One Minute to Midnight: The Problems of Order in Latin America

An attempt to describe in broad strokes some of the many problems facing Latin America. While many of these problems are not new, attitudes toward them have changed; the revolution of rising expectations" is very much in evidence. Perhaps the most important complicating factor is the unprecedented rate of population growth, highest in the world, which aggravates the already acute problems of housing, education and urbanization. Economic development is handicapped by inflation, dependence upon single exports, lack of capital, and resistance to basic changes in the social and economic structure. The United States should encourage necessary change and support the development of democratic institutions but without equating the latter with the particular economic and political arrangements peculiar to us.