Peru Moves onto the Iron and Steel Map of the Western Hemisphere

In: Journal of Inter-American Studies, Band 1, Heft 3, S. 377-386

Abstract

On April 21, 1958, Peru joined Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to bring to five the number of Latin American nations possessing integrated steel mills. Whether these countries should engage in heavy industry is beside the point; they are determined to make iron and steel, for they fervently believe that an iron and steel industry is the inevitable harbinger of progress. There is simultaneously a belief that the export of raw materials and the import of manufactured goods implies "colonial" status. Sensitive national pride rebels against the thought that raw materials producers are "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the industriallyadvanced countires.