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Preferential trade agreements ( PTAs) have rapidly proliferated in Latin America since the 2000s; this paper examines the factors which have facilitated or hampered their diffusion. The paper argues that the diffusion of PTAs, and resistance against them, has resulted in two alternative trade-integration models. On one hand, there is diffusion of US-led neoliberal North-South PTAs in Central American and Latin American countries ( LACs) on the Pacific Basin. On the other hand, the reinforcement of post-liberal regionalism led by Brazil and MERCOSUR countries has acted as a firewall of resistance to the diffusion of US-led PTAs and their neoliberal policies. This paper first discusses how the competitive diffusion of US-led PTAs started in Latin America. It then analyzes two intertwined dynamics (international-regional and institutional-domestic) that explain why US-led PTAs have proliferated in the region. The third section explores MERCOSUR's reactions to the US competitive PTA diffusion and also how Brazilian leadership has evolved in the South American subregion to encircle US diffusion of PTAs, leading to an outcome of two different patterns of integration in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focussing primarily on a public HIV/AIDS prevention clinic, this article considers the changing relationship between sex workers and the Costa Rican state, demonstrating that the state's approach to policing the sex industry has been defined by a shift from collective repression to neoliberal individualism. Instead of the indiscriminate sanitary raids and mass incarceration of the past, waiting for health care has come to play a central role in how sex workers interact with the neoliberal state. Significantly, this move towards making sex workers into individuals accountable for their own health has included undocumented migrants. However, the individualising effect of neoliberal state formations has occurred specifically within the public health sector, as the state does make an important distinction between sex workers in its use of immigration raids at San José's most notorious sex tourism business. Neoliberal rationalities of sexual governance ultimately separate and differentiate, and this article demonstrates the ways in which neoliberal state power operates both through the mundaneness of waiting at the HIV/AIDS prevention clinic and through the spectacle of immigration raids. Thinking about how the Costa Rican state has approached the control of sex work demonstrates the inconsistencies and contradictions of neoliberal governance, and the selectivity of neoliberal state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the transnational security consultancy industry and its delivery of elite rescue services across the globe's most hostile regions. It charts the evolution of leading firms through successive strategic alliances, from initial collaborations with the kidnap and ransom insurance sector in Latin America to more recent ventures with international providers of emergency medical assistance. While the accumulated rescue toolkit of these guardians of global mobility is primarily targeted toward protecting those affluent travelers who venture into the global south, it is increasingly also filtering back up into the global north, most specifically into the American homeland by a process of 'neo-liberal (re)turn.' Acknowledging recent cross-disciplinary discourse on the securitized containment of 'deviant' travel, increased research attention is drawn to the deployment of sophisticated security solutions and their facilitation of the globetrotting elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social investment perspective is replacing standard neoliberalism in Latin America as well as Europe. With it come ideas about social citizenship that reconfigure the citizenship regimes of the three regions. The responsibility mix is equilibrated to give a greater role for the state, although as investor rather than spender; access to citizenship rights shifts to incorporate the excluded and marginalized; and governance practices alter to emphasize decentralization to the local and the community. The main idea of the social investment perspective is that the future must be assured by investing in children and ending the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. With this set of child-centered policy ideas, the equality claims of adult women and attention to their needs are sidelined in favor of those of children, including girls. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A central component of neoliberal multiculturalism in contemporary Latin America is an increase in indigenous individuals who work for the state, implementing indigenous policy at the municipal, regional and national levels. We explore the consequences of the inclusion of these individuals by analyzing the experiences of Mapuche state workers in Chile. We find that Mapuche workers possess a hybrid subjectivity that leads them to engage in both resistance and consent in their daily work lives. They use state resources strategically for what they feel is movement gain, and are often reflexive about the possibilities of cooptation. Nevertheless, they are often party to actions that are detrimental to the movement. The contradictions in Mapuche workers' actions indicate that the results of neoliberal multiculturalism may be more mixed than many scholars acknowledge. Our findings serve as a corrective on perspectives that attempt to understand neoliberal and multicultural policies without analyzing the roles of the individuals who occupy the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of credit rating agencies (CRAs) in rating sovereign bonds has grown as developing countries increasingly issue bonds to attract foreign capital. Although in their methodologies CRAs claim that the initiation of neoliberal reforms influences bond ratings, given the secrecy surrounding ratings, it is unclear what impact reforms actually have on CRAs. Controlling for macroeconomic and political determinants, we use statistical analyses, as well as recent qualitative evidence, for some 16 Latin American countries from 1992 to 2003 to assess the effects of economic reforms on CRA decisions. We find that among neoliberal policies only trade liberalization positively and consistently impacts bond ratings. The relative ease of implementation along with the credible commitment to maintain trade policies help explain higher bond ratings. The results also show that inflation and bond defaults negatively affect CRA assessments. The findings provide reasons for optimism. Many economic policies, often politically difficult to implement, do not lead to higher ratings. Others that are relatively easy to implement do. Policy makers in Latin American countries have more options to lessen political tensions, lower the cost of capital, and increase its availability for investment and growth than previously predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]