e] the developing world's largest debtor." By 1989, external debt servicing stood at 40 percent of the value of the region's exports. Mexico and Argentina, as well as others in the region, became international economic basket cases, necessitating very large international debt resettlements, bailouts by private banks in the developed world and emergency assistance from its governments and international lending agencies, such as IMF and the World Bank. The flight of indigenous capital from, and the reluctance of foreign investors to invest in, the principal debt defaulting nations, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, became a major problem.
Re-Orientation of Latin America's International Trade
Under prodding from IMF and on their own initiative, a number of Latin American countries have revamped their domestic economies and their approach to international trade since the early 1980s. Chile under dictator Augosto Pinochet took the lead, administering 'shock therapy' in the late 1970s. Some countries, however, remain hopelessly mired in
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