Latin America: An Optimistic View

Read this global assessment of Latin America by Stephen Haber, a Stanford professor and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, in The Wall Street Journal. While admitting that there are problems in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc., Haber ends up with a generally optimistic conclusion about the region. He finds much to praise in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, and even Mexico. Here is a quote that had my head spinning:

After falling for a decade, Mexico's homicide rate increased in 2008, because the Calderón government courageously decided to take on the drug traffickers. If it keeps rising, it may soon be as high as that of...Louisiana.

That doesn't seem to jibe with the alarmist rhetoric we've been hearing about the drug war assassinations in Mexico. But then, I'm not really acquainted with the murder rate in Louisiana, which may be sky high.

On the other hand, his positive view does agree with our experiences in Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica and the positive things he says about Mexico and Brasil seem to be only slight exaggerations.