The continued weakness in the prices of international commodities, still a key export for most Latin American countries, has resulted in falling revenues and growing current account deficits. But all is not gloom and doom. One thing which has consistently struck this correspondent is the resilience of Latin Americans. Of course, one should not generalise too much, but those who insist on that old maxim are themselves wont to speak of corruption, violence and lack of civic consciousness as if they were peculiarly Latin American failings. The New World south of the Rio Grande has lots of problems, but it also has a dynamic culture based above all on the warmth and imagination of its inhabitants.
Solidarity lives on, despite the onslaught of globalisation.
The fact remains that Latin Americans are a product of their past.