ABC Countries

The ABC countries are Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The name was in use during the period preceding World War I.

Following the settlement of boundary disputes between Argentina and Chile, these nations, along with Brazil, as the region's dominant economic and cultural powers, sought to establish a political alliance to mediate regional and hemispheric disputes. This effort was solidified with the so-called ABC Treaty of 1915, which followed the successful arbitration of a conflict between the United States and Mexico.

The ABC countries further advanced their role in inter-American diplomacy by mediating disputes between Colombia and Peru and, unsuccessfully, between Paraguay and Bolivia. The coalition dissolved in 1917 as a result of Brazil's entry into the Allied effort against Germany. While the direct results of the ABC Treaty were short-lived, the alliance among its three nations demonstrated their international aspirations as well as the potential for inter-American diplomacy.

During the mid 1970s, the links between the governments of the three countries had a sinister profile. The right-wing military dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil and Chile, among other countries, joined together under the national security doctrine paradigm in the Operation Condor (officially established in 1975), with the purpose of eliminating the "leftist subversion" by means of coordination of state-led terrorism and intelligence operations.

The spirit of the age changed meaningfully with the return to democracy during the 1980s. In 1985 presidents Sarney of Brazil and Alfonsin of Argentina issued the Declaracion de Iguazu, and in 1988 signed the Tratado de Integracion, Cooperacion y Desarrollo (integration, cooperation, and development treaty). In 1991 Argentina and Brazil, with Paraguay and Uruguay, signed the Asunción Treaty, which gave birth to Mercosur (the Southern Common Market), and in 1996 Chile entered the union as an associate member. After a long period of political instability in the region, the political and economic bonds among the three ABC countries had been strengthened, and treaties established to reinforce the mechanisms of cooperation on regional security and democracy.

See alsoAlfonsín, Raúl Ricardo; Mercosur; Sarney, José.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bouzas, Roberto and Hernán Soltz. "Institutions and Regional Integration: The Case of Mercosur." Net Americas, 2001. Available from http://netamericas.net/Researchpapers/Documents/Bouzas/Bouzas1.pdf.

Dozer, Donald M. Latin America: An Interpretive History, rev. ed. Tempe: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State University, 1979.

                                          John Dudley
                                      Vicente Palermo