Micah Pyles
implementation of U.S. foreign policies and covert military operations. Further, one can see how this collaboration demonstrates the state’s subordination to corporate interest, which is a fundamental component in the establishment and maintenance of exploitative power arrangements between the global North and South. Yet, to assume that these unbalanced power relations are the sole result of unilateral actions on behalf of the United States would be to fall prey to an ideology of paternalistic imperialism of which, this project seeks to denounce. Therefore, what role of resistance or complicity can be attributed to Latin America in the historical rise of its current developmental plight? On this subject, Fernando Cardoso, professor of sociology and former president of Brazil (1995-2000), provides substantial insight. In his exploration of developmental trends, Cardoso highlights the role that local elites, internal to the class structure of LDCs, often play in facilitating circumstances of international domination. For instance, he argues that “…external forms of exploitation and coercion… [are often closely associated with]…complex networks of coincident or reconciled interests” between elite class factions within LDCs and those within more developed nations (MDCs) (Cardoso and Faletto 1979: 1516). As posited by Galeano this ruling class structure largely consists of an “industrial bourgeoisie” who—just as in the U.S. either directly or indirectly—exercise substantial power over military and political structures (1997: 213). It is important to note that these ruling classes, and the industries that ensured their societal positions, were heavily reliant on foreign technologies, patents, and private investments, predominantly from the U.S. (Galeano 1997). It follows that with the economic downturn of the 1970s, coupled with the often ubiquitous threat of class based social backlash, dominant class groups saw their long term interest and survival threatened by the potential withdraw of foreign investment and know-how. Consequentially, this class of industrialists sought desperately to maintain its ties with the external technological and economic forces, upon which its existence was dependent. However, with the Latin American debt crisis looming overhead as if an ominous cloud, how would
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