The capitalist world system is ordered from its political economic centres. Its structure and dynamics have, above all else, been analyzed, exposed and transformed from latin america. This interview is about the united nations, sepal, la commicion economica para Americana latina el caribe. Sepal was an institution that gathered economists from across latin America in santiago, chile. They developed conceptual work for understanding the world economy as a set of unequally structured relationships between primary commodity exporting nations on the periphery and finished goods manufactures in the global centre. The challenge was to overcome the development paradox. The periphery needed more trade and aid.