LATIN AMERICAN SPECIAL — Political, economic reform of Latin

The march toward reform, democratic and economic, continues throughout Latin America. The pace of the reform movement may be uneven — the Brazilian economy appears to be standing on shaky legs and Cuba is still an island unto itself — but a transformation is nevertheless under way.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect Jan. 1, has brought Canada and the U.S. closer to Latin America through an economic union with Mexico, and already there is talk of expanding the trade pact to include Chile.

A New Year’s rebellion in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas may or may not have been prompted in part by the country’s new economic status; the government responded by promising sweeping political reforms and economic aid to the nation’s impoverished Indians. The new president of Mexico, to be elected in August, will obviously have his hands full.

The assassination in March of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta threw the electoral process into some confusion. Colosio was expected to succeed Carlos Salinas de Gortari as president; the PRI has won every presidency since the party was founded in 1929. At presstime, the party announced that Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon is its new candidate.

Voting in March for a new president was El Salvador. Other countries going to the polls this year include Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. In Brazil, the fight against inflation took a new course recently when the finance minister announced plans to replace, gradually, the cruzeiro real, the country’s currency. A new accounting unit, pegged to the U.S. dollar, will act as a reference point for prices and salaries, replacing 11 other indexes. Eventually, a new currency, to be known as the real, will be introduced. The annual inflation rate in Brazil has been running at about 2,500%.

Political problems in Haiti persist. An international effort to restore ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has stalled. Aristide, living in the U.S., was overthrown in a military coup in 1991. The United Nations imposed an oil embargo on the Caribbean nation in late 1993.

Argentina’s attempts to attract foreign investment appear to be working in the mining sector. Earlier this year, it was reported that almost two dozen foreign mining firms were either exploring or making plans to explore claims in the country. Ground near the Chilean border is a popular location. The government of Carlos Menem has been working to stabilize the economy; inflation in Argentina in 1993 rose 7.4%, the smallest increase since 1954. Cuba remains tightly controled by the government of Fidel Castro, as one would expect after some 34 years of socialism, but how much longer can the Caribbean country remain a loner? An example of what lies ahead is the energy crisis created by the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of cheap oil shipments.

Changes to the Cuban way of doing things are in the works. Last July, Castro legalized the possession of U.S. dollars and the transaction of private business in that currency. In another move, certain trades were opened to self-employment.

Foreign mining firms appear to find Peru to their liking. Newmont placed a gold mine, Yanacocha, into operation last year, and more than a few seniors and juniors have announced property acquisitions. Peruvians approved a new constitution during the second half of last year, the country’s 12th since independence in 1921.

Venezuela, long an oil producer and in the news of late for its gold-mining potential, elected 77-year-old Rafael Caldera as president last December. His predecessor, Carlos Andres Perez, resigned earlier in the year because of a corruption scandal.

Also electing a new president last December was Chile. Eduardo Frei, 51, whose centre-left coalition won 58% of the vote, took office in March. Frei replaces Patricio Aylwin, who assumed the presidency from Gen. Augusto Pinochet in a peaceful changeover in 1990.