‘Industrialisation’: the South’s strategic path towards a collective way out of global chaos

In a world reeling from the din of wars and neo-imperialism, the horror of genocide, the inevitability of climate catastrophe and the realisation that chaos is taking on a systemic dimension in the global economy and politics, cooperation and solidarity between countries and peoples are not an idealistic aspiration, but a radical necessity for survival.

Women and men leaders, social and political activists, researchers and academics from various regions and countries of Latin America and Brazil, gathered in Rio de Janeiro on 7 and 8 May 2026 at the Seminar “Reindustrialisation: productive integration as a Latin American response to global fragmentation”, we issue an urgent call to the countries of the region and the Global South to redouble their efforts towards political, economic and social cooperation and integration, in order to develop collective development strategies across all these dimensions that will enable us to minimise the impacts of global crises and advance along a sovereign path that is socially just, economically viable and ecologically sustainable for all our peoples.

We believe that objective data and pragmatic options are at hand that can pave the way for this joint endeavour, and that fair and sustainable industrialisation for people and the planet, which brings together various dimensions, is key to building collective solutions led by our public institutions.

Energy vector: the region is rich in both traditional and new energy sources. We have oil and gas to facilitate the transition towards a fossil-fuel-free region; we have vast renewable sources (sun, wind, biomass and water), and the minerals necessary to ensure the transmission and storage of these energies. Our governments’ policies must focus on energy cooperation to: develop the regional infrastructure for the generation, storage and transmission of renewable energy; ensure the region’s capacity to extract and refine oil and gas with the least possible impact; and actively participate in the discussion on the future of fossil fuels. To this end, it is essential to promote an energy transition based on renewable energy, ensuring the region’s green industrialisation. The region needs more energy to achieve energy sovereignty and to ensure social justice in energy matters.

Technology and labour: linked to the energy transition, but not limited to it, investing in technological development and establishing technical cooperation with the sharing of industrial property rights with advanced partners in various areas of the Global South; whilst sharing those technologies in the fields of energy, health, agriculture and livestock, agroecology, finance, software, bioengineering, amongst others, in a horizontal yet sovereign manner. The process of regional integration and technological transition, from the perspective of green re-industrialisation, must also place labour at the centre as a strategic value. Productive integration must formulate policies and programmes aimed at generating decent work that contributes to reducing social inequalities in the region. 

Food vector: in addition to ensuring food sovereignty for the entire Latin American region – partner countries in the South – through technological cooperation for the production of healthy food that guarantees environmental sustainability, the solidarity-based and organised distribution of surpluses is also central to contributing to the food security of countries that may find themselves in a food crisis. We know that much of this production of healthy and diverse food is driven by family farming and agroecology, and it is therefore essential to strengthen these sectors. Beyond the ‘trap’ of primary production, food must form part of a solidarity-based ecosystem geared towards partner countries, involving exchange and cooperation mechanisms that break this trap, which is sustained solely by the logic of competition promoted by neoliberal ideology and which has driven asymmetric and neocolonial globalisation. 

Infrastructure vector: infrastructure for productive integration – that is, for the energy transition, and for technological, environmental, care and food cooperation – is infrastructure that combines the physical transport of people and goods; the generation, transmission and storage of energy and information/data; whilst ensuring physical and digital sovereignty through the protection of our strategic resources and biomes, and the security and peace of our diverse societies, people and communities.

Finance vector: The limited mobilisation of international financial resources for productive sectors in the region reflects a well-known structural problem: the subordinate position of countries and their currencies within the international financial architecture. However, Latin America has at least 110 Development Finance Institutions at regional, national or sub-national level, around 20 sovereign wealth funds, as well as numerous other multilateral institutions. Together, these institutions manage between US$700 billion and US$800 billion in assets and possess strong catalytic potential. However, there is a lack of coordination around a regional agenda. Progress must be made in seeking synergies and exploring resources and financing mechanisms that promote the development of sustainable regional value chains. Furthermore, regional cooperation within the ALAC and broader cooperation across the Global South is essential to secure, within the United Nations, a Convention on International Tax Cooperation and another on Sovereign Debt – both of which are fundamental to expanding the fiscal space required for green and sustainable industrialisation.

Health vector: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exposed the health vulnerability of Latin America and the countries of the Global South in the face of external dependence on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), medicines, vaccines, equipment and other strategic health technologies. In a region that has built fundamental systems such as Brazil’s Unified Health System, strengthening regional capacity for public and private production guided by social interests is a matter of sovereignty, security and the defence of life. Productive and technological cooperation in health between the countries of the region must prioritise the shared development of scientific and industrial capacities, the regional production of APIs, medicines, vaccines and essential technologies, the exchange of knowledge, and the overcoming of monopolistic barriers that limit access and deepen dependence. Health must be understood not as a commodity, but as a cornerstone of development, regional integration and social justice.

In conclusion

Effective cooperation between our countries, driven by industrialisation, is not merely a reactive – or defensive – strategy; it is a path towards collective cultural recovery of the productive horizon, not as a ‘every man for himself’ gamble on the betting market or the financial adventures of neo-individual investors, but as a communal sense of endeavour in which, when we all win, we all win. Using all forms of communication to construct our own vision of history is the perfect antidote to the short-sighted and irrational logic of ‘hatred’ from which the right wing, neo-fascism and imperialism have drawn sustenance to divide our societies and the region.

Industrialisation, as part of the productive integration of the region and the countries of the Global South, is our best chance to escape poverty, reduce the use of fossil fuels in trade systems, break with the colonial legacy and rebuild the lost sense of community, defeating the right-wing in the process.

Sovereign cooperation and integration cannot be reduced to the trade proposed by ‘open regionalism’ and neoliberal globalisation; they must use trade as a tool rather than an obstacle to development for a just transition, allowing for the use of policies such as public procurement and local content requirements, which are vital for industrial development. At the same time, together with some countries in the region, we consider it urgent to abandon the ISDS (dispute settlement) mechanisms imposed by the free trade and investment agreements signed by many countries in the region.

We call on our governments, and in particular those of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and others who wish to walk the path alongside their peoples, to convene a strategic dialogue along these lines, following the example of the ‘Uruguay South Initiative’ or the ‘Economy for Life’ initiative, which, by advancing efforts such as CELAC and the Brasilia Consensus, are working to build joint strategies and policies. Now is the time.