Canje de deuda por naturaleza: la necesidad de una nueva agenda

Abstract

During the 70s Latin American countries accumulated a heavy debt burden. The external crisis bursting forth in the early 80s fit almost every country in the region, and it was soon widely felt in financial circles that the debt had actually become unpayable. This realisation led to the emergence of a small informal secondary market through which banking firms attempted to sell or exchange promissory notes. The value of the debt in the secondary market fell at the same time as the total amount of transactions increased. Governments gradually realise that they could indirectly repurchase their own debt by means of local currency assets through conversion projects with foreign exchange owners. Together with a growing world interest in environmental protection, this process gave rise to the so-called "exchange of debt for nature'. The aim of this paper is to examine the background of this kind of exchange and to generally assess its impact on the development of the region, including some reflections on the costs and benefits these transactions may have for every party involved. -from English summary