Until 2000, the Washington Consensus was the political-economic philosophy of the United States towards Latin America. What was the Washington Consensus and why did Latin American countries pushback against it?


Between about 1980 and 2000, US administrations exercised a hands-on policy in Latin America. Through a combination of blunt U.S. military interventions and the countries' own efforts, Latin America witnessed an overall transformation of political systems from authoritarian to multiparty democratic. In the thinking of successive U.S. administrations, those greater political freedoms should have ushered in more prosperity. This was one component of the so-called Washington Consensus. The U.S. pushed for open markets and more trade opportunities.
Once the U.S. took a hands-off approach, widespread disillusionment with economic conditions led to successive elections of reformist, left-leaning and generally anti-Washington Consensus or anti-US leaders. Indigenous Americans, who felt that the descendants of European colonizers of the New World, along with U.S. and other multinational firms, were robbing them of both their natural resources and their political clout.

Environmental & Atmospheric Sciences

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