Washington Consensus
mechanism
The same economic outcomes once imposed by death squads were later achieved just by rewriting a country's financial rules.
Who they are
The Washington Consensus, the 1990s package of free-market reforms (privatization, deregulation, opening up trade).
What they do
The engine reads it as a policy tool that achieved by economics what earlier military repression achieved by force.
How it works
By pushing privatization and deregulation it hit the same structural targets as Cold War death-squad campaigns like Operation Condor - full adoption drove Argentina into its 2001 default, and NAFTA gutted Mexico's small farmers.
Why it matters
Its function is to lock economic policy away from voters' reach, so wealth keeps being extracted no matter who wins elections.
The engine's record — word for word
1990s neoliberal reform package: privatization, deregulation, trade liberalization. Achieved same structural goals as Operation Condor through macroeconomic policy instead of death squads. Argentina full implementation led to 2001 sovereign default. Mexico NAFTA decimated subsistence agriculture. Function: decouple macroeconomic policy from democratic reach, ensuring extraction continues regardless of government.
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