Título en español.

Abstract

The new global economic order has fostered a process of economic restructuring in the Caribbean shifting production from export manufacturing (maquiladoras) to tourism and entertainment. The comparative advantages of the Caribbean are low cost and natural resources. This restructuring process redefines but does not alter structurally the core-periphery relation. The Caribbean is connected to transnational circuits of production characterized by a value chain in which the larger share of the profits produced by tourism is appropriated by transnational companies. The transnational circuit is intersected by a domestic or peripheral circuit, characterized by residual or marginal activities concentrated in the "sin industries": prostitution, drugs, contraband, human trade, money laundering and gambling.