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Big Business and Dictatorships in Latin America: A Transnational History of Profits and Repression

2022; Duke University Press; Volume: 102; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-9798648

1527-1900

Rafael R. Ioris,

Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics

That big business has consistently benefited from procapital repressive regimes, be it in fascist Europe or in bureaucratic authoritarian Latin America, is an open secret, known for a long time. That this important connection has reemerged as a topic of academic investigation speaks to how we live in a moment of revived authoritarian tendencies, nuanced only by the fact that, at least in some countries, restorative justice proceedings have managed to gain ground once these nations transitioned to democratic rule. And yet while much has already been revealed about how transnational corporations especially both abetted and profited from military takeovers and ensuing antilabor authoritarianisms, how some of these events unfolded and the shared responsibilities for the associated human rights atrocities in these societies still deserve further in-depth examination. This is above all true for the Southern Cone dictatorships of the Cold War.Helping to fill this gap, Big Business and Dictatorships in Latin America represents not only a praiseworthy collaboration between scholars based in Latin America, the United States, and Europe but also a truly interdisciplinary and richly documented investigative effort to provide new knowledge and, perhaps more importantly, directions and perspectives for future work in the field. The work opens with the editors' insightful reflection on how scholars of business-military collusion in Latin America and Europe can learn from each other, particularly from the emerging literature on Nazi Germany. Ensuing chapters examine concrete collaborations between sectors of the business community and bureaucratic authoritarian regimes in Latin America, particularly the Southern Cone. These actors eliminated labor rights and social gains of previous decades, and state repression became an essential instrument of governance. Good relations with the international business community were of great help as these administrations tried to sustain a more benign image abroad, and several sought to deepen ties with neoliberal think tanks. External borrowing also consolidated the partnership between these regimes and international actors, in addition to creating shared responsibility for the regimes' repressive and socially exclusionary policies.Indicating well the quality of the several country-based studies presented in the volume, chapter 3 scrutinizes how domestic Brazilian construction companies benefited from the probusiness reforms put in place by the country's long dictatorship, particularly during the 1970s. The chapter on Augusto Pinochet's regime enriches the book's examination of big business's participation in the modernization of peripheral economies under authoritarian regimes in Latin America, as privatization played an extraordinarily important role in the dictatorship's economic transformation of Chile. Chapter 5 discusses bureaucratic authoritarianism in Uruguay, which took an interesting middle path between the authoritarian developmental policies pursued in Brazil and in Chile. For one, the military government in Uruguay exhibited an erratic and irresolute trajectory that resulted in incomplete liberalization, with local powerful business groups capturing state resources to their own advantage.Chapter 6 scrutinizes the unique leftist dictatorship in Peru; one learns of the intricacies of how Peruvian oligarchic interests benefited from fast-paced and otherwise inclusive reforms pursued by this idiosyncratic authoritarian regime, a clear indication of the patrimonial ties between influential businessmen and state bureaucrats. Chapter 7 focuses on the banking sector, which expanded significantly amid modernization and contributed to the debt crisis that destroyed local Latin American economies during the mid-1980s democratic transition. Chapter 8 centers on the automobile sector, looking at Ford Motor Argentina and how its profits were enhanced by its close alliance with the generals in power in the country. And the following chapter deals with German investors in the same country and their close ideological alignments with the dictatorship's technocratic leaders. Chapter 10 analyzes the copper industry in Chile and the probusiness policies put in place by a deeply repressive regime, including privatization, deregulation, and the elimination of labor laws.Chapter 11 returns the focus to Brazil by looking closely at state-run hydroelectric companies there in order to demonstrate the complexities involved as large public and private corporations competed for public funds and local stakeholders, particularly Indigenous groups, were consistently sidetracked by procapital modernization efforts pushed by a repressive regime. Chapter 12, remaining in Brazil, again looks at the role played by powerful German actors by reviewing how Volkswagen, which became the country's largest manufacturer, interacted closely with the military regime. Chapter 13 moves to Colombia under the mid-1950s dictatorial regime of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, which proved instrumental in internationalizing regional economies by securing access for foreign business to local markets and resources, including public funds and market protections. Closing the volume, chapter 14 examines the alliance between foreign investors and Central American dictators over a long period of time. The chapter demonstrates the complexities, and at times even contradictions, that emerged from the close associations between local dictatorships and transnational private interests.Though much of its main arguments largely corroborate previous theses regarding private-public repressive partnerships in Latin America, overall Big Business and Dictatorships in Latin America fulfills its promise to provide an interdisciplinary collective analysis of corporate interests and dictatorships. One hopes that this line of work will be sustained and hopefully expanded, including with examinations of the recent experiences of international collaborations that have uniquely arisen during COVID-19. These works would be particularly relevant given the growing presence of new transnational economic actors, such as China, in various parts of Latin America, particularly in countries experiencing concerning levels of democratic erosion, if not overt backsliding into authoritarian regimes.