ABSTRACT
The global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has precipitated, not caused, a very serious economic, social and political crisis in Latin America, more serious than that of the 1930s. Indeed, in many countries the crisis existed before the pandemic hit: this is the case of Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico, which entered into recession in 2019. In other countries, a slowdown in economic activity existed, and over a long period of time, all economies were suffering from a trend of stagnant per capita GDP growth. Considering that the pandemic has caused an economic crisis, one would think that once the contagion has disappeared, it would be possible to “start again as before”, as the exogenous cause of the crisis has disappeared. This is not the thesis developed in this chapter. The pandemic, through containment measures and the shutdown of companies outside those essential to daily life and health, has highlighted the dysfunctions of hyper-globalization. This pandemic is indicative of the failure of globalization as it has spread and imposed its rules of the game over the last 20 years. The irony of history is that the crisis of globalization has arrived when no economist, sociologist, or politician had foreseen it.
