Poverty has been a constant in human history, it was only after the industrial revolution that welfare reached a large part of the population. A quick look at a world map on industrialization shows a clear link between poverty and lack of industrialization. To give some examples, African countries have very few industries and the most poverty. Most countries in Latin America have some industries so less poverty, and the most industrialized countries like USA, western Europe and japan are the richest with the least amount of poverty. Britain was the first country to industrialize, and did not let her colonies imitate her to keep an advantage over others. The attitude is repeated and practiced by most rich countries through trade and finances, thus increasing the gap between rich and poor. This is historically explained in a book by Norwegian economist Erik Reinert called “How Rich Countries Got Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor”.

The Causes of Poverty

For people familiar with the history of Latin America, they might have heard of the Monroe Doctrine, a foreign policy from the USA that holds that Latin America should resist European colonialism, but American influence is fine. I’ll give a brief history of Nicaragua to show what I’m talking about. From 1893 to 1909, the president of Nicaragua was Jose Santos Zelaya, he was interested in creating a transoceanic canal with the help of France (or Germany) and Japan even after the US decided to build the canal in Panama. Zelaya was taken out of power by a rebellion aided by the US in 1909. Then in 1912, the marines invaded the country and stayed until 1933 leaving a dictatorship that lasted until 1979. Communist Rebels took power, and a war financed by the US was waged from the neighboring countries. Finally, the war ended in 1990 with a new government, but Nicaragua is until today one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere.

Coercion and coups are still carried out by the US in Latin America, Venezuela and Honduras are the most recent examples. Those actions are explained away with the excuse of defending democracy and peace. Also, several organizations are in charge of “helping” poor countries. Loans and policies are given by organization like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organization (WTO). The money and policies simple don’t work because they are not meant to help develop the poor countries. On top of the mounting debt, the rest of the money is stolen by corrupt politicians, to help trans-national corporation or to fund “security and democratic institutions” (that is to say: buying guns and equipment from the US and making sure foreign-not national policies are implemented). Policies that create jobs and industries for poor countries are not allowed. “You need to open the country to the international market and foreign investors” they say, and What happens? More poverty, of course. Rich countries don’t follow the advice given to poor countries. The US blocks Huawei and are trying to block TikTok. It’s for security reasons they say. In reality it’s to protect their businesses from the competition. Europeans do the same thing to protect their industries. Only poor countries aren’t allow to protect their weak industries, much less to create new ones.

Labor Exploitation

So globalization is being rolled back now that China can produce for cheaper. There are so many examples of double standards. I could give many example of how the US pressure countries so companies can exploit worker, from Haiti to Bolivia, but I will pick on Chiquita-the famous banana company. Chiquita just lost in a lawsuit after 17 years of legal proceedings; the banana company is guilty of financing a terrorist organization in Colombia for years. We only know about this because a few Americans died, but the history of this company, which in the past was known as United Fruits goes deeper. From this NPR interview we can learn about the ties between the US and this specific company, but it is the same with any other industry:

*GROSS: Did the U.S. government intervene in Latin America on behalf of the fruit companies?

Mr. KOEPPEL: Repeatedly and terribly. The U.S. government had everything to do with the banana companies. They were intertwined with each other. There were corporate relationships, boardroom relationships, family relationships, and the United States military and United States foreign policy was working at the beck and call of the banana companies, and over and over again you would see the U.S. Marines coming to help crush a banana strike or help crush a workers’ movement. Well, any workers’ movement or labor action in Central America was going to be a banana action. It was the only industry around, really. Over and over again you would see the Marines landing. You would see the CIA involved in creating propaganda. Any leader who was either against the banana companies or even simply wanted a fair wage for his people would be instantly deposed, sometimes murdered, often humiliated, and this happened over 20 times between 1900 and 1955.*

I am writing about this, not because I support governments like the ones in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The result is always worst with them in power. But the most important thing is for everybody to know how things really are without propaganda from one or the other side. Countries are made poor through well planned exploitation.