ABSTRACT
Latin America has entered an era of crisis without an end in sight. It is not the kind of crisis that shatters institutional structures and thereby creates space for a new beginning. The international economic order that has emerged in the past quarter century makes scholarly theories of modernization and dependency obsolete. Socioeconomic tension between the middle class and the poor has sharpened. The consequences of Latin America’s decline into crisis, for the United States, are overwhelmingly positive—at least economically. America plays an important role in facilitating torture in the Third World generally. The United States is the primary supplier of torture equipment. The small portion of the American populace that is morally critical of world institutions and attempts to change government policies poses a genuine threat to vested interests and the general prosperity of the nation. US regulation of migration has fluctuated, historically, with the needs and economic fortunes of Americans.
