After coming under heavy criticism for pursuing so-called “integration” with totalitarian-minded rulers in Latin America, the governments of Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia — among the best performing economies and the few remaining countries in the region not yet under complete statist domination — announced the formation of a new regional body known as the Pacific Alliance.

However, the new initiative, formally brought into being last week with the signing of an agreement by the four presidents, will not displace the growing patchwork of anti-national sovereignty schemes being erected throughout the hemisphere. Also problematic, according to critics, is the alliance’s apparent effort to court the communist dictatorship ruling mainland China under the guise of expanding trade with Asia.