LATIN AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS

TLDR

State‑level transformations in Latin America appear limited to alternative modernization, yet social movements propose radical post‑liberal, post‑developmentalist, and post‑capitalist possibilities. The paper examines socio‑economic, political, and cultural changes in South America over the past decade, especially in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia, arguing that these shifts must be understood as a double crisis of neoliberalism and colonial modernity. The authors contend that Latin American cultural‑political mobilizations hinge on activating relational ontologies of indigenous and Afro‑descendent peoples, contrasting with liberal modernity’s dualist ontology.

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-economic, political, and cultural transformations that have been taking place in South America during the past ten years, particularly in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Whereas at the level of the states the transformations do not seem to venture beyond alternative forms of modernization, the discourses and strategies of some social movements suggest radical possibilities towards post-liberal, post-developmentalist, and post-capitalist social forms. To entertain such a possibility requires that the transformations in question be seen in terms of a double conjuncture: the crisis of the neoliberal project of the past three decades; and the crisis of the project of bringing about modernity to the continent since the Conquest. At stake in many cultural-political mobilizations in Latin America, it is further argued, is the political activation of relational ontologies, such as those of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendents, which differ from the dualist ontologies of liberal modernity. Al maestro Orlando Fals Borda, luchador incansable, In Memoriam, por su honestidadintelectual y su compromiso político con América Latina, con la vida y con el mundo.