In addition, Ecuador lies in point-blank range of Colombia's conflict, whose assorted combatants cross the border at will. The ills of Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia are less bloody but in some senses harder to confront. The solution is to build trustworthy democratic institutions that can resolve problems. But the big daily concern of most poor people is not whether their mayor, congressman or president was fairly elected, but rather how to fill their plate and find a job. Other regions offer a stark contrast.
Generalizations can be problematic, of course.
Overall, however, they share political, ethnic and geographical traits. They either avoided brutal military regimes during the past 30 years or got rid of them sooner than their neighbors in the southern cone. Of course it is a zone of turmoil to the extent that there is injustice, unequal distribution of wealth, very grave social problems. But in spite of everything, democracy endures. Unfortunately, the enduring democracies were slow to pursue economic reforms that were sometimes imposed by dictatorships elsewhere.