ABSTRACT
The suspension of the external debt service by Mexico in 1982 was a resounding signal of what would be the most serious financial crisis of the century in Latin America—a crisis that determined the characteristics of the region's economic evolution during the 1980s. From a more positive viewpoint, the international trade boom of the 1960s favored the diversification of Latin America's exports and allowed a dynamic growth of manufactured exports of those countries that had made more progress in their industrialization. In the 1970s the international financial diversification allowed most Latin American countries an easy access to external funds. The reorganization of the international economy, particularly that of the financial system agreed upon in Bretton Woods following World War II, led to an option for an approach involving an important factor of imbalance—namely, the leadership and responsibility attributed to the United States.
