Latin America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Latin America - Essay Example In addition, thousands of people moved in to work on the projects, an aspect which further led to degraded environment and global warming. The subdivision of land led to reduced food, turning small holder’s farmers into peasants ( Hobbs, 2008). Mining areas degraded farming lands and destroyed the natural environment for micro-organisms. These developments were both for worse and better of the region. For worse, the natural environment had been destroyed and better, it lead to production of minerals which spurred economic growth. Initially, the entire Latin America was under colonial government which also had many interests in the region. It had an America based United Fruit company which functioned as a unifying factor in the region. The Company owned large tracts of land which covered or spilled in nearly all countries in Latin America. This means that Latin America during colonial time was actually treated like one region geographically ( Hobbs, 2008). As such, the company and thus, the United States had a lot of influence on the regional politics. However, local leaders started changing laws governing land. For instance, the president of Guatemala, Arbenz developed land reform laws that were actually seen as a threat to the existence or interests of the American Based Fruit company. The president did not stay for long; he was ousted in 1954 by a group supported by CIA. This aspect disorganized the politics of the region. In fact, some of the countries in the region have not been so stable in terms of leadership. They also play second fiddle to the US when it comes to international trade treaties. What is more, its institutions have lacked behind of because of the unstable leadership. For instance, Mexico only started maximizing its petroleum potential in 2003, despite having discovered the mineral in 1960 ( Hobbs, 2008). Personally, I think the challenges faced by the region were instigated or triggered by the colonial government. For instance, most of