Every poster above seems to miss the significance of what is going on...even though the article explains it all. The reaqson why we continually send money to hopelessly bankrupt LDCs, is crystal clear:
It is corporate welfare from you and me to the financial elite (Citigroup, JPMorgan, South American bureacrats, et al).
Since at least the early 1980s South America has not been able to pay it's external debts. The situation just gets worse. They now owe 3 times as much as they did then. They will NEVER be able to pay back. The crisis occurs because they can't even pay the interest. When they balk about debt service, the U.S. government/financial elite convince them to keep playing the game. (So Citigroup doesn't have to admit it's been hopelessly insolvent based on any reasonable accounting for over 20 years). You and I are taxed so Citigroup gets paid with a little left over for the LDC governmental/banking elite to stash money in Swiss bank accounts, etc. The citizens of both countries pay the price.
It's a sting operation, pure and simple. As long as people remain as much in the dark as the above posts appear to indicate, it will just keep on happening.