venerdì 10 maggio 2019

What are the main challenges facing Latin America?

https://ambbuenosaires.esteri.it/ambasciata_buenosaires/it/ambasciata/news/dall_ambasciata/2019/03/inaugurazione-del-primo-seminario.html
Latin America is the region of the Americas (South America, Central America, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean) where Romance languages (i.e. those derived from Latin) – mainly Spanish and Portuguese (but also French) – are primarily spoken. As of 2017, its population was estimated at 644.1 million and, according to the World Bank, its combined GDP in 2017 was $5.92 ($10.26 trillion at PPP). The GDP growth rate in Latin America was 6% in 2010, 4.5% in 2011, 3.0% in 2012, 2.6% in 2013, 1.3% for 2014, -0.5% for 2015, -0.7% in 2016, 1.4% (excluding Venezuela) and an estimated 0.7% in 2018. Unfortunately, growth prospects for 2019 (0.9 percent) show no real improvement over 2018 and were revised downward between January and April by the IMF. This weakening trend across the region will exacerbate the political and social challenges that many countries in the the region face. There are concerns that the bumpy but real economic progress of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century seems to be evaporating in part due to a failure to make effective structural changes to most Latin American economies.
/latin-america-and-the-caribbean-in-2019
After the end of the Cold War much of Latin America underwent a process of real democratization (except for Cuba and, some would argue, with a reversal in Venezuela today). This was certainly true at the formal level with the introduction and application of a democratic constitutions that aim to guarantees a functioning multi-party state, a free press and respect for the individual and minorities. At the practical level the process of democratization is still ongoing, as it is in many parts of the world, and there remains much to be done. For the UN, human rights now include social and economic rights and these are the most obvious challenges facing Latin America – widespread poverty, enormous disparities in wealth, income and land ownership and homelessness as well as discrimination and the need to improve the health and education systems. However, though there does seem to be a growing awareness among both politicians and citizens of these problems and a genuine desire to deal with them (e.g. the Bolsa Família social welfare program in Brazil), attempts to tackle them have often been superficial or ineffective. Corruption scandals at the highest levels in several of the most important countries have recently meant a loss of public confidence and weakened and contested governance at a critical time – See recent articles on Brazil's ongoing Operation Car Wash, the imprisonment of former President Lula da Silva, the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff, the arrest of former President Michel Temer and the hopes and fears linked to the election of Jair Messias Bolsonaro / the decline in popularity of former President of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto and the challenges facing newly-elected President Andrés Manuel López Obrador / the economic turmoil in Argentina and the corruption cases brought against former President of Argentina Cristina Kirchner. Contrast this with the progress of a small country like Uruguay under President Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas and the success of a larger one like Chile under President Sebastián Piñera and former President Michelle Bachelet. Then look at social and political trends in Bolivia under President Evo Morales and ongoing economic crisis in Venezuela and the political crisis concerning the rule of President Nicolàs Maduro and the challenge to it by Juan Guaidó and his supporters.
Until the end of the Cold War, Latin America was often characterized by military dictatorships, one-party states and economic crises. The United States was reluctantly prepared to support such dictatorships (e.g. in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s) to avoid the spread of Communism through the region. Critics of the US claimed that US policy was mainly designed to protect the interests of US companies (and Chavez, Maduro and Morales and the Cuban leadership all claimed or claim that this is still true). However, since the end of the Cold War the US has largely withdrawn politically from much of Latin America and encouraged and supported the process of democratization. The US has remained actively engaged in the area in a limited number of key fields
This current period has also been characterized by frequent assertions by Latin America leaders of their right and need to act independently of foreign governments, the US in particular. So although it seems that Latin America’s future should now be largely in its own hands the policy of the US, China and Russia remains critical.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rafael-salazar/chinese-investment-in-lat_b_7621160.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/01/24/china-is-investing-seriously-in-latin-america-should-you-worry/?utm_term=.f6ebef897f05
Moreover, some parts of Latin America saw very significant economic growth over the first decade of the century with a boom in commodity prices and large-scale foreign direct investment in a global economy driven by China’s expansion. Ambitious government programs began to reduce inequality. The middle class expanded to almost a third of the region’s population, according to the World Bank ( It was about 20% in 2005 although higher in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruquay). However, more recently, according to the World Bank and Focus Economics, Latin America has seen a fall in GDP growth rates to much lower levels (see first paragraph) as a result of the global recession, the fall in commodity prices and the decline in oil prices. This recent decline in growth rates varied considerably across the area. For example:
Uruguay’s GDP grew by 4.6% in 2013 and 3.2% in 2014, 0.4% in 2015, 1.5% in 2016, 2.7% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018.
Mexico’s GDP grew by 1.4% in 2013 and 2.3% in 2014, 2.6% in 2015, 2.3% in 2016, 1.8% in 2017 and 2% in 2018.
Brazil’s GDP grew by 3.0% in 2013 and 0.5% in 2014, then shrank by -3.8% in 2015, -3.6% in 2016, 0.7% in 2017 and 1.1% in 2018.
Chile’s GDP grew by 4.0% in 2013 and 1.9% in 2014, 2.3% in 2015, 1.6% in 2016, 1.8% in 2017 and 4% in 2018.
Venezuela’s economy grew by 1.3% in 2013, then shrank by -3.9% in 2014, by -8.1% in 2015, perhaps by -16..5% in 2016, -15.7% in 2017 and -18% in 2018 (though this is only an estimate).
Venezuaela's inflation rate was an estimated 40.6% in 2013, 62.2% in 2014, 122% in 2015, 800% in 2016, 2,616% in 2017, 80,000% in 2018 and may have averaged 2,000,000% so far (May) in 2019. These figures are obviously best guesses.
Meanwhile Argentina’s GDP grew by 2.4% in 2013, shrank by -2.5% in 2014, grew by 2.6% in 2015, shrank by -2.3% in 2016, grew by 2.7.% in 2017 and shrank again by -6.2% in 2018.
Argentina also faces a high inflation rate, 18.4% in 2013, 38 % in 2014, 26.7% in 2015, 41.2% in 2016, 27.7% in 2017, and 47.6% in 2018, a situation indicative of unresolved structural problems.
https://www.reuters.com/article/argentina-inflation/update-1-argentina-inflation-rises-29-pct-in-january-tops-forecast-idUSL1N2091GS
As a result, hopes for an economic recovery in Latin America as a whole seems to have stalled according to the IMF:
'Amid escalating trade tensions, tighter financial conditions, and volatile commodity markets, economic recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has both moderated and become more uneven. The recovery has slowed in some of the region’s largest economies (Brazil and Mexico), even coming to a halt in the case of Argentina, as the impact of external headwinds has been amplified by country-specific vulnerabilities …..coupled with increased political uncertainty. …... There is still no end in sight to the economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.'
At the same time during the recession poverty levels have grown
and according to a public opinion by the non-profit organization "Corporación Latinobarómetro” while support for democracy remains strong in Latin America, satisfaction with democracy in terms of its performance fell to 48% in 2018, its lowest point since the 2001 crisis. Dissatisfaction with democracy rose from 51 per cent to 71 per cent, while satisfaction plummeted from 44 per cent to 24 per cent. So the recession has caused widespread discontent and a real sense of a democratic deficit, a lot of it focused on a culture of bribes, corruption, cronyism and cover-ups e.g. the Petrobas scandal.

Generally, however, economic expansion in the years before the recent slowdown led to the emergence of several major Latin American economies, and to Brazil becoming a regional power and an important player at the global level. It also improved the lives of millions and meant that the richer countries in Latin America had, or at least in theory should have had, more funds to begin to tackle some of their problems, among which improvements in education and productivity may be vital. However, the recent recession presents a challenge because the economic situation of ordinary people depends on a combination of factors, economic growth, inflation rates, interest rates, unemployment rates and the distribution of wealth. Those who move beyond the poverty threshhold can easily fall back into poverty if the economy encounters difficulties.

List of current problems. In general these problems are more marked in the poorer countries of Central America, the Caribbean and some parts of South America, while in those countries which have seen a period of sustained growth, like Chile and Uruguay, they are either less serious or at least some progress has finally been made. In the case of Brazil, however, the population is so large (est. 209.3 million in 2017) that it will probably take a full generation to make any real gains. In 2013-15 there were large-scale protests in Brazil about corruption, the recession, the lack of public services, at a time of heavy investment in hosting the World Cup and Olympics, and the continuing enormous divergence in living standards between rich and poor. Protests continued in 2016.
Similar protests in Mexico focused on the state’s inability to deal with organized crime and enforce the rule of law.
Poverty (less than $4 a day) and extreme poverty (less than $2.50 a day). Poverty has declined in all countries in the region since the early 1990s, but the fall varies greatly across different parts of the region (with Central America and the Caribbean a long way behind). According to the World Bank and UN the percentage of people living in poverty in Latin America was 42% in 2000 and fell to 25% in 2012. However, in 2014 it stood at 28.5% (168 million people). Within this figure extreme poverty stood at 8.2% in 2014 (48 million people). .
Figures for those in poverty increased to 29.8% in 2015 (178 million) and to 30.7% in 2016 (186 million people) remaining steadt at 184 million (30.2% of the population) in 2017, of whom 62 million live in extreme poverty (10.2% of the population, the highest percentage since 2008).

The UN Development Programme argues that one third of Latin Americans risk falling into poverty. So poverty and extreme poverty rates remain the basic challenge for the region. Central America and the Caribbean continued to register the highest poverty rates in the region, e.g. Guatemala 59% below the poverty line in 2014, 35% in El Salvador in 2015 and 31% in the Dominican Republic in 2016 The range of conflicting estimates shows how hard it is to produce accurate estimates and how many people live only just above the poverty threshold and remain at risk.
In Mexico, while less than 2% of Mexico's population lives below the international poverty line set by the World Bank, as of 2013, Mexico's government estimates that 33% of Mexico's population lives in moderate poverty and 9% lives in extreme poverty.

In Brazil, those living below the poverty line fell from 25% in 2004 to 8% in 2014 but rose to an estimated 26.5% in 2017. General economic growth up to 2014 resulted in an expanded middle class, higher per capita income and a reduction in inequality. Brazil, compared with 25 years before that made great progress in reducing extreme poverty. The Bolsa Família social welfare program (which started in 2003), which covers perhaps 55 million Brazilians, also won praise from conservatives as well as liberals as the program seems to be both cheap and effective, the second most important factor (after GDP growth) in helping to move many Brazilians out of extreme poverty. However, the economic recession has put this progress at risk.
See ‘Brazil’s Antipoverty Breakthrough’ by Jonathan Tepperman, Foreign Affairs Jan/Feb 2016 for more details.
https://relooney.com/NS4540/0000-Brazil_1.pdf In Argentina An estimated 13.6 million people ( 33.6% ) are living below the poverty line. 2.47 million were considered to be living in extreme poverty.

In Chile 14.4% lived in poverty in 2017 https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-chile/
And in Venezuela perhaps as much as 90% in 2018. https://borgenproject.org/top-10-facts-about-poverty-in-venezuela/
In general in Latin America the highest rates of poverty are among the indigenous peasants.

So while there has been some improvement in living standards in recent years, and there is growing awareness of the problem and growing political determination to address the problem, there is still a long way to go. The wave of protests against corruption and waste and the demands for change that have affected Brazil since 2013 are driven by poverty and and demonstrate that expectations among the poor are growing. Thus poverty will obviously continue to affect many of the other challenges facing Latin America.

b) The poverty challenge is worsened by the huge disparities of wealth and income. Latin America is the area of the world with the greatest disparities of wealth.
Brazil’s six richest men have the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the population, around 100 million people. The country's richest 5 percent have the same income as the remaining 95 percent.

c) Lack of social services in many areas, health care, education and pensions. Many of the leaders recently elected have focused, or been forced to focus, more and more on these problems and on programs to promote improved welfare and thus greater social equality and security. However, this lack of an adequate welfare system for the poorest sections of society is partly responsible for the discontent in Brazil which led to widespread protests.
d) Unemployment and exploitation, which is often simply the consequence of poverty and the previous lack of democratic institutions to promote employment and prevent, or at least raise awareness of the risk of exploitation (e.g. a challenge for trade unions, NGOs and charities).
e) Discrimination against the indigenous peoples (40 million) and their cultures, black or mixed-race Latin Americans (150 million) and women. For example, black or mulatto citizens make up 45% of the population of Brazil, yet seem to have made little progress politically. The indigenous peoples, however, are now becoming better organized, more assertive and starting to play a significant role in politics (e.g. President Evo Morales in Bolivia).
Millions of African slaves were brought to Latin America from the 16th century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil. Today, people identified as "Black" are most numerous in Brazil (more than 10 million) and in Haiti (more than 7 million). Among the Hispanic nations and Brazil, Puerto Rico leads this category in relative numbers, with 15% of the population being Afro-Latin American. Significant populations are also found in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. Latin Americans of mixed black and white ancestry, called mulattoes, are far more numerous than blacks. In Brazil for example they represent perhaps 40% of the population, although most white Brazilians also have some mixed race ancestry. Intermixing between Europeans and Native Americans began early in the colonial period and was extensive. The resulting people, known as mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half of the countries of Latin America. Additionally, mestizos compose large minorities in nearly all the other mainland countries. Mulattoes are people of mixed European and African ancestry. In Latin America, mulattoes descend primarily from Spanish or Portuguese settlers on one side, and African on the other. Brazil is home to Latin America's largest mulatto population. Mulattoes are a population majority in the Dominican Republic and, depending on the source, Cuba as well. Mulattoes are also numerous in Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador. Smaller populations of mulattoes are found in other Latin American countries.
The position and treatment of women also remains a challenge in many Latin American countries. See the work of charities like Action Aid in dealing with the problems of female education and the physical abuse of women.
f) Disparities in land ownership, migration to cities and homelessness. Land ownership inequality is staggering, as 50 percent of the arable land in Brazil is owned by a mere four percent of the population. In Brazil half the nation’s arable land is controlled by a small number of families. Meanwhile 40% of the poor landowners together hold less than 1%. However, Brazil’s land reform program did settle nearly one million families on small farms over the last 25 years. Meanwhile, however, many poor, rural people drift from the countryside to the big cities in search of jobs that they rarely find.
https://www.focus-economics.com/blog/inequality-in-latin-america
g) Too much bureaucracy and corruption. A legacy of the past, these present real challenges for reform-minded leaders as serious change will inevitably lead to conflict with entrenched interests.
The number of scandals, street protests and court cases against major figures, companies and orga
nizations spreading across the region may indicate that some kind of crisis point is being reached and that ordinary citizens are no longer prepared to accept this culture. The next couple of years will be crucial in seeing whether an evolution towards a more transparent and less corrupt political environment is possible.
See ‘ Latin Americans Stand Up To Corruption’ by Jorge G. Castaneda, Foreign Affairs, Jan-Feb 2016 for an excellent summary of the situation.
h) The need to build a functioning market economy and create a better business environment to attract investment. This remains a serious challenge in many of the poorer countries of the area. Uruguay has been an outstanding example of how to do this while reducing poverty and boosting welfare. Its economy has seen steady GDP growth, 4.6% in 2013, 3.2% in 2014, 0.4% in 2015, 1.5% in 2016, 2.7% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018.
i) Migration from the countryside to the outskirts of cities and into the huge slums (favelas) and towards the richer countries in the area and northwards towards the US. Exploitation of migrants by organized crime.
j) Organized crime and its hold on society, in particular, as regards drugs production and trafficking. This is largely a consequence of poverty and the social marginalization of the very poor. In Mexico nearly 13,000 people died in violence blamed on organized crime between January and September 2011. The official death toll in Mexico’s drug war between Dec 2006 and Dec 2013 is 60,000. Estimates from other sources give a much higher figure of 120,000. There were also 27,000 people who went missing in the same period. Drug violence was blamed for Mexico's record 29,168 murders in 2017.

The figures are very high in most of Central and South America, with 45,000 dead in the area due to the drugs war in the 5 years to Dec 2011.
As regards crime and gang violence in Brazil, in 2006 more than 49,000 people were murdered according to the Health Ministry. Between 1979 and 2003 more than 500,000 people were killed by firearms according to the UN. Between 1978 and 2000 there were 50,000 victims just in Rio de Janeiro alone. In one year in Rio the number of deaths was 8 times that of the number of Palestinians and Israeli killed in the same period. 11.4 % of the population of Brazil (6% of the total population) live in favelas, slum areas where criminal gangs took control from the 1970s onwards. With the Community Policing program  the homicide rate in these areas fell 21% in 2009-10 but rose again later. The scale of this problem puts in question the rule of law in many areas. In preparing to host the World Cup and Olympic Games the Brazilian government undertook a campaign (a “pacification” policy) to clean up the favelas in Rio and win back control of them. How successful this operation will be in the long term remains to be seen. At the moment, while there are still favelas in Rio essentially ruled by drug traffickers and other organized crime groups, the favelas in the South Rio Zone and some key favelas in the North Rio Zone are mainly run by the Police Pacifying Units (UPPs) despite sporadic gun fights and drug-dealing. This could be a model for the future. However, there is growing criticism of police methods and violence.

Brazil broke its own record for homicides last year, according to new figures which showed that 63,880 people were killed in 2017 – a 3% increase from the previous year
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/22/brazils-murder-rate-finally-fell-and-by-a-lot/
k) Destruction of the environment, pollution and deforestation. The deforestation of Amazonia has decreased in recent years but in size it has been reduced by 20% since the end of the 1960s and it is still shrinking. Among the main causes are human settlement, development of the land for use as pasture and soybean production, and timber production.
l) Latin American economies are based too much on the export of raw materials instead of manufacturing and industrial production. This is a real challenge, even for some of the area’s biggest economies like Brazil, Argentina and Mexico which have large domestic markets and should be able to supply them with high-quality industrial goods. Instead there is an over-dependence on the production of agricultural goods and commodities.
m) population growth – this is still high in the poorer countries of Latin America (but generally not as high as in the past), which have a problem to provide food, clean water, shelter, jobs and services for an expanding population, but is much more manageable in the big South American countries where the population growth rate was below the GDP growth rate until 2015. (Brazil’s population growth rate was 0.75% in 2018 http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/brazil-population/
Generally population growth is lower than in Africa and Asia but higher than in Europe or North America (particularly when migration is excluded). Nevertheless, combined with poverty it increases migration from rural areas to the cities and to other states (e.g. from Mexico to the US).
n) In general, there is a democratic deficit between constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights and everyday reality and a need for greater access to the justice system for the poor.
o) Militarism – Given the role it played in Latin America's history until very recently, doubts remain about how well integrated it is into democracy and there are questions about why military spending continues to be so high.
http://www.cedla.uva.nl/50_publications/pdf/cuadernos/30-Cuadernos_Working_Paper-Dirk_Kruijt.pdf 

Conclusion – Latin America’s future now largely depends on how seriously it responds to the problems outlined above. Latin American countries now have democratic constitutions. So the main political challenge is to reduce the gap between theory and practice, democratic principles and the creation of a truly democratic society, particularly for those most at risk, the poor, women and minorities. Some progress has been made, for example land reform in Brazil under former Presidents Lula and Rousseff and previous administrations, but much more remains to be done. As parts of Latin America grow richer they will start to play an increasingly greater role in international affairs. However, given the current economic slowdown and the various scandals and accusations of corruption Latin America’s attention may remain focused on internal affairs rather than international affairs for some time.
The South American free trade area, Mercosur, is an attempt to reduce and eliminate trade tariffs and to promote a freer movement of goods, people, and currency within a growing area, as part of an ongoing process of South American integration, and thus to boost trade, reinforce relations between members and strengthen the position of these states in relations to other countries and areas of the world, e.g. its expanding economic relations with China. It will be interesting to see if it follows the evolution of the EU towards a closer economic and political union.

The Brazil 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, hosted by the city of  Rio de Janeiro, provided an opportunity for Brazil to show the world how Latin America is changing and counter old perceptions and stereotypes. However, the wave of protests against the money spent on the World Cup and Olympics and the accusations that the government failed to share the gains of Brazil’s growth with the poorest citizens may make the task of showcasing the country’s progress in the future more difficult.
Finally, the election of Pope Francis I may focus attention on his homeland, Argentina, and more generally on Latin America and its problems, especially given his expressed commitment to a simple Christian faith and solidarity with the poor. He made his first visit to Brazil in 2013, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Cuba in 2015, Cuba and Mexico, Uruguay in 2016, Colombia in 2017. Pope Francis visited Chile and Peru in 2018. There have been questions about why he has not visited his homeland, Argentina, yet.
Some background reading and data on Latin America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/CAR042915A.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_American_countries_by_population
risk of falling back into poverty
see ‘Social Panorama of Latin America 2014’ at
General
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_protests_in_Brazil
http://www.focus-economics.com/regions/latin-america
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_American_and_Caribbean_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29
http://data.worldbank.org/region/latin-america-and-caribbean
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/15/argentina-economy-inflation-idUSL2N0AKETQ20130115
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2012/car101212c.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba%E2%80%93United_States_relations
http://www.trickleup.org/solution/central-america.cfm
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/picture.htm
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2013/07/11/Latin-America-to-address-social-demands-beyond-poverty-reduction/
http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/01/poverty-latin-america
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/dec/19/weekly-year-review-2013-latin-america
http://www.indexmundi.com/argentina/gdp_real_growth_rate.html
http://www.thedialogue.org/PublicationFiles/Social%20Policy%20Brief%20No%201%20-%20Poverty%20and%20Inequality%20in%20LAC.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty
http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/prensa/noticias/comunicados/4/40264/P40264.xml&xsl=/prensa/tpl-i/p6f.xsl&base=/tpl-i/top-bottom.xsl
http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/prensa/noticias/comunicados/4/40264/P40264.xml&xsl=/prensa/tpl-i/p6f.xsl&base=/tpl-i/top-bottom.xsl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America#Poverty_and_inequality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_violence_in_Latin_America
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/0,,contentMDK:23037599~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:258554,00.html
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Latin_America_and_Caribbean_Population_Growth_Rates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_violence_in_Latin_America
http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Brazil/Mexico/Crime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Brazil
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/latin-america-only-region-with-rising-homicide-rates-un-report
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/dec/08/mexico-drug-wars-us-guns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/20/brazil-crisis-cabinet-amazon-deforestation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/13/brazil-troops-raid-shantytown
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/brazil-youth-murder-rate-_n_827950.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Brazil
http://blog.transparency.org/2011/10/31/fighting-corruption-in-central-america/
http://www.millerchevalier.com/portalresource/2008LatinCorruptionSurveyReport
http://ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=28752
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=14935&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=people
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_27593.html
http://live.worldbank.org/opportunities-indigenous-peoples-latin-america
http://www.ilo.org/sapfl/Projects/WCMS_082040/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/colombia-drugs-cocaine-trafficking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercosur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_of_the_Amazon_Rainforest
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/world/americas/in-brazil-protection-of-amazon-rainforest-takes-a-step-back.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/world/americas/mexico-updates-drug-war-death-toll-but-critics-dispute-data.html?_r=0
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13001-calderon-reign-ends-with-six-year-mexican-death-toll-near-120000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_issues_in_Brazil#Poverty
In ‘Culture Matters: Obstacles to Latin American Development’, Foreign Affairs Jan/Feb 2011, Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner, argued that:
'Latin America’s population is 560 million compared with 310 million in the US, but its GDP is only 29% of that of the US. Much of Latin America won its independence more than 100 years before countries like India and Korea. Yet Latin Americans still tend to blame their Spanish colonial past, US interference or the policies of international financial institutions for the slow pace of development, rather than seeing it as their own problem. Recognizing their own responsibility for current conditions could be the key to real improvement in the future.'
Arias identifies 4 cultural traits which are obstacles that need to be overcome. These are resistance to change, absence of confidence, fragile democratic norms and a weakness for militarism.
Resistance to change: Latin Americans glorify their past (which really has little in it to glorify) and perhaps fear change, preferring to hold on to established privileges and the status quo. This is true at many social levels – the rich and powerful, the unions, public officials and the civil service, and large private sector companies which make deals, legal and illegal, with government. So instead of a culture of gradual reform and improvement they have a culture of preservation punctuated with occasional revolutions. There are too many restrictions on business start-ups, too much bureaucracy and a failure on the part of universities to provide graduates with the necessaries skills to promote economic development.
Absence of trust: Probably as a consequence of their historical disappointments Latin Americans do not trust government, the legal system, social institutions, like the police and schools, or one another. Yet for any society real progress seems to require that people can trust government, institutions and other citizens to act in a way which is predictable and reliable.
Commitment to democracy: Despite the fact that with the exception of Cuba the whole area can be considered democratic today, democratic norms remain fragile. Despite constitutions that proclaim democratic rights and other high-minded treaties the social realities of Latin America are far from these ideals. Moreover, there remains an attraction with authoritarianism in government, a glorification of the nation and a tendency for democratic leaders to use rhetoric and demagoguery.
Militarism: Although the region is now mainly peaceful (except for Colombia) spending on the military remains high and the role of the armed forces seems exaggerated given Latin America’s need to overcome the memory of past dictatorships. The widespread presence of soldiers in towns and cities does not help to build confidence in the strength of democratic and social institutions.
These are problems that Latin America needs first to recognize as part of a general fear of change, and then to begin to deal with. Economic growth alone will not be sufficient to produce real progress.
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However, if you decide to use these ideas you should cite former President Arias as he himself is Latin American and some of his comments might otherwise seem prejudiced if made out of context by a European.
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