Left to its own devices

Latin America is being left to its own devices. Foreign direct investment is falling, privatizations have largely run their course, country-risk levels have risen to the point at which most investments make little sense, and no-one talks any more of Latin countries following Spain’s smooth transitional path from second world to first world. If anything, several countries in the region are moving in the direction of wealth destruction rather than wealth creation. Television pictures show malnourished Argentine children dying of starvation, and Venezuela and Colombia have been hugely damaged by, respectively, a general strike that has crippled the oil industry and a civil war.