Further glimpses on Latin America

With Let South America come to you #1 Reasons to stay away from South America, Let South America come to you #2 For those with a good taste, The Science Says Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot—and Soon we had a look at South America.

This Month’s Region of the World: Latin America has a look at the huge region where many of the people in this region are spiritually blinded to the hope of the Gospel by the darkness of false religion.

In line with those articles you may be interested to read further how most of Latin America is still far from the horrific conditions prevailing in Venezuela, where output has fallen by a staggering 75% since 2013. But, given the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe there, and the spectre of political instability elsewhere, investors should not take a sustained economic recovery for granted.

The current disconnect between market calm and underlying social tensions is perhaps nowhere more acute than in Latin America. The question is how much longer this glaring dissonance can continue. > Under the Latin American Volcano

While the United States and other advanced economies are returning to normalcy, Colombia reported its highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths to date during the last week of June. > Colombia’s Triple Crisis

Once a peripheral presence in Latin America, China has become one of the region’s most important partners. Bilateral trade expanded from $12 billion in 2000 to over $300 billion in 2020, raising China’s share of the region’s total trade from 1.7% to 14.4%. China has also become an increasingly significant source of foreign direct investment in Latin America, accounting for nearly 10% of inflows in recent years. > How Latin America Should Navigate US-China Tensions

At a glance, the Latin American venture capital and startup market appears similar to what we’ve seen from other growing ecosystems. Like the U.S., Canadian, European, Indian and African startup hubs, Latin America is seeing venture capital activity set records. Early-stage venture capital fund Newtopia VC launched Monday with $50 million to invest in tech startups based in Latin America. > Why Latin American venture capital is breaking records this year

Big problem in several Latin-american countries is the repression. In Brazil police actions against peasant areas have intensified since the announcement of “Operation Rondônia,” using federal and state forces to repress the just peasant struggle in the region and particularly the combative and honorable peasant organization LCP – League of Poor Peasants of Rondônia and Western Amazonia. The troops of Bolsonaro and the military police (MP) of the governor of Rondônia, the puppet of landowners, Colonel MP Marcos Rocha, seek to concentrate forces to attack, acting shamelessly with the support of paramilitary forces, actually hitmen in the pay of the latifundium [large, monopolistic landowners -Ed.], under the cover of a “private security” company. > Brazil: Bolsonaro National Force, Military Police, and Gunmen Shoot at Peasants.

The situation is very serious, all the more so because the fascist and genocidal Bolsonaro himself, gives free rein to landowners and murderous troops to commit their crimes against peasants with impunity, as denounced in a statement by the LCP, “Bolsonaro arms landowners and says the police can kill peasants who will go unpunished”