The world wire services have recently reported that China has agreed to invest about $10 billion over several years to renovate Argentina's dilapidated railway system and build a subway for Rosario—its second-largest city. To expedite the export of beef and wheat to Europe the British had built Argentina's onceextensive rail network a century ago. It was nationalized by Perón in the late forties (when it was already in disrepair and largely obsolete), and dismantled during the neoliberal privatizations of the 1990s. But as agricultural output soars, farmers and the operators of grain elevators—who send more than 80 per cent of grains by costly road transport—have been calling for investment to revive the railways. Mark Twain was right: history may not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. China in recent years has been funding infrastructure projects in emerging economies that bolster relations and further Beijing's own economic goals by helping bring goods and raw materials to market faster. One has a sense of déjà vu.

There is no better time than the present crisis to dust off the old theory of dependency and draw from it those points that remain relevant. Latin Americans need to think about which ties to sever and which to strengthen. The fate of thought is a curious thing—above all in times of crisis. As the current crisis continues along its destructive path, some regions have been more affected then others, oftentimes in defiance of prevailing wisdom. This represents something new.