For 500 years, since European explorers came, Latin American countries had been separated from one another. They had very limited relations. Integration is a prerequisite for independence.

The Latin American debt that reached crisis levels from 1982 would have been sharply reduced by return of flight capital - in some cases, overcome, though all figures are dubious for these secret and often illegal operations.

Well, by the standards of a lot of countries, by Latin American standards, it wasn't so bad.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

Ironically, Latin American countries, in their instability, give writers and intellectuals the hope that they are needed.

Since the civil war in Laos was resumed in earnest in 1963, American participation has been veiled in secrecy.