Among the many causes that bring the most extreme poverty to a great portion of the world, foreign debt is the most blood-draining and unjust. I am not going to enter the old polemic of placing the blame on developing countries, because I understand that the problem requires solutions and not scapegoats. There was a time when daring to denounce unjust situations had value because speaking cost lives.

But now we know the reality to a certain extent, and therefore, we are losing precious time, which we must invest in improving the world. A troubling problem exists: half of the world is not able to escape from an abominable situation and the other half is not helping it.

The debts acquired by countries are characterized by irresponsibility, both by the creditors, whose objective has been to obtain substantial benefits through certain inflexible loan conditions, as well by debtors, who utilize the obtained funds to buy armaments, or for private projects, which enrich a narrow group of privileged people, instead of using them for progress.

Some debts have been contracted in order to offset the previous ones, and this becomes a never-ending story. While the debtor countries try to pay back their debts, or attempt to, they frequently fail on their economic commitments. They are sanctioned and compelled by some institutions to adopt certain economic policies that do not benefit the situation of those who really need the aid and that has never been loaned to them.

Those countries are pressed to obtain currencies destined to pay the service of the debt and to buy essential products through importation. If a country finds itself helpless to pay their debts (like what happened in Mexico in 1982, an event that affected all the international community), it does not have the possibility of calling a judge to establish some compromise conditions which take into account these countries’ lack of resources.

In the international arena are creditors and not a tribunal, who decide whether or not they will ask the debtor country to pay its debt. Therefore, the first responsibility resides in the debtor. The first step in eradicating this terrible wickedness is to pardon the debt and to change the terms of the relationship between creditors and debtors.

If this is accomplished, the debtor countries will have a future. With a little bit of good foresight, they could take positive steps that would permit them to acquire a better economy. It would benefit those countries as well as developing countries. The widening gap that exists between the North and the South of this planet is not sustainable, because it will have grave consequences, although we have not glimpsed them yet.

The indebtedness of the poor countries nourishes a reality of death and suffering of populaces and persons who are utilized like the collateral for deals they had never signed. In my opinion, to find the solution, we must avoid the fruitless search for the guilty parties.

Instead, we must accept our responsibility on this earth, being conscious of our capacity to influence our governments, promoting coordinated action campaigns dedicated to the pardoning of debt, maintaining criteria for responsible consumption of world resources, rejecting dubious offers which could conceal conditions that exploit labor or abuse the environment, acquiring the products of fair commerce, and participating as much as possible in all acts of justice.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that the State acquires its force when all the individuals that form it yield their particular violence to the State. Let us instead yield to our justice.

Translated by Mitchell Cowen Verter

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