by Luis Suárez Salazar
Claudio Katz’s focus on “Latin America” omits consideration of the internal and external processes currently under way in the 12 politically independent states and 14 territories of the Caribbean, which do not share the “Latin” culture but are still subject to various forms of colonial domination by the United States, France, Britain, and the Netherlands. Further, the term “dualities” seems inadequate to characterize the complexities that shape the dynamics between revolution, reform, reformism, counterreform, and counterrevolution currently unfolding in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, I agree with many of the perspectives of his essay, especially when he indicates, in conclusion, that the categories “post-liberalism” and “commodities consensus,” while containing parts of “the truth,” do not explain the diversity of the political processes that, from the triumph and consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution to the present, have been occurring in various Latin American and Caribbean countries. I also concur with his assertions that “the action of a government has limited effects on capitalist accumulation” and that “the modification of an economic model and an international position go far beyond presidents and their economic policies,” since governments “emerge from the history and political tradition of each country in correspondence with the needs of their ruling classes and the outcomes of social struggles.”
