The Cold War Origins of Latin American Multilateralism

The end of the Cold War overlapped with significant transformations in Latin America. During the 1980s and 90s most countries in the region implemented “neoliberal” economic policy frameworks, adopted democratic political systems based on competitive elections, and increasingly developed ties between themselves through regionalist and multilateralist initiatives. The last of these transformations is the subject of this presentation.

In the years following the end of the Cold War, conventional wisdom among analysts of Latin America held that the winding down of unilateral U.S. military and paramilitary interventions – along with decreasing ideological polarization – had freed up space for regional governments to address shared challenges in a collaborative fashion. Indeed, the 1990s and early 2000s saw a sharp increase in the creation of new multilateral bodies (such as the Rio Group and its successor, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and relevance for existing ones (namely, the Organization of American States).

But many of these South-South initiatives date back to the late Cold War era. Notably, the Rio Group grew out of the Contadora Peace Process, sponsored by eight Latin American countries in the 1980s to counterbalance U.S. intervention in Central America and help defuse related wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Based on this and other examples, this presentation discusses the origins of Latin American multilateralism and regional integration in the conflicts and crises of the Cold War era. Understanding the roots of these features in inter-American relations helps explain not only their prominence in the early twenty-first century but also their decreasing salience in recent years. Moreover, the contemporary history of Latin American integration offers an opportunity for historians seeking to bridge the Cold War and post-Cold War eras in Latin American history.