The main objective of the neo-liberal prescriptions was to achieve free trade in all

the countries of Latin America.1 Latin America should open up their trade limitations to

allow more imports in, and export more of their commodities such as raw materials, and

labor-intensive products. Trying to reverse the economic crisis, governments encouraged

foreign investment in an effort to help make the region's economies more efficient and

globally competitive (Purcell 1999). As a result the Latin American countries tended to

orient their economies toward businesses in which they could use their comparative

advantages, such as activities related to the use of renewable natural resources, which

were strongly promoted (CEPAL 2002). An additional aspect of the policies designed

to reverse economic problems generated by the crisis, was the encouragement of foreign

investment (Purcell 1999). Through foreign investments, governments tried to make the

region's economies more efficient and globally competitive.

 Instead of improving the industrialization process in which most of the countries

were embarked until the 80s, the rationale of the process was to provoke the

modernization of the economic areas that are needed for international trade, such as

manufacture, agriculture, and other labor-intensive activities. Among the economic

developments that fulfilled both the conditions of the "structural adjustments" promoted

by IMF, and the socio-economic conditions of the region, were capital-intensive

agricultural activities, known as "non-traditional agricultural exports", NTAEs (Thrupp et

al, 1995). These activities, which were backed by World Bank and the U.S. Agency for

International Development, fit very well with both IMF impositions, and local socio-

economic conditions. NTAEs allowed the flow of foreign investments, and concurred


1 But the process of neoliberalism is not restricted to Latin America; it is also sought for the rest of the
countries of the world.