Are we such a poignant sight? President Bush has declared himself moved by Uruguay’s plight, although there is no indication that he could even locate our country on a map. Perhaps what has touched his heart has been the selfless readiness of our president, Jorge Batlle, to stand in the front line against Cuba, Argentina, or whoever else he is told to oppose—who knows. The fact is that Bush said: ‘We have to lend a hand.’ And the international credit organizations, in the noble role of the parrot on the pirate’s shoulder, then said exactly the same.
Our legislators hurriedly assembled and, by a majority deaf to all discussion, in no time at all passed the law that gave the coup de grâce to the state-banking sector. The reasoning was straighforward: approve this or you won’t get the money. The deputies craned their necks, searching the sky for the descending plane. The dollars didn’t come by air, but they arrived: ‘1500 million dolores’, said the US ambassador, who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish. The error told the truth.
From the cradle, Latin American countries were born into independent life mortgaged to British banks. Two centuries later, as a Montevideo taxi driver puts it: ‘They say the Lord will provide. They think God runs the IMF.’ Our creditors have changed over time, and now we owe much more. The more we pay, the more we owe; and the more we owe, the less we decide. Held captive by foreign banks, we can no longer so much as breathe without permission. Latin Americans live to ‘service the debt’—which goes on multiplying, rabbit-fashion. It grows by four dollars for every dollar we get, and yet we celebrate every new dollar as if it were a miracle. As if the noose around our throats was going to lift us from the bottom of the well.