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Business and government leaders in Latin America are split over the future of economic and political reforms in their region. “In pragmatic terms, the prospects for reform in the future are grim. I am not optimistic because from a political perspective, democracy makes it hard to carry out reforms,” Carlos Hurtado López, AM ’81, PhD ’86, undersecretary of budget in Mexico, told Chicago GSB students May 21 at the second annual Latin American Business Conference.
López spoke during the panel discussion “Is Latin America in need of a new round of economic and political reforms?” moderated by Gary Becker, University Professor of Economics and of Sociology, at Gleacher Center, and hosted by the Latin American Business Group.
“Politicians have sold to the population that reforms are deep, but they aren’t,” López continued. “Many are disenchanted. There’s reform fatigue because performance has not been great.”
Still, José M. Barrionuevo, AM ’89, PhD ’92, director of emerging markets strategy and economics at Barclays Capital, said overall there has been “significant progress. The potential for a big meltdown is not there.”
There have been improvements, agreed Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, AB ’52, former president of Bolivia. “But the problem is you can’t convince the people. Things have to be obvious to the population so they can see promise.”
Undermining such efforts, according to López, “is a social organization that doesn’t support progress. Many have a private interest in breaking reform for personal gain.”
Leopoldo López, mayor of the municipality of Chacao in Caracas, Venezuela, agreed. “In Latin America we can reform economically, but what are the political tendencies of the people?” he asked. “The reality is there’s disenchantment with democracy and increasing support for other forms of government such as totalitarianism or militarism. We must develop social reforms more than policy reforms.”
Carmen Marti