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I can't speak for the Argentinian and Chilean navies, but what I know of the Brazilian Navy is the following: - The Brazilian Navy was neglected after the mid-1880s, just as the Argentinians and Chileans were starting their arms race, that went with the race to grab for each of their countries...

I strongly suspect that if 3 Alaskas were commissioned instead of 2 they would've been candidates for the Southern Cone navies in the 1950's, just like the Brooklyn/Saint Louis cruisers that were given away in reality.

Yup. OTOH, the Brazilian First Republic wasn't in the habit of treating most people well, so it wasn't as if the Navy was alone in this.

I've read a research paper on Brazilian naval plans between 1904 and 1945, and the biggest problem was money, true, but another big killer was political reliability. After Brazilian sailors revolted, took control of the shiny new ships and threatened to bombard the Brazilian capital in the 1910...

As already said, the Washington Treaty forbade this. Before the Treaty, the British didn't want to sell used ships because they wanted to keep the shipyards functioning, so they only wanted to sell newly-built ships. In the end, they didn't sell much of anything(Brazil got a K-class destroyer...

My understanding(from an analysis one did in the warships1 boards in the late 90's) is that the UK could afford the naval build-up, but there was no political will for it. EDIT: As for what breed of imbecile was running the show in 1918 and afterwards, the same breed that is doing it right now...