Opinions

A recent post on an expat social media forum suggested that if Ecuador’s Social Security system (IESS) follows through with its rate hike for voluntary membership there will be a mass exodus of norte americanos from the country. Well, it turns out that those leaving might fill up four or five rows on the first...

By John Fund Venezuela’s crisis is a genuine nightmare, but it now also has elements of farce. The nation’s most famed political prisoner has been released to house arrest, and the attorney general who put him behind bars has changed sides and denounced the “state terrorism” of strongman Nicolás Maduro. In turn, Maduro’s supreme court...

By William Bonds In April 2016, to the dismay of international markets, Ecuador elected socialist Lenin Moreno, Rafael Correa’s heir and former vice-president, as the country’s new head of state. Global markets were hoping for a surprise win from Guillermo Lasso, a former banker, which the international community was confident would put Ecuador on a...

By Chris Isidore Amazon has turned malls upside down in the U.S., but had left grocery stores unscathed. That changed on Friday. Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods means the supermarket, and retailing overall, will never be the same. Grocers will now have to contend with the incredibly rich and powerful competitor whose impact...

By Emanuele Ottolenghi The convergence of Iran-sponsored radical Islam with transnational organized crime in Latin America is a serious threat to the national security of the United States, especially in the tri-border area, or TBA, where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay converge. In this area, Hezbollah supporters and operatives engage in illicit activities that generate tens...

By Frances Martel The small city of Cuenca, Ecuador is struggling to address a growing wave of American “Baby Boomers” who have decided to retire there to take advantage of a socialist welfare state designed for its locals. U.S. retirees, a recent city study revealed, are also causing conflict in the city, raising real estate...

By Mac Margolis There are many ways Brazilians could be rid of their much reviled president, Michel Temer, who was recently caught on audio tape allegedly consorting with a bent business man in the basement of the palace residence. Congress could impeach him, or send him to trial in the Supreme Court. Or, more likely,...

By the staff of the Economist In a burst of hyperbole and historical confusion, Rafael Correa compared the run-off election in Ecuador last month to “the battle of Stalingrad” in which his left-wing government was “fighting against the global right wing”. Yet the outcome was far from the rout achieved on the Russian steppes: rather,...

By José R. Cárdenas U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and his withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership have led some critics to claim that the United States is turning its back to regional trading partners, and that Trump is thus freeing up China to make inroads into Latin America....

By Larry Luxner Half a century of communist rule in Cuba gave the island’s 11 million inhabitants superb health care and wiped out illiteracy, yet it’s also decimated the private sector and crippled the Cuban economy in the long term. Nicaragua, also ruled for decades by Marxists, remains one of the poorest countries in Central...

By the Washington Post Editorial Board For a month, Venezuela has been rocked by massive popular demonstrations against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, which has led the country into a dystopia of economic dysfunction and criminality while blatantly violating democratic and constitutional norms. The demands of the opposition have been echoed by the majority of...