ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the economic significance of Latin America for the developed countries has persisted and increased. The strategic dependency of the core on the key minerals of Latin America and other periphery regions is quite evident and, together with the catalyst of the 1973 oil crisis, has led to attitudes of "cooperation" of the centers with resource-rich periphery nations. Dependency theorists have focused their analyses, with good reason, mainly on the impact of imperialism on the class structures, economies, and cultures of underdeveloped societies. In sum, the strategic dependency of the core on the key minerals of Latin America and other periphery regions is quite evident and, together with the catalyst of the 1973 oil crisis, has led to attitudes of "cooperation" of the centers with resource-rich periphery nations. Some analysts hold that the dependency of core corporations upon the cheap labor of the periphery is affected by the kind of technology utilized by the firms.
