Primacy is not simply a matter of absolute size, nor is large size a marker of primacy. In effect, primacy is a relative condition that holds within a national urban system. Primacy is clearly fed by urban population growth, a process that is expected to continue.

As in the developed countries, one component of urban growth in those Latin American countries characterized by primacy is the growing suburbanization of growing sectors of the population.

An interesting emerging trend is the fact that in the 1980s a deceleration in primacy occurred in several, although not all, countries in Latin America. This trend will not eliminate the growth of primacy and megacities and it should be emphasized that this phenomena represents, in part, an impact of economic globalization -- concrete ways in which global processes implant themselves in particular localities.

The overall shift in growth strategies toward export-oriented development created growth poles that emerged as alternatives to the primate cities for migrants. This shift was substantially promoted by the expansion of world markets for commodities and foreign direct investment of multinational corporations.

The Caribbean has a long history of urban primacy. The urban systems of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, and Jamaica reflect the immense variety of cultures and languages in this region. These countries represent a wide range of colonization patterns, ethnic compositions, economic development, and political stability. In the 1980s, export-oriented development, a corner-stone of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, and the intense promotion of tourism created new growth poles. The evidence suggests that these emerged as alternatives to primate cities for both the migration of workers and firms. A growth of suburbanization has also had the effect of decentralizing some of the population in primate cities of the Caribbean, while adding to the broader metroploitan areas of these cities. The effects of these trends can be seen clearly in Jamaica, for instance, where the primacy index declined from 7.2 in 1960 to 2.2 in 1990, largely as a result of the development of the tourist industry on the northern coast of the island, the revival of bauxite production for export in the interior, and the growth of satellite cities at the edge of the broader Kingston metropolitan area.

The growth of direct foreign investment since 1991 has further strengthened the role of the major Latin American business centers, particularly Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires. Foreign direct investment, via both privatization and other channels, has been associated with the deregulation of finacial markets and key economic institutions.

Thus the central role played by the stock market and other finacial markets in these increasingly complex investment processes has raised the economic importance of the major cities where these institutions are concentrated. Because the bulk of the value of investment in privatized enterprises and other, often related, investments has been in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, the impact of vast capital inflows is particularly felt in the corporate and financial sectors in Mexico, City, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.

We see in these cities the emergence of conditions that resemble patterns evident in major Western cities: high dynamic finacial markets and specialized service sectors; the overvalorization of the output, firms, and workers in these sectors; and the devalorization of the rest of the economic system.

The global integration of financial markets depends on and contributes to the implementation of a variety of linkages among the fiancial centers involved.