Dealing With Latin Populists – Populist rhetoric and policies will continue as long as natural resources prices remain high. But what happens after they fall?

Last week’s Ibero-American Summit in Chile was supposed to be a good opportunity for private-sector leaders in Spain, Portugal and Latin America to influence policy-makers to boost investor-friendly policies.

Instead, the summit turned out to be only the latest platform for populist, anti-business rhetoric, with presidents like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua attacking Spanish companies.

Ortega compared Spanish electricity company Union Fenosa to the mafia and accused it of using “gangster methods” and corruption. He also criticized a previous government of Nicaragua which sold state electricity companies to Union Fenosa. “We wouldn’t have let them in,” he said, while the Spanish king and prime minister were looking on. “They bought, amidst corruption, the generating companies which were in good shape.”"*

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