TORONTO, February 4, 2002 -- The question of whether Canada can have an independent foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere given increased economic and military integration with the United States post September 11 will be discussed at York University during a conference on "Latin America and the Caribbean after September 11: Poverty, Crisis, and Insecurity", to be held Friday, Feb. 8.
Organized by the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), the conference will feature keynote speaker Alejandro Bendaña, a noted Nicaraguan intellectual and social activist. He will discuss how the events of September 11 have strengthened those forces creating poverty, crisis, and insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how citizens and social movements in the region are responding to this new challenge.
According to Ricardo Grinspun, a CERLAC Fellow, "the mainstream media proclaimed after the horrific events of September 11 that ‘everything has changed.’ But from the vantage point of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, many things remain the same, including persistent poverty, financial crises, and expanding conflict zones."
"Some things do seem to have changed," adds Viviana Patroni, director of CERLAC. "The ‘war on terrorism,’ following in the footsteps of the ‘war on drugs,’ provides further opportunity for the strengthening of authoritarian forces and the aggressive pursuit of US interests in the region, while regional economies are ‘liberalized’ to better respond to the needs of transnational capital."
Presenters at the conference will also discuss the role of the United States; the economic crisis in Argentina; the expanding conflict in Colombia; war, globalization and integration; as well as poverty and inequality in the hemisphere. They include: Greg Albo (Political Science, York), Ricardo Grinspun (CERLAC and Economics, York), Carlos Larrea (FLACSO-Quito, Ecuador, and visiting fellow, Harvard University), Viviana Patroni (CERLAC and Division of Social Science, York), and Kathy Price (Kairos – Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, Toronto).
The conference, co-sponsored by York International, Founders College and others as part of International Development Week at York, will take place 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Founders Senior Common Room, 305 Founders College, York University, 4700 Keele St. Complete program details are available online: www.yorku.ca/cerlac/EVENTS.
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For further information, please contact:
| Marshall Beck | Ken Turriff |
| CERLAC | Media Relations |
| York University | York University |
| 416-736-5237 | 416-736-2100, ext. 22086 |
| mbeck@yorku.ca | kturriff@yorku.ca |
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