This book provides an in-depth and broad study on rural Latin America over a 60-year period. Using a case study approach of Mexico and Venezuela, peasants and lower rural classes are examined at the local, meso and national levels. Additionally, the study analyzes government policies, development, and leadership in each country. Latin America has tried to ride the waves of globalization, worldwide economic and environmental crises; the author examines Mexico and Venezuela's relations with the political hegemony of superpowers like the US, EU and China. The material will appeal to researchers, graduate students and policy makers in the fields of rural development, Latin American politics, and international relations.

Provides an in-depth and broad study on the contemporary rural Latin America, particularly, Mexico and Venezuela Examines Latin American peasants and lower rural classes at the local, meso- and national levels Analyzes Mexico and Venezuela's relations with the political superpowers such as the US, the European Union and China

Autorentext

Ray Watters is Emeritus Associate Professor at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. As a geographer/anthropologist he started his career studying shifting agriculture for the Food and Agriculture Organization in Venezuela, Mexico, and Peru. He has led projects for the United Nations and various governments of developing countries. Many of his studies involved geographic, historical, anthropological, and economic analyses, as well as village fieldwork on peasantry. Research projects he led resulted in ten major reports.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Working in Latin America: The Paradoxes of Developmentalism.- Chapter 3. The Agroecological Revolution.- Chapter 4. Southern Mexico: Revolution, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.- Chapter 5. Mexico in the New Emerging World Order.- Chapter 6. Recent Developments in Mexico Can Mexico Remake itself? - Chapter 7. Economic Backwardness in the Venezuelan Andes.- Chapter 8. The Situation in the Llanos.- Chapter 9. Venezuela Revisited: 1979 and 2010: Betancourt.- Chapter 10. The Economic Crisis and the Chávez Presidency.- Chapter 11. Venezuela 20132019: Chaos and decline.- Chapter 12. Maduro Makes a Mockery of Democracy in Venezuela.- Chapter 13. Epilogue.