Continuing
with our NOTES AND MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY PERU, starting today, we will
comment on the report: Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the
Caribbean • 2024 by ECLAC, a UN institution.
The report
of the imperialist economic institute, referred to above, confirms which is the
main imperialism that dominates us, Yankee imperialism, through foreign direct
investment (FDI), one of the forms that the export of capital from imperialist
countries to oppressed nations takes. And, it also confirms the prominent role
of China in trade (export/import of goods) with Latin America and its secondary
place in FDI, one of the main forms that the export of capital takes in the
imperialist stage. Regarding what we have just written, the report says:
“Chapter
I.- 5. Foreign direct investment by country of origin
(...) When
considering the 11 countries that present information on the origin of FDI
inflows in 2023, it is observed that the United States and the European
Union remain the main investors, although there are some changes in
participation. The United States maintained its position as the main
investor in the region, with 33% of the total, but, compared to 2022, there
was a 29.7% decrease in investment inflows from that origin. This trend was not
reflected in Colombia, where US FDI inflows increased by 14% compared to the
previous year. This increase consolidates Colombia as the third destination
for US investments in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 18% of that
country's total investments in the region. Although Mexico (41%) and Brazil
(33%) remain the main destinations for US FDI in the region, both
experienced a decline in inflows originating in the country (30% and 21%,
respectively).
(...)
The
relative share of European Union countries (excluding Luxembourg and the
Kingdom of the Netherlands) increased by 29.4% to 22% of the total. Among
the countries of the bloc, Spain stands out as a prominent investor in Latin
America and the Caribbean in 2023. This country was the second largest
individual investor in the region (11% of the total) and the origin of 52% of
the inflows marked as belonging to the European Union, with a notable share
in Brazil (which accounts for 38% of the total investment from Spain), Mexico
(35%) and Colombia (15%).
The share
of Latin American and Caribbean countries as the source of FDI entering the
region fell by 46% to $10.825 billion (6% of the total). (Our note: it
is interesting to note that much of the FDI from imperialist countries uses
Latin American countries as a springboard for their investments in the region
(see ECLAC report on the same topic from 2023, corresponding to 2022, which
corresponds to the role of agent or intermediary of the imperialism of the big
comprador bourgeoisie)
(...)
Although investments from China and Hong Kong (China) have always
represented a small proportion compared to those from other origins, in
2023 these inflows experienced a significant decline, mainly due to negative
inflows from Hong Kong (China). In 2023, investments from these markets
also represented an almost negligible share of total FDI inflows into the
region (US$790 million, 0.4% of total FDI entering the region from China,
and negative inflows of US$772 million from Hong Kong (China)). Despite
their low contribution in global terms, approximately half of Chinese
investment went to Brazil, while the rest was distributed between Colombia
(19%), Mexico (19%) and Ecuador (9%)2.
To conclude
this part of our introduction to the ECLAC report, we go directly to the
conclusions of Chapter I, with the aim of returning to the rest in later
installments. We do so to make the following clear using the report itself:
“With
regard to the change in the actors involved, the predominance of the old
actors in regional FDI is confirmed, both in terms of their origin (led
by the United States and Europe) and in terms of recipients (Mexico,
Brazil and Chile). The role of FDI from China remains reduced, which
contrasts with the great importance of that country in trade flows.
Meanwhile, when looking at the FDI panorama from project announcements, a
growing weight of projects of Chinese origin is observed.”
Regarding
Peru for 2023, it says:
“FDI
inflows into Peru experienced a notable drop of 65% in 2023 compared to the
previous year and reached a total of 3,918 million dollars, a figure lower than
the average of the last decade. All components of FDI registered a decline,
with negative inflows in intercompany loans and equity contributions. Although
inflows in the area of reinvested earnings were positive, they also suffered
a 42% reduction compared to 2022.
After a
2022 in which there were few notable mergers and acquisitions in Peru, in 2023,
a transaction in the mining and quarrying sector caught the eye. Australian
mining giant Rio Tinto PLC sold 55% of its stake in the La Granja copper
project in Peru to Canadian company First Quantum Minerals Ltd. for US$105
million. Considered one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the
world, the project is expected to receive an additional investment of US$546
million from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. in the joint venture (Rio Tinto,
2023). As for project announcements, in 2023, Peru attracted attention with 47
projects and a total announced investment of 1.773 billion dollars. Two
projects in the transport and storage sector stand out, which together are
estimated to amount to 707 million dollars. One of them is the expansion of the
activities of the Danish company Maersk in the country (Maersk, 2023).”
In the
previous installment of our NOTES AND MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY PERU II, we
have made available to you the speech of Chairman Gonzalo at the Teachers Union
of Huamanga (1974), to clarify a series of confusions that arise from the understanding
of the problem of bureaucratic capitalism, therefore, before continuing with
the topic that concerns us today, from the President's speech, we quote:
“The
problem of bureaucratic capitalism is important because it allows us to
understand what is the dominant path that imperialism imposes in a backward
country, in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country; understanding this
problem we will be equipped to combat the thesis of the capitalist character of
the country and its political derivations.
(…) some
maintain that to raise bureaucratic capitalism in the country is to ignore its
semi-feudal and semi-colonial character; they say that it is covertly
stated that the country is capitalist. This is an error that ignores
the laws of social development of our country and of backward countries;
Because bureaucratic capitalism is precisely the path of imperialism in a
semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Without semi-feudal and
semi-colonial conditions there would be no bureaucratic capitalism. Thus, to
propose the existence of bureaucratic capitalism is to propose as a premise
that the country is semi-feudal and semi-colonial.”
We add, on
the three mountains that exploit and oppress the people, the following:
Who is
plunging the Peruvian people into the greatest crisis in its history? Who are
those responsible? The three mountains that exploit and oppress the people:
imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism; mountains that,
through the organized reactionary violence that is the Peruvian State, a State
supported by its armed forces as a backbone and by bureaucracy, maintain the
prevailing order of oppression and exploitation that still exists; order and
State headed and directed by the big bourgeoisie, mainly the comprador class,
with the support of revisionism and opportunism of all kinds and the protection
of its imperialist master.
Why is it
semi-colonial? Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the modern Peruvian economy was
born subjugated by imperialism, the final phase of capitalism masterfully
characterized as monopolistic, parasitic and dying; imperialism that, while it
allows our political independence, controls the entire Peruvian economic
process, depending on how it serves its interests: our natural resources,
export products, industry, banking and finances; in short, it sucks the blood
of our people, devours our energies as a nation in formation and today it also
exorbitantly squeezes us through foreign debt as it does with other oppressed nations.
Lenin, in
summary, stated that there are many forms of imperialist domination, but two
are typical: colony, that is, the complete domination of the imperialist
country over the oppressed nation or nations, and an intermediate form:
semi-colonial, that is, politically independent but economically subjugated, an
independent Republic that finds itself subjugated in the ideological,
political, economic and military web of imperialism, no matter how much
self-government it has. We reject what revisionism used in the 60s:
"neo-colony", whose essence is to conceive that imperialism applies a
milder form of domination and led them to the characterization of
"dependent country".
Then,
Chairman Gonzalo, applying Chairman Mao's thesis that a period of struggle is
opening against the two superpowers that are fighting to divide up the world
and that the main enemy of the moment must be specified, defines that the main
imperialism that dominates us is Yankee imperialism but affirms that we must
ward off Russian social-imperialism that is penetrating the country more and
more every day, as well as the action of the non-superpower imperialist powers;
thus the proletariat, in leading the democratic revolution, is not tied to any
superpower or imperialist power and maintains its ideological, political and
organizational independence.
Peruvian
society, like other Latin American nations, continues to be a nation in
formation and its semi-colonial character subsists and can be seen in all
fields and in the new conditions.
About the
report: Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean in its
2024 edition
With the
above theoretical basis, we deal with foreign direct investment in our country
in relation to the report already mentioned at the beginning: Foreign Direct
Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean • 2024 by ECLAC, a UN
institution. The report by the imperialist economic institute CEPA, begins by
recognizing the generalized crisis that Latin American countries and therefore
Peru are going through, in this regard it says:
“The report
Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean in its 2024
edition is presented at an extremely challenging time, since Latin America and
the Caribbean is in a development crisis that is expressed in three major
traps: a trap of low capacity to grow, characterized by low, volatile,
exclusionary and unsustainable economic growth, a trap of high inequality, with
low mobility and social cohesion and a trap of low institutional capacity and
ineffective governance” (from the Executive Summary of the Report).
Another
report from the same institute says:
“Over the
course of the last decade, Latin American countries have exhibited a low level
of economic growth, with an average rate of 0.9% in the period 2015-2024, lower
than the 2.0% recorded in the so-called “lost decade” of 1980. Boosting growth
is a primary task for the region to be able to respond to the environmental,
social and labor challenges it faces today (…)”
The same
report concludes:
“The
macroeconomic scenario that the countries of the region face, both externally
and internally, is characterized by low growth in economic activity,
uncertainty and limited space in the area of fiscal and monetary policies”
(Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean • 2024 Executive Summary).
It is
clear, according to this imperialist institute that establishes the guidelines
for economic policy for Latin America and the Caribbean, that they do not even
speak of economic development, but simply of “growth of economic activity” and
they say that this “growth...” in the previous period has been less than that
of the lost decade of the 1980s. Where is the “capitalist” economic development
that the LOD speaks of? It is impossible because what develops, as Chairman
Gonzalo says, on a semi-colonial and semi-feudal basis, is bureaucratic
capitalism as the dominant path that imperialism imposes in our countries.
Note: We
will continue with the subject in subsequent installments.