A) Keeping an eye on Peru to see if it is the next domino to fall sway to neo-populism in Latin America. I am holding out my judgement, as I'm not a fan of Chavez but rather adore Lula, as to whether Peru's potential shift and Bolivia's evolving one will be positive or negative for the Andean nations. The world waits as well. Also encouraging to see the expansion of the Mercosur trade bloc to include some Andean full time members.
B) On page 13 of the FT today, there's an interesting article about Chinese influence in Latin America. Now I was quite aware that China was mucking around in LatAm and Africa to scratch out some deals for natural resources and such, but I was not aware that "almost half of China's foriegn investment is going in to Latin America, and Beijing has pledged it will reach $100bn within the next five years." I must say, very interesting news.... lots of joint ventures going on. Another interesting quote recalls different perspectives on how societies should be governed and the potential for a US-China clash (in the tradition of the US's Monroe doctrine): "In the US, it is through elections. In China, it is by ending poverty." Quotable, and rather true—although the US has backed more poverty-centered systems before (many of the "East Asian Tigers")... I'm lacking on analysis, but something to keep an eye on.
Italy has also got a rather important election around the corner....
Tags:
1 comment:
Funny thing, I came here through the word Joyce (from James Joyce), but the first topic I read has something about Brazil, the place where I live... Lula has been involved in deep political scandals, corruption... Something which many brazillians (like me) saw as deeply disapointing. Well, nice blog, keep writing. Please visit my blog at https://einoden.wordpress.com/
Thanks, Pedro.
Post a Comment