Contenu du sommaire : Regards sur l'Amérique latine.

On Latin America, Mirror of the World-Wide Economy. It is with the great discoveries, in particular that of the American New World, that the economic activities of humanity entered into the world-wide economy, in a play of increasing interactions and flux that spread over the entire planet. Latin America is a privileged geographic area of observation, at the same time mirror and model of the multiple forms of internationaliza¬ tion that came into being over the course of a long and complex historical process.

From Enclosure to Economic Globalization : A Risky Developmental Opportunity for Bolivia. To break out of an exterior as well as an interior enclave , Bolivia in 1890 began developing a rail link between the Altiplano and the Pacific ports, in order to make profitable its silver mines and, after 1900, the tin mines that it had opened. But this railroad line, because of the low price imports that it carried, ruined the local economy which was based on agriculture. The monopoly that the rail¬ road enjoyed also dissuaded the Government from building an inter-regional road net¬ work that would have allowed the development of the vast Eastern provinces. In 1950, Bolivia was still a country without roads, while its obsolete railroad network had entered a recessionary period. Thus, a great effort became indispensable to build an adequate road system for the active central part of the country, in order to open com¬ munications with its neighbors and allow the eastern part of the nation to develop. Since 1990, the key position of the country has been developed because of the eco- nomic growth of all its neighbors. With economic globilization, the Southern part of Bolivia, where a new gas pipeline was laid that supplies Brazil, has been benefitting from the creation of an interoceanic corridor that allows heavy traffic between Brazil and the Pacific Coast. Since 1950, however, the creation of the Santa Cruz-Cochabamba-La Paz axis has been attracting migrant population groups that are obtaining first call on the region \ s activities and future developmental projects, whereas the Altiplano is experiencing an economic crisis. As a consequence, future projects, or those already in progress, can only worsen this new spatial and socio-economic imbalance if the Government does not intervene by implementing a policy of economic planification.

Mythical Mountains : Mounts Tumac-Humac. The Guiana-Brazilian frontier is situated on an old crystalline platform in the Mitaraka Range that we know today only here and them reaches an altitude of 850 meters. Under these conditions, how did the myth of Tumac-Humac come into existence and how has it managed to continue existing today, generating illusions and dramas ? The autor, a well-informed specialist of the region, is inclined to think that this has come about because of maps that have been poorly interpreted, and that it has been kept alive by the stories of travelers who totally lacked a scientific approach to such problems. The role of the scandal press as well as tourist publicity have no doubt also played a part in propagating the myth. But, obviously, in the land of El Dorado everything becomes possible.