The Northern Andes and Caribbean Coast of South America

The five countries in the northernmost part of South America share a Caribbean coastline and extend south into a remote interior of wide river basins and humid uplands (Figure 3.34). The Guianas resemble Caribbean countries in that they were once traditional plantation colonies worked by slaves and indentured labor, and today their multicultural societies are made up of descendants of African, East Indian, Pakistani, Southeast Asian, Dutch, French, and English settlers. Venezuela and Colombia share a Spanish colonial past; their populations are largely mestizo, but there is also a small upper class of primarily European heritage and a small population of African derivation in the western and Caribbean lowlands. In all the countries of this subregion, small indigenous populations survive, mainly in the interior lowland Orinoco and Amazon basins, where they hunt, gather, and grow subsistence crops.

FIGURE 3.34 Northern Andes and the Caribbean coast. (A) An aerial view of Caracas, Venezuela, showing slums on the left and high-rise apartments on the right. 3.34a Courtesy Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

The Guianas

To the north of Brazil lie three small countries known collectively as the Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Guyana gained independence from Britain in 1966 and Suriname from the Netherlands in 1975. French Guiana, on the other hand, is not independent; it is still considered part of France. Today, the common colonial heritage of these three countries remains visible in both their economies and culture. Sugar, rice, and banana plantations established by the Europeans in the coastal areas continue to be economically important, but endeavors related to logging and the mining of gold, diamonds, and bauxite in the resource-rich highlands are now the leading economic activities.

The population descends mainly from laborers who once worked the plantations. These laborers formed two major cultural groups: Africans, brought in as slaves from 1620 to the early 1800s, and South and Southeast Asians, brought in as indentured servants after the abolition of slavery. The descendants of Asian indentured servants are mostly Hindus and Muslims. Many of them became small-plot rice farmers or owners of small businesses. Those of African descent are Christian; they are both agricultural and urban workers. Politics in the Guianas is complicated by the social and cultural differences between citizens of Asian and African descent. These differences have also slowed economic and human development to the point that these three countries lag a bit behind several Caribbean island countries that have similar colonial histories, such as Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

Venezuela

Venezuela has long had the potential to become one of the wealthier countries in South America, primarily because it holds large oil deposits and is an active member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Oil has been the backbone of the country’s economy since the mid-twentieth century. Venezuela not only is among the top suppliers of oil to the United States, but also supplies oil to Cuba, Canada, Central and South America, and China, and is seeking agreements with Japan and Europe. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 illustrates how geopolitics can link distant regions: Venezuelans feared that the invasion would result in the takeover of Iraqi oil management by the United States and Britain. This could have caused Venezuela to lose market share in the United States, and the result in Venezuela, already economically strapped, could have been civil disorder. That scenario did not materialize, however. Instead, a drawn-out war in Iraq allowed Venezuela to gain power globally as oil prices rose sharply.

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Although Venezuela’s oil resource was nationalized in the 1970s, with the idea that the profits would fund public programs to help the poor majority, pre-Chávez market-oriented governments relaxed this policy, and for a while foreign firms such as Chevron exercised considerable control over production. As a result, oil profits stayed with the elite and the small middle class. By the late 1990s, 63 percent of the country’s wealth was controlled by 10 percent of the population, mainly those of European descent, leaving those of mixed native and African descent at the bottom of the income pyramid. Taxes on the wealthy and on foreign investors were kept low, so oil and other assets did not generate enough government revenue to fund badly needed improvements in education, health care, transportation, and communications. This failure to invest in its own people meant Venezuela did not build a base for general economic and social advancement. Today the landscape reflects this failure: aerial views of the capital city of Caracas show rows of high-rise buildings and modern freeways (see Figure 3.34A), but a closer look reveals wide expanses of poor shantytowns (discussed) with millions of inhabitants living in deep poverty and lacking access to clean drinking water, sanitation, and adequate education and transportation.

The global economic downturn had a noticeable effect in Venezuela primarily because the resultant fall in oil prices severely curtailed personal and national income and, at least temporarily, halted Venezuela’s expanding role in Middle and South American geopolitics. Oil wealth had positioned Venezuela to invest in its own infrastructure and to address both the longunmet needs of its giant underclass and to push for a greater regional leadership role.

Colombia

A civil war in Colombia that has gone on for more than 10 years has produced so many refugees that Colombia has one of the highest totals of internally displaced people in the world. The current wave of violence arises out of inequalities in the country’s social order. Although Colombia is today the world’s second-largest exporter of coffee and a major exporter of oil and coal, a small proportion of the population, mostly of European descent, has monopolized most of the income by keeping wages low and resisting paying taxes. In addition, the wealthy have pushed back against efforts to redistribute some of their extensive landholdings to landless rural folk. On one side of the civil war are revolutionary guerrilla bands who want government-sponsored reforms for the poor—a group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) controls a large part of the Colombian interior south of Bogotá. On the other side are the private armies of the wealthy, who have little faith in the will and ability of the ill-equipped Colombian military to defeat the guerrillas.

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The hostilities are complicated by the participation of all the warring parties in the cocaine trade. This trade, as we have seen, is derived from the leaves of the ancient Andean coca plant, traditionally chewed as a fatigue and hunger suppressant, but now processed into the much stronger cocaine and sold internationally (see Figure 3.19). Although coca growers make a somewhat better income from coca than they would from other crops, competing drug-smuggling rings reap most of the profits, intimidating and murdering Colombian government officials who try to reduce or eradicate the drug trade.

Per capita drug use by Colombians is quite low (about one-quarter of the U.S. rate), and there are signs that in-country drug-related violence is beginning to decrease. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a nonprofit research organization, suggests the low rate of drug use is related to the strong family ties of most Colombian youth and to local community initiatives such as the No Mas (No More) movement, a civic effort to stop the drug trade violence. Millions have demonstrated against the drug cartels and some success in abating the violence has come from rehabilitating drug trade operatives. There are many efforts to find sources of income for rural people other than coca; in the mountains of southwestern Colombia, 1200 farm families have formed a cooperative that produces a line of 20 products—preserved fruits, sauces, and candies—marketed especially to Hispanics in North America and Europe. The cooperative also focuses on increasing child and adult education and on enhancing marketable skills. Elsewhere in the country, rural people working with the food scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture have developed new varieties of corn that will be more productive and nutritious.

Despite all the news about drug violence, Colombia has maintained a vibrant tourist economy. Cartagena, for example, is known for its elegant colonial buildings, beautiful beaches, and lively entertainments for affluent and budget-minded tourists alike (Figure 3.35).

FIGURE 3.35 Tourist hotels on the water in Cartagena, Colombia. High-rise hotels for tourists and apartment buildings for wealthy Colombians line the beach in Cartagena.
Courtesy Jane Sweeney/AWL Images/Getty Images

THINGS TO REMEMBER

  • All five countries of the Northern Andes and Caribbean Coast depend on extractive industries—logging and mining, petroleum products, and/or drugs—as major income sources.
  • The five countries of this subregion have quite different political systems, with varying outcomes for civil society.
  • A civil war in Colombia that has gone on for more than 10 years has produced so many refugees that Colombia has one of the highest totals of internally displaced people in the world.