Natural resources and primary sector-dependent territories in Latin America

ABSTRACT A renewed discussion about the problems associated with the productive and commercial specialization of Latin American countries in the export of commodities (agricultural, mining and energy) and raw materials to developed countries is important due to certain characteristics of the contemporary era, namely: the productive offshoring of large industrial corporations and the associated logic of ‘butterfly capital’; the rise and crisis in particular of financialized capitalism; the scientific–technological revolution based on information and communications technologies; the leadership of new players in world trade with the expansion of demand from Asian countries and particularly from China; and the rise in commodity prices.