Latin America has suffered throughout its history from the consequences of possessing rich underground treasures: silver,
gold, copper, petroleum, amongst other minerals highly coveted by the great world powers of each age. Since the arrival in the New World of Christopher Columbus this region, outstandingly blessed with agricultural land capable of producing many different crops, has been at the mercy of the ambition of European and North American trans-national
companies who have filled their storehouses to ensure the economic
development of the old European continent at the expense of this region. The silver mines of Guanajuato and Zacatecas, Potosi, the Chilean economy which provided wheat, dried meat, wine and nitrates, the handicrafts of Cordoba, the mercury mines of Huancavelica, the Arica region from where silver was shipped to Lima on its way to Imperial Spain, its final destination. The massacre and enslavement of Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, Zacatecas, were the first bleeding veins, opened by the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors. And in that age of conquest the great British corporations established themselves, eager for riches. Europe owes its development and economic eminence to the new continent it drowned in poverty. Destroying much of their wealth it condemned the Latin American peoples to a permanent state of under-development or left them struggling for partial development. The vast tons of goods exported between the era of the conquest and modern times amount to more than 24 times the value of the Marshall Plan. Latin America is condemned to consume manufactured products for which she herself has provided the raw materials, paying higher prices for them than those who processed them. History did not change with the arrival of modernity. Few of the principal Latin American cities have achieved even a moderately acceptable level of development. They are still the same towns which grew up around the ports from which agricultural products were exported. From being poly-productive the region became a mono-producer in order to eliminate the market of the poor European producers who could not compete with Latin American excellence. The administrators of the large companies were British and later North American and they reduced production with the help of local foremen who for a paltry sum would raze vast tracts of land, thus assuring their control of the world food market. In this way the road to wealth was closed to an area drained of its identity by corporations, bankers and local landowners who were willing to sell up for a pittance at the expense of the Latin American public at large who are today struggling for development against the heavy weight of an overseas debt which began when its wealth was plundered by the European conquerors. Class distinctions, hegemony and the political system of the region were all imposed by the foreigner. Industrialisation has not altered the imbalance of the world market. A French, German or Italian workman earns in 30 minutes what it takes a Brazilian, a Venezuelan or a Salvadorian a week to earn. The large foreign companies maintain control of technology, thus preventing economic development for the ruined Latin American peoples