Could Puno and Guantanamo Be The Next Hong Kongs?

“Most readers of this column have never heard of Puno; quite a few have heard of Guantanamo Bay. Puno, a poor region in southeastern Peru, could become an economic powerhouse and stem the politics of resentment that is invading the Andes””if the government would allow a real free-enterprise zone to be established. Likewise, Guantanamo could erode Cuba’s communism in the way West Berlin eroded East Berlin’s communism if the U.S. authorities gave Cubans an opportunity to turn the controversial naval base into a new economic Hong Kong.

The Andean region, where authoritarian populism is ripe, needs a quick economic success story. Social resentment has already produced two Andean presidents””Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales””and came within an inch of producing a third one, Ollanta Humala in Peru. The way to erode these movements that play the ethnic and the ideological card against globalization is to permit free enterprise.”

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