The situation encountered by Heritage analysts on the ground in Venezuela last week was of a country that has been looted and is falling apart—literally and figuratively. The once thriving nightlife of downtown Caracas is but a distant memory. These days the streets are deserted, surrendered to gangsters and narcotraffickers. …
The recently reelected president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, wants people to know he is determined to fight inflation through combating “speculation.” A noble goal, to be sure. But the weapons chosen for that battle by President Correa—a PhD economist trained at the University of Illinois—actually will doom his anti-inflation campaign. …
The recently launched “Americas Barometer,” by Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), includes important insights about day-to-day corruption burdening citizens in every country in the Western Hemisphere, including the U.S. and Canada. According to a LAPOP poll, one in five people report that they had to pay at …
