organization of the volumes follows the United Nations consensus and rejects the Euro-North American and Australian–New Zealand ways of viewing and interpreting the world and its human groups.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jesús Guanche Pérez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A literary biography of Horacio Quiroga? Reading the lived experience through fiction in "The solitary anarchist"
Drawing on Alain Buisine’s (1991) notion of biography as a producer of fiction, this review examines O anarquista solitário: uma biografia de Horacio Quiroga, by Wilson Alves-Bezerra, with the aim of reflecting on biography as a literary form and on its effects in narrative construction. The discussion is situated within the theoretical framework of studies on (auto)biography (Figueiredo, 2022), authorship (Foucault, 2001), and the relationships between literature and life (Olmos, 2024), engaging with critical reflections on the discursive construction of the author and the boundaries between referentiality and fiction. Methodologically, the review adopts a critical analysis of the biography’s narrative composition, paying particular attention to the biographer’s position of enunciation—as a fiction writer as well—and to the formal procedures that organize the representation of lived experience. It argues that the narrative voice moves toward the construction of a character who undergoes a trajectory akin to that of a cursed Latin American hero situated on the periphery of the literary system. The analysis demonstrates that the narrative not only reconstructs Quiroga’s life trajectory but also sheds light on the processes through which authorship is constructed, the functioning of literature as an institution, and the material conditions of the publishing market. In doing so, it invites readers to understand the biographical space as a site of literary elaboration of lived experience and of critical reflection on the narrative status of life.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nair Renata Amâncio https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Towards a south american theory of nuclear development: Nuclear autonomy and regional security
This article aims to discuss the development of nuclear technology in South America through theoretical lenses that more accurately reflect the observable experiences of the region. The nuclear programs of Brazil and Argentina are contextualized within a theory of ‘nuclear autonomy’, which is proposed here as an alternative to nuclear proliferation theories that are fundamentally focused on nuclear weapons and traditional international security approaches. It departs from a post-colonial and critical framework to challenge mainstream theories of nuclear proliferation and their applicability to the cases of Brazil and Argentina. The conclusions highlight the necessity of analyzing nuclear development in the region through lenses that prioritize discussions on economic development and autonomy rather than traditional security and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The widening of the concept of security as proposed by the School of Copenhagen and writings on autonomy by South American authors Helio Jaguaribe and Juan Carlos Puig serve as these lenses. Specialized literature on theories of nuclear proliferation, autonomy and the history of the nuclear programs of Brazil and Argentina was used to develop this work.
Copyright (c) 2025 João Paulo Nicolini Gabriel, João Marcos Ferreira Pacheco https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Modeling with Complex Adaptive Systems for International Relations in the Latin American Context - The Case of Argentina
After the “pink tide” of progressive governments in Latin America at the beginning of the 21st century, a wave of conservative governments followed between 2010 and 2020, and then another wave of progressive governments arrived in Mexico (Andrés López Obrador), Argentina (Alberto Fernández), Chile (Gabriel Boric), Colombia (Gustavo Petro), Brazil (Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), and Bolívia (Luis Arce), highlighting an unpredictable political scenario in the long term. How to model the tangle of International Relations in this region characterized by incipient national elites, incapable of implementing a lasting project of autonomous nationhood? This article defends the thesis that the theory of Complex Adaptive Systems can be employed as a suitable epistemological model to provide explanatory concepts, as well as a mathematical framework for the creation of computational simulation models. Finally, a case study is presented on the shift to the right in Argentina under the Milei government to illustrate the dynamics of internal and external policies in Latin America, as well as the modeling difficulties that this political and economic instability entails.
Copyright (c) 2025 José Artur Quilici Gonzalez, Mariana Claudia Broens https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
As animal as human. Portraying the werewolf together with the Qom of the Gran Chaco
This article is based on ethnographic observations made while studying human-animal relations among the Qom (Toba), an Indigenous group inhabiting the Gran Chaco region in northeastern Argentina. During this research, I encountered the figure of the werewolf among the Qom. However, fieldwork led me to hypothesize the existence of multiple forms of the werewolf, each enacted differently across the diverse ontological and social worlds that I observed. Using first-hand ethnographic material, this study analyzes the processes and characteristics that constitute the human–Qom–werewolf transformation. Understanding this metamorphosis requires engaging with Qom notions of animality, embodiment, and the porous boundaries between humans, animals, and other-than-human beings. Finally, the article situates Qom werewolves in dialogue with other regional representations of werewolves (Indigenous, Creole, and urban), aiming to elucidate the concepts of humanity and animality operative within Qom sociocosmology and to compare them with analogous conceptual frameworks across South America.
Copyright (c) 2025 Celeste Medrano https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dossier presentation - Between Images, Words, and Screens: Challenges, Transversalities, and Reinventions in Latin American Art
Dossier - Between Images, Words, and Screens: Challenges, Transversalities, and Reinventions in Latin American Art
Copyright (c) 2025 Amanda Aguilera, Ana Laura Lusnich, Guilherme Maia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
State-building and development in times of systemic chaos: limits of state intervention in interwar Argentina
This paper analyzes the process of state-building in Argentina during the interwar period (1914–1945), understood as a stage of “systemic chaos” and hegemonic transition on a global scale. The aim is to examine how the transformations of the capitalist system and the disputes among major powers influenced the reconfiguration of the power structure and the characteristics assumed by state building in Argentina. The methodological approach is qualitative, based on a case study supported by secondary sources that allow for the reconstruction of the main socioeconomic transformations and state practices during the period. This article develops a theoretical framework that articulates the political economy of development with a historical sociology of the state, exploring the mechanisms of state self-strengthening and self-weakening that shaped Argentina’s trajectory, offering interpretative keys to understanding the limits of development strategies in Latin America.
Copyright (c) 2025 Joel Sidler, Víctor Ramiro Fernández https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Visual pedagogy and national listening: the rural worker in mundo radial
This paper investigates the appropriation of the symbolic universe of rural folklore by the national-popular project of Juan Domingo Perón's government (1946-1955), aiming to create a common Argentine identity based on subaltern sectors. These segments consisted of migrant workers who settled in the suburbs of cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, an environment resistant to the popular rural culture of the interior. Inserted within Visual Culture Studies, the research applies Panofsky's Iconology in three levels of interpretation (pre-iconographic, iconographic, and iconological) to the images in the Nuestro Folklore section of the magazine Mundo Radial, examining its editorial materiality and the politics of the gaze. The analysis demonstrates that visuality, notably through stylized engravings by José Montero Lacasa, sought to resolve the tension between tradition and modernity by presenting an idealized and ethnically neutral figure of the rural worker. This iconographic resource functioned to anchor musical repertoires, educate listening, and organize expectations of belonging to the Peronist national-popular ideal, while simultaneously silencing the class and racial cleavages of internal migrants in Buenos Aires.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Laura Batista https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Productive integration in Latin America between 2000 and 2019
This article analyzes the evolution of the intra- and extra-regional trade structure of ALADI, CAN, and Mercosur between 2000 and 2019, as well as productive integration within these blocs. United Nations trade data were used to classify products according to their production stages. The focus was on the trade of intermediate goods —parts and components— and capital goods, as a way to assess the complementarity of industrial production among member countries and the potential formation of regional value chains. The results showed that, until 2009, there was a trend toward increasing productive integration; however, this trend reversed in the following years, so that the degree of integration after 20 years was lower than at the beginning of the century. Mercosur is the main driver of both the integration and the subsequent productive disintegration observed. These findings suggest that the region is regressing in its internal and external trade relations, specializing in products based on natural resources, which tends to exacerbate the historical problem of dependency and poses new challenges for the Latin American economic integration project.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ricardo Lobato Torres, Carlos Rodríguez González https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Ladino as enemy: the anthropological and historical debate on the Ladino in twentieth century Guatemala
This work investigates the different conceptualizations of the Ladino in Guatemala. It examines how mid-20th-century North American anthropology defined the Ladino as the non-Indigenous person, the invader, and the enemy of Indigenous peoples. Several North American ethnographers studied ethnic or racial conflict in Guatemala from questionable metropolitan canons and from the prejudices of white society. The view of the Ladino as the enemy of the Indigenous person ultimately contributed to the project of racial division promoted by Guatemalan plantation elites as they sought to insert themselves into global capitalism. In response, Severo Martínez Peláez called for de-essentializing the opposition between Ladino and Indigenous, and Eric Wolf urged a critique of the lingering traces of racial-degeneration theory in Mesoamerican anthropology. In this work, I trace different approaches to the history of the Ladino as a colonial, fiscal, political, and racial category within Guatemalan society. I conceptualize the Ladino as a reconfiguration of caste society under the impetus of capitalism through the system of Guatemalan plantations. Finally, I call for tracing experiences of common struggle between Ladinos and Indigenous peoples, experiential liminal zones, and even solidarities, in order to reveal racism within class experience and, conversely, class relations within racism.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sergio Guillermo Palencia Frener https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dussel's Political Philosophy and the Global South: Toward a Reconstruction of Ideas
This paper aims to analyze Enrique Dussel’s political philosophy and its significance to the Global South. It maintains that the reconstruction and re-signification of the ideas of thinkers from Asia, Africa, and Latin America are essential for the constitution of the Global South, for its cooperation, and for facing its contemporary challenges. Moreover, it argues that Dussel’s political philosophy contributes to the development of Global Studies as a discipline by expanding its sources of thought, diversifying its geographical contributions, and extending its field of study.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rafael Gustavo Miranda Delgado https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Western? Latinos! Notes on Brazilian latinity in the light of Lula's speeches
The paper explores the tensions between Brazilian, Latin American and Western identities, emphasizing their overlaps and shifts. In a complementary way, it analyzes the contemporary configuration of these ambivalences at the institutional level, through three official speeches by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2023-2024), which exemplify a state project of rapprochement with Latin America and the Global South. It is based on the assumption that Brazil has more affinities with Latin America than with the developed countries traditionally associated with the West. The methodology combines a narrative literature review on Brazil, Latin America and the West, with an interpretivist documentary analysis of official pronouncements. The motivation for the research stems from data indicating the low self-identification of Brazilians as Latin Americans, in contrast to other countries in the region. The classification of Brazil as a Western nation is thus problematized, understanding it as a variable that depends on the criteria and agents involved, from the subjective distance of the Brazilian population in relation to belonging to Latin America to government efforts and state projects to build a Latin American identity.
Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais
Copyright (c) 2025 Kelvin Araújo da Nóbrega Dias, Maiko Jhonata de Araújo Gomes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Care policies and the limits of development policies: an analysis from Brazil and Uruguay and from gender and race perspectives
Este artigo analisa a política de cuidado como dimensão transversal do desenvolvimento humano, articulando a teoria do desenvolvimento como liberdade, de Amartya Sen, a crítica estrutural de Celso Furtado e as contribuições de Lélia Gonzalez, que introduz as dimensões étnico-raciais e de gênero no debate. Parte-se da hipótese de que o cuidado constitui uma liberdade instrumental indispensável, capaz de evidenciar as contradições entre crescimento econômico e desenvolvimento social na América Latina. A pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa, fundamenta-se nas obras Desenvolvimento como Liberdade (SEN, 1999), O Mito do Desenvolvimento Econômico (FURTADO, 1974) e Por um Feminismo Afro-Latino-Americano (GONZALEZ, 2020). No eixo empírico, utilizam-se os relatórios da CEPAL de 2022 e 2025, intitulados La Sociedad del Cuidado. Os resultados indicam que as políticas de cuidado, ao redistribuírem tempo, renda e trabalho, fortalecem o exercício das liberdades instrumentais e promovem maior equidade social. Conclui-se que integrar o cuidado como política pública de desenvolvimento é essencial para ampliar as liberdades instrumentais, reduzir desigualdades étnico-raciais e promover a equidade de gênero na América Latina.
Copyright (c) 2025 Iago Sousa Chaves Soares https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The specialization of consumer law in Bolivia compared to other MERCOSUR countries
Since the 1990s, MERCOSUR countries have had laws that protect good practices in consumer relations. In 2024, Bolivia joined the Bloc. The country’s Constitution recognizes the values of traditional peoples, imposes the duty to preserve the rights of Mother Earth, and ensures cooperation between the central government and local autonomies in this area. In addition, in 2013 it enacted a law on the rights of consumers and users, which gives new relevance to their legal protection. Consumer rights are essential for regulating economic activity and for implementing sustainable development in the countries of the Bloc. Indigenous and peasant thought, present in the Bolivian Constitution, becomes a new relevant element. Therefore, this article seeks to answer the following question: how can Bolivia’s postcolonial consumer law positively influence the harmonization of consumer rights within MERCOSUR? Using the deductive method and the comparative procedural method, the analysis of consumer law in Bolivia may serve as a reference for legislators in other countries of the Bloc.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vitoria Gualberto Vagetti , Luís Alexandre Carta Winter https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Institutions, institutional traps and the challenges for latin american development
The article’s objective is to summarize the political and institutional obstacles which hinder Latin American development and to understand why the governments fail in adopting the necessary policies. It dialogues with theories of economic development and the varieties of capitalism approach, combining economic, political and institutional features. The article shows how development was historically constrained by the dominant groups and by limits in state capacity. It emphasizes how the institutional characteristics of Latin American capitalism do not stimulate productivity and innovation, resulting in an inferior economic performance. A political system marked by the proximity between politicians and interest groups contributes to the model’s resilience and economic stagnation. The defeat of the middle income traps requires investments in labor force skills and innovation, which need to be promoted by the political elite and the state. This requires the building of alliances and the adoption of policies able to circumvent the institutional obstacles. The capacity to advance in this direction may strengthen knowledge intensive sectors and create the political basis able to sustain a dynamic and innovative development model.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alexandre Queiroz Guimarães https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“Without dance there is no life...”. socio-corporal articulation through K-POP in Latin America.
Korean popular culture, or Hallyu (the Korean wave), as a global phenomenon, has had a significant impact on everyday life in Latin America. In particular, K-pop dance has become consolidated as a relevant everyday practice. For this reason, this article proposes to analyze K-pop dance performances as a multisensory expression that, at the same time, can be considered a sociocultural narrative. The empirical data for this research come from extensive and prolonged fieldwork carried out between 2019 and 2023 in Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador (in situ), and in Venezuela (virtually). A methodology that I refer to as “urban corpographies” was applied, which integrates various techniques and tools aimed at understanding the potential of dance expression and bodily perception in contemporary global contexts. I support my arguments based on the theoretical-methodological contributions of phenomenology, post-phenomenology, and visual-digital ethnography, within a research framework that considers the multiple influences and sensibilities that traverse bodies and are expressed through non-verbal articulation as a powerful tool in cultural practice.
Copyright (c) 2025 Grit Kirstin Koeltzsch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Exoduses, diasporas and nomadism Sebastião Salgado and Salman Rushdie in times of global migrations
In this article, we present some contemporary tensions regarding global migrations, establishing a counterpoint between the photographic work of Sebastião Salgado and the diasporic readings of writer Salman Rushdie. We develop an interpretation of the photographic images from the books Terra (1997) and Exodus (1999), questioning the role of the photographer at the boundary between the contemplative aestheticization of the misery of forced migrations and the ethical identification of the photographic gaze in contemporary nomadism. We conclude the analysis, as Jean Galard (2012) states, considering that the image artist is aware of the impossibility of summarizing a story in a single photograph; therefore, their photographic narrative allows for the articulation of visible facts with those that are suggested, based on the study of the conditions and contradictions of the photographed reality.
Copyright (c) 2025 Claudio Cledson Novaes, Marcos Botelho de Souza https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Between saints and twin-sisters: the Brazil-Argentina bridge in the heart of the border strip
What could Brazil and Argentina share? The historical complexities of the bilateral relationship between these two countries are territorially connected along the border zone through a bridge built in the 1990s. This study aims to discuss the challenges of circulation in the border region, taking as its starting point the Integration Bridge, which connects the twin cities of São Borja (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) and Santo Tomé (Corrientes, Argentina). This discussion is framed within the discipline of International Political Economy as a cultural project and takes into account the everyday life of local communities as a backdrop. In addition, we analyze the Border Region Development Promotion Program (PDFF), a public policy for sustainable economic development across the entire length of Brazil's border with South American countries. To this end, the content analysis method was used. The results found that: (i) logistics is one of the points of convergence between security and development, and (ii) the PDFF leaves open the notion of including local societies in policymaking for the region.
Copyright (c) 2025 Raquel Conceição Santos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Energy transition and deepening of the pattern of productive specialization in Latin America: the European Union - MERCOSUR agreement
This article examines the potential implications of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mercosur for the economies of the Southern Cone. It draws on the theoretical framework of Marxist Dependency Theory. The argument is that the agreement represents a historical continuation of the entropic forces of capital on a global scale, which, by shaping a world market, integrated Latin American economies into the dynamics of accumulation in a subordinate manner. This integration has produced an unequal and combined capitalist development, structurally hindering endogenous industrialization processes and instead consolidating dependent structures subordinated to the economic cycles of core countries. Methodologically, the study is based on a critical theoretical and documentary review aimed at uncovering how the treaty reshapes the region’s pattern of productive specialization, reinforcing its role as a provider of agricultural and mineral raw materials. This pattern aligns with the EU’s strategic objective of advancing its energy transition within the broader context of systemic capitalist crisis and an intensifying geopolitical struggle over the control of strategic resources and rare earth elements. The main findings suggest that the implementation of the agreement could result in severe consequences for Mercosur, including the dismantling of its nascent industrial base, increased labor precarization, and the expansion of the agro-export frontier, with significant socio-environmental impacts. Ultimately, the study concludes that the treaty transcends its commercial scope, positioning itself within a scenario of inter-imperialist rivalry for global hegemony and control over strategic resources and supply chains.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alhelí González Cáceres, Andrea Taborri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“We are a mixture": notes on borders and (non)belonging in Gloria Anzaldúa
This text is a review of Gloria Anzaldúa’s masterpiece Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), aiming to highlight its relevance in cultural, postcolonial, feminist, and intersectional studies. Anzaldúa, a lesbian and Chicana intellectual, articulates innovative concepts around borders, mestizaje, and belonging, challenging Western binary epistemologies. The author rejects the reduction of complex subjectivities to fixed categories, advocating for mestizaje as both a practice of cultural translation and a form of resistance to coloniality. Her perspective expands the notion of difference by incorporating the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality into a “third space” of identity. Furthermore, Anzaldúa frames queerness as an act of rebellion against normative structures, linking it to her own experiences as a Chicana and lesbian woman. Finally, the work calls for the creation of new symbolic systems that challenge coloniality, proposing a border culture that embraces the complexity and contradictions of (non)belonging — neither fully aligned with native nor American culture, nor with heteronormative standards or Westernized racial categories. This review, therefore, engages the work in its entirety, also drawing on other intellectuals to underscore Gloria Anzaldúa’s transformative contribution to contemporary postcolonial and feminist thought.
Maria Paula Rodrigues Martins de Carvalho
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Paula Rodrigues Martins de Carvalho https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The “Quijote negros”: identity crisis and the reflection of being the other
This text presents an analysis of the film Quijotes negros by director Sandino Burbano, who, through the journey of two characters, invites us to engage in an exercise of introspection and to question our identity — to find in the other a sign of survival. Between characters from world literature and the very marked Latin American — and, of course, Ecuadorian — idiosyncrasy, we are still confronted with that colonial attachment and resentment, which is undoubtedly palpable in the social dynamics of our everyday lives and further complicates the task of understanding ourselves through the concepts that shape us, but which we also resist. Naturally, this film breaks away from alienating logics, inviting viewers to reflect and be surprised, to enter a dreamlike atmosphere and to look at, into, and from this periphery, to contemplate this distorted reality: that mirror which both limits and feeds us daily, where excessive and disparate elements combine to piece together the puzzle of our identity and memory, with — or without — the lingering traces of colonization.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pamela Villarreal, Juan Andrango https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“La sierra y el llano”. Review of the Cuban Revolution: a reinterpretation, by Vânia Bambirra
First published in Mexico by Editora Nuestro Tiempo in 1974, the work The Cuban Revolution: A Reinterpretation was only published in Brazil fifty years later. This important work was undertaken by Editora Expressão Popular, which, over just over two hundred pages, presented to the Brazilian public all the vigor and theoretical depth of Vânia Bambirra analysis of the Cuban Revolution. Bambirra’s understanding of the Cuban Revolution from the general features of its dependent capitalism and its constituent classes is illuminating. That is, that the Revolution would inexorably involve a confrontation with imperialism, given the absence of a national bourgeoisie linked to industry. Indeed, her political analysis of the revolutionary process aligns with her economic analysis of dependent Latin American capitalism, based on a rich typology she created in her work Dependent Latin American Capitalism. In this sense, Bambirra’s analysis of the Cuban Revolution provides an invaluable contribution to the study of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary processes in other Latin American countries.
Copyright (c) 2026 Glauber Lopes Xavier https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Gustavo Gutiérrez and Liberation Theology: A Theological and Political Response to the Historical and Social Demands of Latin America
Copyright (c) 2024 Vivian Urquidi, Maria Cristina Cacciamali, Bruno Massola Moda https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The main impedances for the ratification of the treaty between Mercosur and the European Union: the two-level games perspective
The new Regional Treaties, or inter-regionalism, are characterized as a grouping of aspects that range from geopolitical development, multilateral and regional dynamics, and the political-economic decisions of countries. This article evaluates the barriers to the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU); as in 2019, the third negotiation phase was completed, but the ratification process still needs to be completed. In this discussion, we aim to understand, through a literature review and the application of two-level game theory, how Mercosur and the EU are positioned in the negotiations concerning the main obstacles to the bi-regional agreement. The analysis shows that the agricultural and industrial aspects have caused disputes regarding tariffs and export quotas for specific products since the beginning of the talks. However, more recently, the pressure for environmental issues such as sustainability and ecological control has entered as an element of negotiations and has made ratification difficult. Therefore, it corroborates that games at both levels effectively identify the influence of international and domestic levels on agreement discussions.
Copyright (c) 2024 Rodolfo Nunes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Peruvian Military Developmentalism of the 1970s revisited from Uruguay: A unique phase in the development of capitalism in that country and the attraction that "Peruvianism" exerted during those critical years in the Region
This text proposes an interpretation of the period in Peru’s economic history between 1968 and 1975, known as the "military progressivism" led by Velasco Alvarado, and the favourable reception this phenomenon had in Uruguay at the time, particularly among certain left-wing sectors. The analysis draws on existing academic literature and focuses on the class character of Alvarado’s government and the economic policies it implemented. It seeks to situate the process, with its specificities, within the broader context of Latin American economic history, establishing contrasts with the Uruguayan case. The conclusions emphasize the differences between the trajectories and relative levels of development of both countries, highlighting the impossibility of replicating Peru's military developmentalism in early 1970s Uruguay.
Copyright (c) 2024 Antonino Zunino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Religious fundamentalism, racial capitalism, and civilizational crisis
As igrejas evangélicas de orientação fundamentalista, tornadas neoconservadoras a partir dos anos 1980, costumam ser apreciadas tanto pela direita quanto pela esquerda por seu potencial eleitoral. Este artigo busca desvendar o neoconservadorismo como um complemento do neoliberalismo, cuja função principal é a salvaguarda dos valores da sociedade ocidental cristã, capitalista e branca, através da difusão de suas teologias que podem ser mais bem descritas como ideologias religiosas de opressão: a Teologia da Prosperidade, a Teologia do Domínio e a Guerra Espiritual. Mostra-se como a pretensão de salvar a sociedade ocidental, percebida como estando em perigo devido às lutas das multidões de oprimidos de diferentes formas, e a de gerar crescimento econômico, se concretiza em ações de guerra, fome, expropriação e extermínio ao longo de todo o planeta, sob a legitimação dessas “teologias” que fortalecem a supremacia branca.
Copyright (c) 2024 Betty Ruth Lozano https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0