Smart News & Research for Latin America's Changemakers

Venezuela’s most famous dissident gets 13 years

By     /   

The trial against Leopoldo López, the jailed leader of Venezuela’s opposition, was never expected to be fair. Yet when Judge Susana Barreiros handed down her ruling late last night, sentencing López to 13 years in military prison for inciting violence and other bogus charges, it was a hard blow for his supporters. Many had harbored hopes that he would be ...
Read More

Corrupto-landia

By     /   

Donald Trump was right on one thing: corruption in Mexico and Latin America is unbelievable. As the series of scandals from Chile to Brazil to Mexico have revealed, the region still has a corruption problem that not only reduces the effectiveness of government but also increases the economic insecurity of its citizens. And those citizens are ...
Read More

Looking into the Black Box of Venezuela’s Economy

By     /   

Spotting evidence of the destruction that Venezuela’s politicians have inflicted on the economy isn’t terribly hard. In fact, you start to see it as soon as you get off the plane. The terminal of Caracas International Airport, a cavernous building built in the 1980s, is mostly empty. International carriers have largely abandoned the country. The ...
Read More

Everybody loves infrastructure

By     /   

Latin America invests about 2% of GDP on infrastructure. Between 1992 and 2011 China invested an average of 8.5% of GDP in infrastructure per year. Given the demonstrated effects of infrastructure on development and poverty reduction, it’s time for the region to make a concerted effort to attract foreign ...
Read More

How to engineer a Latin American miracle

By     /   

The story of dashed hopes and sudden halts is a painful yet familiar one for all of us. As we lick our wounds and take stock of yet another lost opportunity, we ask ourselves yet again: can the continent ever escape the boom-bust cycles that have left our economies trapped in middle income ...
Read More
MENU