LATIN AMERICA SPECIAL — Different look to today’s Latin

Times have changed in Central and South America, where the winds of economic reform seem to have found a favorable reception. The 1990s have ushered in a period of economic revival for Latin America.

On the political side, governments still come and go, but the military takeovers often associated with Latin American politics are less a factor today than 10 or 20 years ago.

In Brazil, for example, democratically elected Fernando Collor de Mello was forced out of the president’s office last December on corruption charges and replaced by Itamar Franco.

The new Brazilian president introduced an economic program less intent on fighting inflation, and state spending is more likely to rise than decrease. (The trend of late by governments elsewhere in Latin America has been one of cutting state spending, freeing trade and controlling inflation.) In English-speaking Guyana, in an election last October hailed as the first fair vote in that country in decades, Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party defeated Desmond Hoyte’s People’s National Congress. A dentist by training and a fervent Marxist, Jagan is reported to have softened his political views and appears willing to accept capitalistic reforms brought in by the Hoyte government.

The new government of Sixto Duran Ballen in oil-producing Ecuador says it will encourage foreign firms to explore for crude oil and allow them to bid for sectors of the country’s state-owned petroleum company.

Bolivians are scheduled to go to the polls in May. Some analysts think both the country and the nation’s mining sector will come in for some rough sailing because of the political turmoil that Bolivian elections tend to generate.

The capture last summer of Peruvian revolutionist Abimael Guzman Reynoso came swiftly; the Shining Path leader, a former university professor, was trapped by an anti-terrorist force after more than 13 years of being on the run. Two coup attempts in Venezuela in 1992 failed.

President Carlos Andres Perez, described as a free-market reformist, is scheduled to go to the polls this December.

A national state of emergency was declared last November in Colombia by President Cesar Gaviria following bomb explosions and attacks by leftist rebels. The state of emergency was to be in force for 90 days. In Paraguay, an election is set for this spring. The current president, Andres Rodrigues, a former army general, came to power in free elections after leading a successful coup in 1989.

The Caribbean country of Haiti continues to face sanctions stemming from a coup in September, 1991, in which Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed as president. The Organization of American States imposed the embargo, but has not enforced it to its full extent.

Meanwhile, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. continue to piece together a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which will create a huge economic trading bloc. Some observers are already looking ahead to NAFTA’s expansion and the possible inclusion of Latin American countries such as Chile in the free-trade pact.