An Inconvenient Truth

[kandrathe]

... And, as the collapse of the USSR more or less proved ...

Hmmm, I'm not sure you could draw any conclusions from observing the USSR prior to or after the collapse. At least after the collapse, the world was free to investigate and understand the ecologic catastrophes like Chernobyl or around MAYAK at Chelyabinsk. Now with criminals running the economy, who knows what's happening with their toxic waste.

Back to Central and South America... I could be a forest ranger in the US, and still over consume resources. Like China or India, just being there and alive consumes resources. Those consumed resources are derived from their environment, and their waste products are dumped back into the environment. Urbanization allows a population to share dwelling space, pavement, wells, transportation systems, etc. But it also leads to concentration of pollution as well.

The economic policy under the military government (1973-
1990) emphasized the development of a free-market economy based
on non interventionist principles and strong export-orientation
(monetarist policy). The government at this time viewed
Environmental protection as detrimental to economic growth.
Also, the population affected by environmental problems was
largely excluded from political decision-making. There was
neither a coherent body of environmental regulations nor a
central environmental authority in Chile. Environmental rules
and regulations were fragmented and without effective
enforcement. There was no national legislation requiring the
assessment of environmental impacts of investment projects, and
new projects were approved and modified monthly. Basic
environmental data was either lacking or collected sector by
sector and not compiled in a manner useful for environmental
management.
ICE (Chile) ICE Home

As with most strong arm dictators, political power derrived from military force preempts any need for environmental accountability. Most complaints in those nations are solved with a midnight visit to the nearest torture facility or just a bullet. When you have stable, peaceful populations... then you will have time for worrying about the missing ozone layer, or why the polar ice caps are melting.