Brazil And The Caribbean In A Changing Regional Environment: Challenges and Prospects

• Author: Dr. Mark Kirton
• Pages: 89-101

89

Brazil And The Caribbean In A Changing Regional Environment

BRAZIL AND THE CARIBBEAN IN A

CHANGING REGIONAL

ENVIRONMENT: Challenges And Prospects*

Dr. Mark Kirton

55

55

5

It has been argued that traditionally, Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

states have not enjoyed strong collaborative linkages with Latin American

countries in general, and with Brazil in particular. Several reasons have

been advanced, including the view that the impact of colonial bilateralism,

which encompassed cultural, political, economic and social relations,

constrained the emergence of strong relations between the English-speaking

Caribbean states and their Spanish and Portuguese-speaking neighbours.

Further, arguments such as linguistic differences, levels of development,

differences in physical and population size, natural resource endowments

and the presence and persistence of strong external cultural influences have

also been advanced. As Mills and Lewis (1982) have observed,

The long political and economic relationships of the English-speaking

Caribbean countries with Europe, the extreme dependence of the

countries on these relationships for their viability, and the cultural

and educational impact of the relationship, have not disposed the

people of these countries to think of themselves as being part of the

American Continental Zone.

Further, the view has been advanced (Gill, 1995) that a Caribbean

perception of itself as a geopolitical unit was not conceivable in an era when

the Spanish, British, French and Dutch colonisers introduced a high level of

political and economic fragmentation which had the effect of turning the

Caribbean away from itself and the Americas toward the European continent.