La paradiplomacia del noroeste argentino: el caso ZICOSUR

Abstract

The emergence of MERCOSUR generated a great expectation in the political and economic actors of the regions of the countries that make it up. In the year 1997, the provinces of the historic Northwest Argentine Region (NOA: Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and Tucu-man) joined other transboundary regions to constitute a space of political agreement that generates tools to develop public policy strategies and discuss development strategies with the National States. This article briefly covers some milestones that correspond to the search for the development and modernization of the region cited through the most important ex-ample of South American paradiplomacy. The route starts from the very conformation of the National States through the Conquest and Colonization of the Spanish Empire and con-tinues with the path forming part of the new Argentine State and its attempts to re-establish relationships with the sister regions of what was the former Viceroyalty of the Peru. The Reform of the Argentine Constitution in 1994, constituted for this region and for many others, a milestone for the initiation of public policies of international linkage, added to the fundamental change that meant the MERCOSUR process and the agreements reached with Chile and Bolivia, in 1996 and 1997 through the economic complementation agreements. The search for the NOA is illustrative of the need for Latin American countries to resolve the asymmetries between the center and the periphery of the countries.