A Tour of America's Backyard

The authors of this book promise us a tour of the real Central America. They deliver. An exceedingly well-researched hook, Dollars and Dictators not only provides us with a wide array of statistics and facts which sum up the dismal realities of the region, but also locates them in the patterns of corporate and military control which the U.S. has evolved to keel) its "backyard" safe for free enterprise. The result is a volume which serves as a perfect resource tool for groups organizing against U.S. intervention in Central America.

Agriculture, say the authors, has diversified beyond King Banana; the old "banana republics" Dow also produce cotton, coffee, sugar, beef, vegetables, and flowers. But beneath the superficial diversity are the same unfortunate realities: control of production by U S. multinationals and the continuing shift of land-use from production for domestic consumption to production of, commodities for export. There are also new, disturbing phenomena. One is the rise of "associate producer arrangements," which enable United Brands and its cohorts, such as Castle and Cooke and R.J. Reynolds, to continue to control farmland while sticking the associate producer, the dependent smallholder, with many of the costs of production. Another is the indiscriminate application of pesticides-many of which are banned in the U.S.-in corporate-controlled farming. Incidences of pesticide poisoning abound in Central America and are now cropping up in the U.S., the destination of most food exports.

Industrial growth has not translated into economic sovereignty. The writers show how the goals of the Central American Common Market, established in 1958, were subverted by U.S. firms by simply establishing subsidiaries in the area to get around high tariffs on imports and then buying up local competitors. A new twist in industrial dependency is the strategy of "export-oriented industrialization." Under this arrangement, U.S. companies establish factories mainly to assemble basic materials produced in the U.S. for reexport to the U.S. Thus electronic firms like Texas Instruments can take advantage of cheap labor without sinking much capital into the area and pull out fast when workers demand higher wages or when "political stability" begins to erode.

To keep the region safe for corporations, the U.S. has fortified states run by corrupt oligarchies and ruthless military establishments. Dollars and Dictators might be seen as one extensively documented proof for the thesis that the state is primarily an institution for the protection of the property-owning classes. It uncovers all the channels through which the Pentagon has groomed the different armed forces of the region for the purpose of defending U.S. economic and "security" interests. The authors show how even the slightest "Alliance-for-Progress" type of reform is smashed, leaving armed popular revolution such as that of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua as the only viable path to a better future for the people of the region.

Dollars and Dictators is divided into two parts. Part One provides an overview of trends in agriculture, industry, finance, and military and economic aid. Part Two takes us on an extended tour through each of the countries of the region: Guatemala, Belize, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Not to be overlooked is the book's compiled list of U.S. businesses in Central America, the most extensive of its kind available.