1. Economic and Political Characteristics
Latin America
Economic and Political Characteristics

2. Major issue: Deforestation
Amazon being cut down at an alarming rate

3. Original Forest Cover
Current Forest Cover
Future Forest Cover

5. A cause of deforestation: Slash and burn agriculture
Cutting down and burning the area
Soil is not very fertile and can only farm a couple of years

6. Drugs Major issue for the region Cause corruption Major health issues

7. *cocaine from Colombia
*Drug trade routes
*cocaine from Colombia

8. Diverse Range of Mineral Resources in the Andes
Chile has copper
Venezuela and Brazil have iron ore

9. Oil Drilling is significant in Mexico, Venezuela, and Ecuador
Large oil reserves are Nationalized - PEMEX

10. The Panama Canal
Construction began in 1904 and was finished in 1914
The canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans enabling ships to pass through the canal instead of having to sail all the way around South America.
The canal was owned by the United States, but ownership of the canal passed back to Panama in 1999.

12. Diverse Economies:
Hacienda-large farm or ranch estate in LA -rich families
Cash crops – those produced to sell on market
Examples??? Legal & illegal
Subsistence farming- farming just enough for your family dominates the economies- poor families

13. Plantation Agriculture
Large companies own the land and have huge farms
Grow cash crops to be sold for a profit

14. Llanos and Pampas
Cattle raised
Have gauchos-cowboys

15. Ejido In Mexico Large communally owned farms
Operated by community residents

17. Terraced farming in the Andes Mountains is vital.

18. Mexico is a member of NAFTA-North
America Free Trade Agreement and was
created in 1989 to reduce trade barriers

19. Mexico Major economic growth from NAFTA
Maquiladoras – border factories import raw materials, export finished products
Though recent years have lost some to Asia (China)

20. Wide range of income
Suffer from income disparity….only a few are wealthy and many are poor

21. Migration
Migrating North: Many people in Latin America migrate in search of a better life. Immigrants from L. America live in every US state,
Push Factors: Things that make people want to leave a country.
Civil War
Lack of Economic Opportunity
Personal and Religious Persecution
Lack of Political Freedom
Pull Factors: Things that make people want to enter a country.
Peace
Economic Opportunity
Educational Opportunity
Freedom
Family Ties

22. Urban Challenges
Rapid urbanization often exceeds the capacity of cities to provide services.
People arrive and find there are not the jobs and housing that they hoped for.
Shantytowns often develop outside of major cities.
These poor areas lack water and sanitation.

23. Squatter City in Brazil

24. Overcrowding in Sao Paolo, Brazil

25. Squatter Settlements in Major Latin American Cities

26. Shantytown=favelas

27. Mexico City has enormous pollution problem:
Layer of smoke and fog over city called smog
One of the most polluted cities in the world