Latin America

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Latin America or Latin America is a linguistic and geographical concept of French origin, but above all Napoleonic in the elaboration and diffusion of the term, which arose in the XIX to identify a region of the American continent with the majority speaking languages derived from Latin (mainly Spanish or Portuguese and, to a lesser extent, French).

"It was in Paris that I found out he was a Latin American." Mario Vargas Llosa

Various factors allowed France to retain a disproportionate influence in America during the 20th century. During the dictatorships of the 20th century, a good part of the Spanish American intellectual and political elite went into exile in France. And, for many intellectuals, "the capital of Latin America was in Paris".

The concept of Latin America originally sought to erase and eliminate as far as possible the idea of a Spanish America, Hispanic America or Hispano-America and was introduced by the French politician and economist Michel Chevalier after on his trip to Mexico, discovered the wealth, especially in raw materials, at the hands of Andrés Manuel del Río, one of the most important mineralogists of his time. Already in France, Chevalier was going to be one of the great propagandists of the benefits that his country could obtain in Mexico, from there the idea of separating the Spanish-American past and introducing the concept of “Latino” was born to legitimize the French takeover.

In this way, for Chevalier, there are two «civilisations» in the American continent, the Saxon and the Latin. What he differentiates between the regions of the continent in two cultural blocks, some with the Catholic and mestizo and those marked by the Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture, with little or no miscegenation. It is his Ibero-American origin and not "Latino" since the French in their colonies apply methods closer to the Anglo-Saxons of non-miscegenation.

The first author to combine and the words "America" and "Latina" in the same term was the Chilean philosopher and politician Francisco Bilbao, on June 22, 1856, at a conference in Paris in which he read his text "Initiative of America: Idea of a Federal Congress of the Republics". The text proposes the creation of a confederation of republics in the region as an alternative to find a development model that takes into account the characteristics of its population and its geography, in addition to being able to face foreign imperialist projects after the US intervention in Mexico. (1846-1848). Although it is true that Chevalier had previously developed the term and made a deep reflection on it.

In the 1860s, the term was used by the French to claim a greater role in the region: Emperor Napoleon III launched a campaign to highlight the cultural kinship of the countries of Hispanic and Lusitanian heritage with France given the common Latino origin of their cultures, but also from regions with French heritage, such as Quebec, Acadia, Louisiana and the Caribbean islands. In this way, the Second French Empire claimed to be a cultural and political leader in America. This movement was evidenced on the political level by installing its protégé Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico, which became a sort of French protectorate. Thus, due Partially to the effort of Napoleon III, the term "Latin America" was accepted almost universally after 1870.

However, other Latin American historians, such as Arturo Ardao and Miguel Rojas Mix, argue that the term "Latin America" was used before and in opposition to any imperialist project, especially to counter US expansionism under the idea of "Destiny". Manifesto”, but also against European imperialism, characterized as despotic. In fact, Bilbao himself, during the French invasion of Mexico, wrote "Emancipation of the Spirit in America", where he asked all Latin American countries to support the Mexican cause against France, alleging that France was "hypocritical, because it is called herself protector of the Latino race only to subject it to her regime of exploitation; treacherous, because she speaks of freedom and nationality, when she, unable to conquer freedom herself, she enslaves others! ».

Geographically and in its origin, this compound noun delimits the southern and central part of the American continent and extends from Tierra de Fuego in the south, up to the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border and includes the Caribbean islands. In all cases, groups countries whose official language is Spanish or Portuguese (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela). Currently, the delimitation is imprecise, however, and some include French-speaking countries such as Haiti, but the inclusion of Belize (an English-speaking country, but with a strong presence of the Spanish language and culture), the French-speaking regions of Canada, the states and Spanish-speaking possessions of the United States, especially Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and the French territories in the Americas and the Caribbean (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin).

Of the three languages that define Latin America, Spanish and Portuguese are the predominant ones, leaving French as the language of only 3% of the region's population. Derived from the expression, the adjective "Latino" has been extended to refer to people of Latin American culture.

The region comprises more than twenty million square kilometers of surface area and an estimated population of 667 million inhabitants, which corresponds to approximately 13.5% of the planet's land surface. Due to its extension, Latin America presents a great geographical and biological diversity. It is home to practically all the climates in the world and is home to numerous animal and plant species. It also has some of the largest rivers in the world and important food, energy and mineral resources, among which its oil, copper, lithium and silver deposits stand out.^{[citation required]}

The term "Latino" From a cultural point of view, it refers to the European peoples whose language and civilization derive from Romania, the area under Roman rule and which maintained the use of Romance languages (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Moldavia, Monaco, Andorra, and some regions of Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, and Switzerland) and by extension to the peoples of other continents who share this cultural heritage. In the case of the American continent, the regions that were under the colonial rule of Spain, Portugal and France are those in which this Latino culture settled, mixing with indigenous influences and sub-Saharan Africa. After independence, migratory currents from the 19th and 20th centuries brought millions of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian immigrants who added more elements to the Latino character (especially in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela). However, there was also an important migratory movement of individuals carrying other European, Asian or African cultures.

From what has been reviewed, it can be established that the cultural identity of Latin America is made up of various origins: indigenous, Iberian and sub-Saharan in origin, to which Europeans (both Latin and from the Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Anglo-Saxon) along with influences from the Arab world (especially the Levant) and East Asia.

Concept

Etymology

The two Americas (frag.)

The race of Latin America,
to the front has the sajona race,
mortal enemy that already threatens
His freedom to destroy and his pendant.

José María Torres Caicedo

Memorial da América Latina, São Paulo. Note the representation made by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer from Mexico to the South, including the Antilles.

The concept of a culturally "Latin" America as opposed to another "Anglo-Saxon" America was introduced by French politician and economist Michel Chevalier in Letters on North America, a book he published in 1836 after traveling through the United States, Mexico and Cuba, although without using the expression "Latin America", contrasting an America descended from a Latin Europe with one of majority Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Hispanic Americans began to use the adjective "Latino" in the same sense at the beginning of the 1850s, preferring it to the narrower adjective "Hispanic" due to the colonialist connotation that this term had for the Americans of the time.

The first author to combine the words "America" and "Latina" in the same term was the Chilean philosopher and politician Francisco Bilbao, on June 22, 1856, at a conference in Paris in which he read his text "Initiative of America: Idea of a Federal Congress of the Republics". The text proposes the creation of a confederation of republics in the region as an alternative to find a development model that takes into account the characteristics of its population and its geography, in addition to being able to face foreign imperialist projects. A year later, Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo also used the term in the poem "Las dos Américas", published in the magazine El Correo de Ultramar, in Paris, on February 15, 1857, where he stated that the countries of the region had to unite in a common front to preserve their territory and their democratic model.

In this sense, it is important to highlight that the expression "Latin America" It was born as a specific term to differentiate a region of the world located in America that has been frequently the object of American and European expansionist and colonial projects, so it is necessary to have the specific historical events that Bilbao and Torres Caicedo mention to understand the origin of the term. Not in vain the historians who traced the first uses of the term "Latin America", the Uruguayan Arturo Ardao and the Chilean Miguel Rojas Mix, affirmed that from its very origin the expression "Latin America" it has had anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist connotations. Among other historical events contemporary to the authors that both Bilbao and Torres Caicedo mention as the central argument of their proposals, the most evident and recurring in both works is the US intervention in Mexico, where the latter country lost more than a third of its territory. Both authors also speak of the danger of losing the Isthmus of Panama. Torres Caicedo also expressly mentions the invasion of Nicaragua, where the American filibuster William Walker tried to create an English-speaking colony and reinstate slavery, which had been abolished for three decades in that country. Six years after the & # 34; Initiative of America & # 34;, Bilbao would also continue with his anti-colonialist project by writing La América en peligro (1862), where he categorically opposed the French invasion from Mexico. In this sense, Miguel Rojas Mix affirms that "Bilbao not only precedes other thinkers in the use of the expression 'Latin America,' it is also a precursor in the significance that this concept will acquire later. in the language of the Latin American left. In it, the concept is coined in an anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist thought and a socialist society project".

As a derivation of the expression «Latin America», the use of the term «latino» (an abbreviation of the term "latinoamericano" accepted as an adjective and noun by the Dictionary of the Spanish language of the ASALE and the RAE) to refer to people or belongings of the region with a specific appellation that, unlike "Hispano-American", also includes the inhabitants of Brazil and Haiti, where other Romance languages are spoken and where a third of the population of Latin America lives.

Definition

The expression Latin America or Latin America has several divergent uses and connotations:

In its simplest sense, "Latin America" usually refers exclusively to the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of the American continent, including Puerto Rico, even though it is a commonwealth of the United States of America. This would be synonymous with Ibero-America, but it is often considered incomplete to exclude territories that without being specifically Spanish or Portuguese speaking, culturally can be considered Latino.
In its most generally accepted sense, it would also encompass the French-speaking countries, namely, Haiti, the French overseas territories in America and Clipperton Island. According to the definition of the Spanish Royal Academy, "Latin America" is the group of American countries that were colonized by Latin nations, that is, Spain, Portugal or France. According to the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Dudas, to refer exclusively to Spanish-speaking countries it is more appropriate to use the specific term Hispanoamérica or, if included Brazil, the Portuguese-speaking country, the term Ibero-America.
Another less accepted sense would also encompass those territories in America where Latin languages are official or predominant, that is, the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Florida in the USA. UU, where there is an important presence of Spanish, and the French-speaking territories of Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Ontario in Canada and Louisiana in the USA. U.S.
A variant of the above is to include those territories that can be regarded as culturally Latino or with an important presence of Latin culture, but excluding territories that would culturally be closer to Anglo-American culture. Thus, the former territories of North America with an important presence of Spanish would be included, but the French-speaking territories of North America would be excluded because they were culturally closer to Anglo-American culture than Latin, despite the language. In this case, some include Belize and the United States Virgin Islands, as although they have English as an official language, they have a strong presence of Spanish and Latin culture.
No mention is made of non-Latin-speaking countries except for Belize and the United States Virgin Islands. These non-inclusive countries are Suriname, Guyana and various English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries. In the international geopolitical jargon it is common to use the term composite Latin America and the Caribbean to designate all the territories of the Western Hemisphere extending south of the United States, including previous countries.

Terminology controversy

See also: Use of the American word (a)

Romance languages in America.

The expressions Latin America and Latin America, despite being commonly accepted by the population of the countries to which they refer, have their detractors, especially among Hispanist, indigenous and anti-racist groups: the first for giving priority to Spanish influence and the last two for considering that it is a Eurocentric term imposed by the colonizers, since neither indigenous nor Afro-Americans could ever be considered of Latino origin, decisive quantitatively and qualitatively in the composition of the population. Even in many cases the indigenous people do not speak European languages. Additionally, the non-Latino nations and peoples of the Caribbean consider that the expression “Latin America” does not encompass them, because they do not speak a Romance language.^{[citation required]} In fact, even Brazilian authors such as Nélida Piñón doubt that the name encompasses their country, since it is not Hispanic.

The very use of the name "America" has historically been controversial. At the beginning of the 19th century, the independence leader Simón Bolívar wanted to call the entire region "Colombia", in honor of Christopher Columbus In the opinion of the Liberator, Columbus had more merit than Américo Vespucio to give the continent its name ("America" became popular in Europe due to Mercator's geographical charts, close-ups of America that left Spain towards the rest of Europe). In the past, the term "West Indies" was used to name the continent. The southern subcontinent was also called "South America" or "South America." As for the northern subcontinent, New Spain was also known as "Northern America", Mexico declared itself independent under that name during the Anahuac Congress in 1813.

The term Latin American is also criticized in that, according to many scholars, it seems to forcefully integrate the French colonies that bear little historical and cultural resemblance to the rest of the Spanish-American regions. The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, for his part, coined the variant & # 34; Indo-Afro-Ibero America & # 34; in his book Brave New World (1990).

A new theoretical position on "Latin America" is gaining strength in international arenas, which is linked more to anthropological and sociological aspects than to linguistics, and is based on the concept of "cultural horizon". The latter is understood as space geographical and temporal in which common cultural patterns prevail, which may include the use of a particular language. In this sense, the supporters of this position understand that countries of the Caribbean, Central and South America such as Jamaica, Suriname, Barbados or Belize are part of Latin America, since the cultural patterns of their population have similarities with other Ibero-American countries, differing from the practices of the nations of Anglo-Saxon America, which they see as another cultural horizon. Likewise, the French-speaking regions of Canada (despite the fact that French is a Latin language) would include it in Anglo-Saxon America, for the same reasons previously exposed. Among the supporters of this position we find renowned scholars such as Miguel Rojas Mix, Ricardo Méndez, Pedro Cunill Grau, John Cole, Rodolfo Bertoncello, Diego M. Ríos and Andrea Salleras.

Latin American Unity

Río Amazonas, Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina.

Arc del Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro, Cuba.

Angel Fall, Venezuela.

Atacama Desert, Chile.

Lake Atitlán, Guatemala.

The term "Latin America" has a sense of supranationality with respect to nation-states. Said supranational sense converges in different common initiatives that tend to the formation of political organizations that articulate it, such as the South American Community of Nations currently constituted in UNASUR/UNASUL and in the process of approval at treaty level by the respective congresses. Latin American Unity is a political-cultural concept widespread in Latin America prior to the times of independence, and which must be clearly distinguished from Pan-Americanism. Political parties, social sectors, intellectuals and artists from the most diverse backgrounds have repeatedly expressed their adherence to the most diverse forms of Latin American unity, from supranational organizations such as the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) to instances of political coordination such as the Permanent Conference of Political Parties of Latin America (COPPAL), cultural such as the Union of Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean (UDUAL) or sectoral that take the form of Latin American unions.

The Panama Canal and the Pan-American Highway constitute the main channels of communication and physical integration of Latin America

The historical and cultural similarities of the Latin American peoples have led to the creation of the idea of Latin America as a common great homeland. The regularization plan for immigrants from border countries initiated by Argentina in 2006 It bears the name, precisely, of Patria Grande.

Derived from the generic idea of Latin American unity, projects and political instances for the integration of Latin American nations have been developed. These projects have mainly taken shape in ALADI, but also in various physical, logistical and cultural integration projects and have been expressed in a particular theoretical body about the integration process. Within the framework of Latin American integration, there have also been more or less successful experiences of subregional integration, such as Mercosur, the Andean Community, or the Central American Integration System (SICA), which has led to the theory of Latin American integration to support different models of interrelation between the processes of subregional, Latin American and continental integration. In North America, Mexico is the only Latin American member of the T-MEC and is an observer in the 3 main Latin American groups in Central and South America.

Territory

Sovereign countries

Countries:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Dominican Republic
Uruguay
Venezuela

The territories that would be part of Latin America according to the literal connotation of the term (territories where Romance languages are spoken) are also mentioned: the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada; the states of Louisiana, Florida, California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in the United States plus Puerto Rico one of the US dependencies; and the French territories of French Guyana, Clipperton, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Dependent Territories

Dependencies:

French Guiana
Puerto Rico
Guadalupe
San Bartolomé
San Martín
Martinique
Quebec
San Pedro and Miquelón

Castillo del Morro in San Juan de Puerto Rico.

It should be noted that certain Latin American regions depend on certain countries.

One of them is Puerto Rico since 1898, which after a war between Spain and the United States became dependent on this North American country. Well, this country failed to find its independence, as Cuba and the Philippines had achieved, which also belonged to Spanish sovereignty and which also came under the domain of the United States. Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking island. Legally it is bilingual, in the sense that both Spanish and English are official languages, with Spanish being the vernacular language spoken by the entire population. English is taught as a second language, although less than 5% of the population is fully bilingual.

On July 23, 1965, Puerto Ricans went to the polls to vote for the options presented by the estadolibris, estastadistas, and independence movements, only 0.6% of the votes went to the independentistas. The reaffirmation of the Commonwealth established by common agreement under the terms of Law 600 of 1950 and Joint Resolution 447 of 1952 of the United States Congress as an autonomous community permanently associated with the United States of America wins by 60.4% of the votes. While 39% vote to request from the Congress of the United States of America the admission of Puerto Rico into the American union as a federated state.

However, the Puerto Rican Independence Party advocates full independence for the island. Although as soon as independence entered the UN agenda and it was concluded that the independence of the island or not of the country will only depend on the citizens.

French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique are not colonies of France, but are part of France, as overseas departments (DOM, Départements d'outremer). In contrast, the island areas of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin are overseas collectivities (Collectivités d'outremer) of France.

In the case of French Guiana, some intellectual members of Unasur, known as the emancipation socialism of the XXI century They have had some aspirational ideas so that this territory can achieve its total and complete independence. According to the thought, it is to complete a South America, on a full sovereignty of this overseas department, something similar as occurs in New Caledonia in Oceania.

History

Main article: History of Latin America

The idea of «Latin America» appeared in the 19th century and presupposes that the region must be defined based on categories European, in particular "lo latino". Therefore, strictly speaking, there cannot be a history of Latin America prior to October 12, 1492. Additionally, and due to the ethnic-geographical nature of the notion, both indigenous and Afro-American cultures are not included in the concept. Finally, from 1492 to the present, the Latin presence in the continent has been changing geographically and continues to change, in such a way that territories that a few centuries ago belonged to Latin America no longer belong today and vice versa.

Before the 16th century: Pre-Columbian period

16th–18th centuries: Colonial period

See also: European Colonization of America and Discovery of America.

First disembarkation of Christopher Columbus in America, in 1492.
First meeting between the Spanish military Hernán Cortés and the Mexican emperor, Moctezuma II, in 1519.
Atahualpa capture, in the Spanish conquest of the Incaic Empire in 1532.
Ouro Preto, founded in 1711, mining settlement of gold mining by the Portuguese empire in Brazil.
Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790.

European colonization of the Americas began in the late 15th century after Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492 with the patronage of the Crown of Castile. From there, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the British Empire, France and the Netherlands, conquered, plundered and colonized some territories and populations that already inhabited the continent.

The Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire were the first to make the conquest, and settled mainly in North America, Central America, and the Andean area of South America (Aztec and Inca empires, respectively). Spain was the power that imposed the greatest colonial presence in America. He conquered the two great empires existing in America at that time: in North America he came to take over the Aztec Empire, in present-day Mexico, establishing himself in its cities and from there he controlled a large part of Central America.

While in South America the Spanish Empire after assassinating the Inca Atahualpa in Cajamarca in 1532 came to appropriate the Inca Empire, in present-day Peru, Panama, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile, settling in their cities.

Until before 1535, from the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco and then in Jauja, Peru; The Spanish conquered and controlled the entire Andean zone and the Pacific coastal strip of South America from Panama City to Santiago de Chile. That year the City of Kings (Lima) was founded, which was the capital and control center of the extensive Peruvian Viceroyalty. Subsequently, the Viceroyalties of Nueva Granada and the Río de la Plata were created. In the Caribbean, it dominated Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, including the Florida peninsula within its Caribbean possessions.

Portugal appropriated most of the Atlantic coastal strip of the northern part of South America, which would later give rise to the State of Brazil. England established thirteen colonies on the North American Atlantic coastline, as well as some Caribbean islands. France occupied present-day French Guiana in South America (still under French rule), Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, some Caribbean islands, and the Canadian region of Quebec. The Netherlands established colonies in South America (Dutch Guiana today Suriname) and some settlements on Caribbean islands (Netherlands Antilles and Aruba).

19th century: Independence and republican organization

Main article: Hispanic American Independence Wars

Portrait of Miguel Hidalgo and Costilla, father of Mexico's independence.
Simon Bolivar, leader of emancipation in the South American North.
José de San Martín, leader of emancipation in South South America.
Pedro I of Brazil proclaimed Brazilian independence in 1822.
Dates of Independence of Latin America

Most of the populations under European rule in Latin America managed to gain independence from Spain, Portugal and France in the course of the 19th century, following the anti-colonial independence movement that originated in the United States in 1776. In 1805 Haiti gained independence from France; in 1809 and 1810 the independence wars began in the Spanish overseas territories; while Brazil obtained its independence relatively peacefully by creating a sovereign monarchy in 1821.

The Spanish-American wars of independence were a series of armed conflicts that took place in the Spanish possessions in the Americas in the early 19th century, in which pro-independence groups clashed in a joint operation against viceroyalty authorities and the faithful to the Spanish Crown. Depending on the point of view from which they are approached, these emancipatory processes can be seen as wars of independence or civil wars, or else, a combination of various forms of wars.

The independence movements of Hispanic America took on various forms according to the conditions prevailing in each region. For this reason “it is essential that, at the beginning, we do not reduce different movements to a common denominator. Different groups acted in different stages: the Caracas elite took the initiative to separate from the Spanish monarchy in 1810, while the Lima elite divided in 1808 on the one hand, fearing that with independence they would lose the commercial monopoly via the port of Callao, in South America. South with Europe and on the other about the question of autonomy within the empire and for these reasons he firmly opposed the revolution of Independence of Peru in 1820 and did not act as a homogeneous group in 1821 when he joined the movement of the Argentine liberator Don José de San Martín".

The political crisis in Spain and the occupation of its territory by France in 1808 are two events that encouraged the independence movement in Latin America. In response to the enthronement of José Bonaparte in Spain, between 1808 and 1810 government juntas were installed that exercised sovereignty over the French occupation, both in the peninsula and in overseas possessions. The differences between European Spain and the American territories became more acute after that crisis, which finally unleashed the Spanish-American armed independence movements. The armed struggle between the Americans and the viceregal armies began around 1810 in most of the Spanish domains.

The independence of South America was consolidated after the defeat of the Spanish Empire in the battle of Ayacucho, Peru in 1824. The battle of Ayacucho was the last major confrontation in the land campaigns of the Spanish-American wars of independence (1809–1826) and marked the definitive end of Spanish viceregal rule in South America. The battle took place in the current Pampa de la Quinua in the Ayacucho Region, Peru, on December 9, 1824. The victory of the independentistas meant the disappearance of the most important royalist military contingent that was still standing, sealing the independence of Peru. with a military capitulation that put an end to the Viceroyalty of Peru.

After the Battle of Ayacucho some independent governments had to face royalist guerrillas, for example in 1823–1827 in (Venezuela); between 1827 and 1830 in Pasto (Colombia); in southern Chile, supported by Mapuches and Pehuenches, until 1832; and the Iquicha guerrilla in Peru, until the 1830s.

The United States, the United Kingdom, and France established trade relations with the new American governments and subsequently recognized the sovereignty of the new states throughout the 1820s. However, Spain only abandoned plans for reconquest after the death of Fernando VII, occurred in 1833. The Spanish Cortes renounced the American dominions in 1836 and authorized the government to make peace and recognition treaties with all the new states of Spanish America.

After the battle of Ayacucho in 1824, there was no other Spanish military operation in the Americas for 40 years until 1863, when Spain attempted to reestablish overseas dominance in the Dominican Republic through the War of the Restoration, which it ended with a new defeat of the Spanish Empire in 1865.

Almost simultaneously, in 1864, Spain militarily occupied the Chincha Islands in the Peruvian sea, of great importance for its richness in guano, unleashing the so-called Spanish-South American war, war against Spain (its name in Peru) or war of the Pacific (as it is known in Spain), a warlike conflict that took place mainly on the Peruvian and Chilean coasts, in which the Spanish Navy faced off against the American republics of Chile and Peru, mainly, and Bolivia and Ecuador, secondarily —since that these last two countries did not actively participate militarily in the conflict. Hostilities ended in 1866 and an armistice was achieved in 1871. Peace treaties were signed bilaterally between each South American country and Spain in 1879 (Peru and Bolivia), 1883 (Chile), and 1885 (Ecuador).

In 1868 Cuba began its first war of independence, which was defeated in 1878. Finally, in 1895 the Cuban War of Independence or War of 1895 took place, managing to install the first independent government in 1898. Already advanced in the independence conflict, the United States The United States decided to intervene through what is known as the Spanish-American War, which allowed it to displace Spain from its territories of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, occupying them militarily in 1899. In 1902 the Republic of Cuba was established, but including in the constitution the Platt Amendment, which empowered the United States to intervene militarily and politically in Cuba. The United States maintained a sector of the island of Cuba, Guantánamo, as its possession until the present.

At the beginning of the century, the United States continued its interventionist attitude, which was directly aimed at defending its interests in the region. This attitude was officially articulated through what was known as Theodore Roosevelt's Palo Grande doctrine, which modified the old Monroe Doctrine, which was simply intended to discourage European intervention in the hemisphere. At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the new Cuban government and the United States signed the Platt Amendment of 1902, which authorized the United States to intervene in Cuban affairs when deemed necessary. In Colombia, the United States sought a land concession in Panama to build a large canal across the isthmus. The Colombian government opposed the plan, but a Panamanian insurrection provided the United States with an opportunity. In the first decades of the century, there were several military incursions in Central America and the Caribbean, in defense of commercial interests, which were called the "Banana Wars".

20th century–1990: Economic and social opening, and cold war

Argentina and Uruguay ostentated per capita GDP comparable to developed countries in the 19th-XX century.
European immigrants disembarking in Argentina, in the late nineteenth century.
In the 1950s Venezuela enjoyed great prosperity thanks to the discovery of oil.

Aguascalientes Convention, after the Mexican Revolution, in 1914.
Revolutionaries on horseback in 1959, after the Cuban revolution.
Bombardeo del Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago de Chile, in 1973.

By obtaining their independence and consolidating their republican structures, Latin American countries turned to economic and social openness with the rest of the world, no longer being subject to a colonialist monopoly. Thus, on the one hand, the use of resources and comparative advantages that the region had had since colonial times, and its attractiveness for the economies of other continents, also considering, and as a novelty, the attraction of international private capital investment. This brought on the one hand an incipient economic improvement, but at the same time the replication of the economic model for the provision of raw materials. In this context, and given the economic prosperity, despite the significant inequality that the region was suffering from, there was a massive attraction of European economic immigrants, who were looking for better opportunities outside of overpopulated Europe, and which was accentuated after the first and second world war, due to the war on that continent, and the de facto neutrality of Latin American countries in such conflicts.

The world wars also brought with them new ways of thinking in the ideological, political and economic spheres, which crystallized internationally in the period known as the cold war, which pitted capitalism against communism. This new panorama favored a certain instability within the Latin American countries, producing riots, revolutions and coups d'état in favor of one side or the other. A precedent for this occurred in 1908, with the Mexican revolution, when President Porfirio Díaz promised to leave the presidency and businessman Francisco I. Madero launched a presidential campaign in 1910. Díaz changed his election and, preventing a socialist revolution, arrested Madero. the same day of the election and Díaz himself is declared the winner. These events sparked riots, which marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. The quintessential example was the Cuban revolution, communist in nature, and consequently, the missile crisis in Cuba, a point of high tension between the two blocs in the world panorama of the cold war, and which could have caused a third war. world. In the same way, there was a series of authoritarian governments and military regimes throughout the continent, until the end of the cold war worldwide, after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and that It coincides in Latin America with the end of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, in 1990.

1990–21st Century: Post-Cold War

Main articles: Socialism of the 21st Century, Pink sea and Conservative wave.

Meeting of Mercosur leaders in 2012.
Pacific Alliance Leaders Meeting in 2012.
Death of Hugo Chávez 2013.
Venezuelan migration crisis.

With the end of the cold war, the world opened up to a time of important changes at the international level, favoring economic and cultural integration through globalization and the advancement of telecommunications. In Latin America, political-economic blocs such as Mercosur in 1991, the Andean Community in 1996, Unasur in 2006, Celac in 2010 and the Pacific Alliance in 2011, joined the antecedents Sela (1975) and Aladi (1980). As a remnant of the regional cold war, at this time there is an ideological seesaw between left and right governments. At the beginning of the new millennium, the socialism of the 21st century emerged, promoted by the government of Hugo Chávez from Venezuela, and influenced by Cuba, which was mainly welcomed in countries such as Ecuador, under the government of Rafael Correa, and Bolivia, under the government of Evo Morales, among others, framed in the early turn of Latin American politics to the left, until its weakening from 2015, with the Bolivarian migration crisis.

Economy

Main article: Economics of Latin America

See also: Annex: Latin American Companies

The economies of Latin America mark a notorious diversity in terms of existing economic policies, being a diverse region in terms of politics and economics, and likewise unstable, due to the continuous change of approach in what is It refers to monetary policies in the countries of the region, which has generated constant internal and external conflicts with different outcomes in Latin American history.

Currently, we can recognize 3 types of economic systems in Latin America, that although they can maintain general contents and maintain spectrums of symbiosis, their economies follow a predetermined line, in this we recognize the purely capitalist, open economies, which are They are based on the free market model and free trade agreements.

These countries are Peru, Chile, Mexico and Colombia, founding countries of the Pacific Alliance, as well as Panama and Costa Rica, which follow the economic models of the United States and the European Union.

While, on the other hand, there are countries that, although they maintain a structure of openness to the world, are clearly protectionist, models more focused on the social market economy or mixed economies in different magnitudes, the case of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Finally, there are those countries that maintain closed economies, or with very little free market relationship, maintaining economic relations with countries exclusive to their blocs, with a clear tendency to the Marxist economic model, the case of Cuba and to a lesser extent Venezuela and Nicaragua that despite supporting semi-closed economic models, they maintain commercial relations with the powers of capitalism, the United States and Europe. ^{[citation required]}

The largest economies in Latin America based on GDP PPP (purchasing power) in 2021 are led by Brazil with 3,585,985 million dollars, followed by Mexico with 2,869,542 million, Argentina with 1,104,860 million, Colombia with 867,190 million dollars, Chile with 550,450 million dollars and Peru with 487,404 million dollars, while the most developed economies in terms of GDP per capita PPP, the leader is Puerto Rico with (38,540US$), followed by by Panama with (32,887US$) and Chile with (27,629US$), while the five nations with the best HDI according to the UNDP UN in its latest report on the human development index, the leader is Puerto Rico (0.85), Chile (0.843), Argentina (0.825), Costa Rica (0.809), Uruguay (0.804) and Panama (0.789).

On July 1, 2013, the World Bank classified the economies of Chile and Uruguay as high-income economies, marking the first time in the history of Latin America where countries in the region share that status. The World Bank groups countries based on GDP per Capita Athlas Method of 2013.

Agriculture

Orange in Sao Paulo. In 2018 Brazil was the world's largest producer, and Latin America covered 30% of the global production of this fruit.
Agricultural soy industry in Paraguay. The soy is mainly cultivated in the Paraná and Río de La Plata basins.
Colchagua Valley, Chile. The cultivation of vines is important for the production of wines, fish and foaming. It is traditional in temperate and semi-arid countries of the region.
Avocados or paltas, one of the typical crops in Latin America, and traditional in Mexico and Central America.
Coffee plantations in Bolivar, Colombia. Coffee is cultivated in Central America and the Cononorte of South America.

The four countries with the largest agriculture in South America are Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. At the moment:

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar cane, soy, coffee, orange, guarana, açaí and nuts in Brazil; it is one of the 5 largest producers of corn, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon and lemon; and it is one of the 10 largest producers in the world of cocoa, cashew, avocado, mango, guava
Argentina is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of soy, corn, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest global producers of barley, grapes, artichoke, tobacco and cotton and one of the 15 largest global producers of wheat, sugar cane, sorghum and grapefruit;
Chile is one of the 5 largest global producers of cherries and blue blueberry, and one of the 10 largest global producers of grapes, apples, kiwi, peach, plum and hazelnuts, focusing on the export of high-value fruit;
Colombia is one of the 5 largest producers in the world of coffee, avocado and palm oil, and one of the 10 largest producers in the world of sugar cane, banana, pineapple and cocoa;
Peru is one of the 5 largest producers of avocado, blue cranberry, alcachofa and asparagus, one of the 10 largest producers worldwide of coffee and cocoa, one of the 15 largest producers worldwide of potato (the largest in Latin America) and pineapple, and also has a considerable production of grapes, sugar cane, rice, banana, corn and manioc; its agriculture is considerably diversified.
Agriculture in Paraguay is currently developing, the sixth largest soy producer in the world and entering the list of the 20 largest producers of corn and sugar cane.

In Central America, the following stand out:

Guatemala, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of coffee, sugar cane, melon and natural rubber, and one of the 15 largest producers of banana and palm oil in the world;
Honduras, which is one of the world's top 5 coffee producers and one of the top 10 palm oil producers;
Costa Rica, which is the world's largest pineapple producer;
Dominican Republic, which is one of the top 5 global potato and avocado producers and one of the top 10 cocoa producers.

Mexico is the world's largest producer of avocado, one of the world's top five producers of bell pepper, lemon, orange, mango, papaya, strawberry, grapefruit, pumpkin and asparagus, and one of the world's 10 largest producers of cane of sugar, corn, sorghum, beans, tomato, coconut, pineapple, melon and blueberry.

Livestock, fishing and aquaculture

Fishing boats in Peru. Fishing is an important item on the Pacific coast.
cattle ranching in Argentina, 1903. The cattle ranching has a long tradition in the river basin of La Plata.
Argentina, Mexico and Brazil are among the ten countries that produce the most honey in the world.
Truck of a meat company in Brazil. Latin America produces 25% of the world's beef and chicken.
Salmon aquaculture in Chiloé, Chile.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of chicken meat: 3.77 million tons in 2019. The country is the owner of the second largest cattle herd in the world, 22.2% of the world herd. The country was the second largest producer of beef in 2019, responsible for 15.4% of world production. It was also the third largest producer of milk in the world in 2018. This year, the country produced 35.1 billion liters. In 2019, Brazil was the 4th largest pork producer in the world, with almost 4 million tons.

In 2018, Argentina was the fourth largest beef producer in the world, with a production of 3 million tons (behind only the United States, Brazil and China). Uruguay is also a major meat producer. In 2018, it produced 589 thousand tons of beef.

In the production of chicken meat, Mexico is among the 10 largest producers in the world, Argentina among the 15 largest, and Peru and Colombia among the 20 largest. In beef production, Mexico is one of the 10 largest producers in the world and Colombia is one of the 20 largest producers. In pork production, Mexico is among the 15 largest producers in the world. In honey production, Argentina is among the 5 largest producers in the world, Mexico among the 10 largest and Brazil among the 15 largest. In terms of cow's milk production, Mexico is among the 15 largest producers in the world and Argentina among the 20.

Mining

Mexico is the first world silver producer.
Chile is the first world producer of copper.
Peru is the second world producer of copper, silver and zinc.
The Puna de Atacama between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile concentrates 85% of the world's lithium reserves.
Mexico, Chile and Brazil are among the ten salt-producing countries in the world.

Mining is one of the most important economic sectors in Latin America, especially for Chile, Peru and Bolivia, whose economies are highly dependent on this sector. The continent has large productions of gold (mainly in Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina); silver (mainly in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina); copper (mainly in Chile, Peru, Mexico and Brazil); iron ore (Brazil, Peru and Chile); zinc (Peru, Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil); molybdenum (Chile, Peru and Mexico); lithium (Chile, Argentina and Brazil); lead (Peru, Mexico and Bolivia); bauxite (Brazil and Jamaica); tin (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil); manganese (Brazil and Mexico); antimony (Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador); nickel (Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Cuba); niobium (Brazil); rhenium (Chile); iodine (Chile), among others.

Brazil stands out in the extraction of iron ore (where it is the second largest producer and exporter in the world - iron ore is usually one of the 3 export products that generate the highest value in the country's trade balance), copper, gold, bauxite (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), manganese (one of the 5 largest producers in the world), tin (one of the largest producers in the world), niobium (concentrates 98% of the world's known in the world) and nickel. In terms of gemstones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate, and one of the leading producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet, and opal. There is also amethyst production in Uruguay and Bolivia. Guyana is a sizeable diamond producer.

Chile was, in 2019, the world's largest producer of copper, iodine and rhenium, the second largest producer of lithium and molybdenum, the sixth largest producer of silver, the seventh largest producer of salt, the eighth largest producer of potash, the thirteenth largest producer of sulfur and the thirteenth largest producer of iron ore in the world. In gold production, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced annual amounts between 35.9 tons in 2017 to 51.3 tons in 2013.

Peru was, in 2019, the second world producer of copper and silver, the eighth world producer of gold, the third world producer of lead, the second world producer of zinc, the fourth world producer of tin, the fifth largest producer of boron and the fourth largest producer of molybdenum in the world.

Bolivia was, in 2019, the 8th world producer of silver; 4th world producer of boron; 5th world producer of antimony; 5th world producer of tin; 6th producer world producer of tungsten; 7th world producer of zinc, and the 8th world producer of lead. In gold production, until 2012 the country produced an annual average of between 7 and 10 tons per year. Subsequently, mining increased, reaching a production peak in 2014 of 25 tons. In 2017 the country produced 24.8 tons.

Mexico was, in 2019, the world's largest silver producer, the world's ninth gold producer, the world's eighth copper producer, the fifth largest lead producer, the sixth largest zinc producer, the fifth largest producer of molybdenum, 3rd largest producer of mercury, 5th largest global producer of bismuth, 13th largest global producer of manganese and 23rd.er world producer of phosphate. It is also the eighth world producer of salt.

Argentina was, in 2019, the fourth world producer of lithium, the ninth world producer of silver, the seventeenth world producer of gold and the seventh world producer of boron.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of emerald. In gold production, between 2006 and 2017, the country produced 15 tons per year until 2007, when its production increased significantly, breaking a record of 66.1 tons extracted in 2012. In 2017, it extracted 52.2 tons. The country is among the 25 largest gold producers in the world. In silver production, in 2017 the country extracted 15.5 tons.

Combustible energies

Oil refinery in Amuay, Venezuela. This country has been a member of OPEC since 1960.
Ecopetrol headquarters, Colombia oil company.
Petroecuador fuel station, oil company of Ecuador. This country has been a fluctuating member of OPEC for 32 years.
Petrobras, Brazil's leading oil company.
Refinería de Tula, de la empresa mexicano Pemex.

In oil production, Brazil was the 10th largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels/day. Mexico was the twelfth largest, with 2.1 million barrels/day, Venezuela was twenty-first, with 877 thousand barrels/day, Colombia in 22nd place with 886 thousand barrels/day, Ecuador in 28th with 531 thousand barrels/day. day and Argentina. 29 with 507 thousand barrels / day. Since Venezuela and Ecuador consume little oil and export most of their production, they are part of OPEC. Venezuela had a big drop in production after 2015 (where it produced 2.5 million barrels/day), falling in 2016 to 2.2 million, in 2017 to 2 million, in 2018 to 1.4 million, and in 2019 to 877 thousand, due to lack of investment.

In the production of natural gas, in 2018, Argentina produced 1524 bcf (billions of cubic feet), Mexico produced 999, Venezuela 946, Brazil 877, Bolivia 617, Peru 451, Colombia 379.

The Brazilian government has embarked on an ambitious program to reduce dependence on imported oil. Imports previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs, but Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. Brazil was the tenth largest oil producer in the world in 2019, with 2.8 million barrels/day. Production manages to supply the country's demand. At the beginning of 2020, in the production of oil and natural gas, the country exceeded 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for the first time. In January of this year, 3,168 million barrels of oil per day and 138,753 million cubic meters of natural gas were extracted.

In 2020, Mexico was the fourteenth largest oil producer in the world and in 2018 it was the twelfth largest exporter. In natural gas, the country was, in 2015, the twenty-first world producer and in 2007 the twenty-ninth exporter. Mexico was also the 24th largest coal producer in the world in 2018. Colombia was the 20th largest oil producer in the world and in 2015 the 19th largest exporter. In natural gas, the country was, in 2015, the 40th largest producer in the world. The highlight of Colombia is coal, where the country was, in 2018, the twelfth world producer and the fifth world exporter. Venezuela, which was one of the largest oil producers in the world (about 2.5 million barrels / day in 2015) and one of the largest exporters, due to its political problems, has seen its production drastically reduced in recent years.: reached only 300,000 barrels / day in 2020. Argentina was, in 2017, the 18th world producer (and the largest producer in Latin America) of natural gas, in addition to being the 28th producer of oil; Although the country has the Vaca Muerta field, which contains about 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil, and is the second largest shale natural gas field in the world, the country lacks the capacity to develop the field.: It is necessary capital, technology and knowledge that can only come from offshore energy companies, which view Argentina and its erratic economic policies with considerable suspicion, without wanting to invest in the country. Trinidad and Tobago and Bolivia stand out in the production of natural gas, where they were, respectively, the 20th and 31st largest in the world in 2015. Ecuador, because it consumes little energy, is part of OPEC and was the 27th largest producer of oil in the world in 2020, being the 22nd largest exporter in 2014.

Alternative energies

Itaipu dam, hydroelectric work shared between Paraguay and Brazil.
Photovoltaic plant in Copiapo, Chile.
Wind energy in Parnaíba, Brazil.
Control room of the Atucha Nuclear Power Station, Argentina.
Pirapora Solar Complex in Brazil.

Largest producers of annual electricity generated by all sources among the countries of the region in 2020.

	Country	Electricity production Millions kWh
01	Brazil	568 000
02	Mexico	303 000
03	Argentina	132 000
04	Venezuela	109 000
05	Chile	76 000
06	Colombia	75 000
07	Paraguay	63 000
08	Peru	50 000
09	Ecuador	27 000
10	Puerto Rico	21 000

Brazil is one of the world's leading producers of hydroelectric power. In 2019, Brazil had 217 hydroelectric plants in operation, with an installed capacity of 98,581 MW, 60.16% of the country's energy generation. In total electricity generation, in 2019 Brazil reached 170,000 MW of installed capacity, more than 75% from renewable sources (mostly hydroelectric). At the end of 2021, Brazil was the second country in the world in terms of power installed hydroelectric (109.4 GW).

In 2013, the Southeast Region used around 50% of the load of the National Integrated System (SIN), being the main energy consuming region of the country. The region's installed electricity generation capacity totaled almost 42,500 MW, which represented about a third of Brazil's generation capacity. Hydroelectric generation represented 58% of the region's installed capacity, with the remaining 42% basically corresponding to thermoelectric generation. São Paulo represented 40% of this capacity; Minas Gerais in approximately 25%; Rio de Janeiro at 13.3%; and Espírito Santo accounted for the rest. The Southern Region owns the Itaipu Dam, which was the largest hydroelectric power station in the world for several years, until the inauguration of the Three Gorges Dam in China. It remains the second largest operating hydroelectric power plant in the world. Brazil is co-owner of the Itaipu Plant with Paraguay: the dam is located on the Paraná River, located on the border between countries. It has an installed generation capacity of 14 GW for 20 generating units of 700 MW each. The Northern Region has large hydroelectric plants, such as the Belo Monte Dam and the Tucuruí Dam, which produce much of the national energy. Brazil's hydroelectric potential has not yet been fully exploited, so the country still has the capacity to build several renewable energy plants on its territory.

In 2019, the country was estimated to have an estimated wind power generation potential of around 522 GW (this, onshore alone), enough power to meet three times the country's current demand. As of July 2022, according to ONS, the total installed capacity was 22 GW, with an average capacity factor of 58%. Although the world average wind production capacity factor is 24.7%, there are areas where northern Brazil, especially in the state of Bahia, where some wind farms register an average capacity factor of more than 60%; the average capacity factor in the Northeast Region is 45% on the coast and 49% in the interior. In 2019, wind energy represented 9% of the energy generated in the country. In 2021, Brazil was the seventh country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21 GW), and the fourth largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), only behind China, the US and Germany.

Nuclear power accounts for about 4% of Brazil's electricity. The nuclear power generation monopoly is owned by Eletronuclear (Eletrobrás Eletronuclear S/A), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eletrobrás. Nuclear power is produced by two reactors in Angra. It is located at the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Plant (CNAAA) at Praia de Itaorna in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. It consists of two pressurized water reactors, Angra I, with a capacity of 657 MW, connected to the electricity grid in 1982, and Angra II, with a capacity of 1,350 MW, connected in 2000. A third reactor, Angra III, with a is expected to be 1,350 MW, it should be finished.

As of October 2022, according to ONS, the total installed capacity of photovoltaic solar energy was 21 GW, with an average capacity factor of 23%. Some of the most irradiated Brazilian states are MG (Minas Gerais), BA (Bahía) and GO (Goiás), which actually hold world records for irradiation. In 2019, solar energy represented 1.27% of the energy generated in the country. In 2021, Brazil was the fourteenth country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13 GW), and the eleventh largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh).

In 2020, Brazil was the second largest country in the world in biomass energy production (energy production from solid biofuels and renewable waste), with 15.2 GW installed.

In renewable energy, in 2020, Mexico ranked 14th in the world in terms of installed wind energy (8.1 GW), 20th in the world in terms of installed solar energy (5.6 GW) and 19th in the world in installed hydroelectric power (12.6 GW). Colombia ranked 45th in the world in terms of installed wind power (0.5 GW), 76th in the world in terms of installed solar power (0.1 GW) and 20th in the world in terms of installed hydropower. (12.6GW). Venezuela stands out in hydroelectricity, where it was the fourteenth country in the world in terms of installed capacity in 2020 (16.5 GW). Argentina ranked 27th in the world in installed wind power (2.6 GW), 42nd in the world in installed solar power (0.7 GW) and 21st in the world in installed hydroelectric power. (11.3GW). The country has great future potential for the production of wind energy in the Patagonia region. Chile has great future potential for solar energy production in the Atacama desert region. Paraguay stands out today in hydroelectric production thanks to the Itaipu Power Plant.

Tourism

Aerial view of Cancun. Mexico is the most visited country in Latin America and the only one to be within the ten most touristic countries in the world.

Countries most visited by international tourists in 2015

According to the IDB, income from international tourism is an important source of foreign currency for several Latin American countries, and represents a significant percentage of GDP and exports of goods and services, as well as an important source of income. employment.

In the list of world tourist destinations, in 2018, Mexico was the seventh most visited country in the world, with 41.4 million international tourists (and income of U $ 22.5 billion), a good part of which for border with the United States. Argentina was the 47th most visited country, with 6.9 million tourists (and revenue of US$5.5 billion); Brazil was the 48th most visited with 6.6 million tourists (and income of US$5.9 billion); Dominican Republic in 49th place with 6.5 million tourists (and income of U$7.5 billion); Chile in 53rd place with 5.7 million tourists (and income of U$2.9 billion); Peru in 60th place with 4.4 million tourists (and income of U$3.9 billion); Colombia 65th with 3.8 million tourists (and income of U$5.5 billion); Uruguay 69th with 3.4 million tourists (and income of U$2.3 billion); Costa Rica 74th with 3 million tourists (and income of U$3.9 billion). Keep in mind that the number of tourists does not always reflect the amount of money the country gets from tourism. Some countries carry out higher level tourism, obtaining more benefits. Tourism in South America is still little evolved: in Europe, for example, countries obtain annual tourist values such as U$73.7 billion (Spain), receiving 82.7 million tourists, or U$67.3 thousand million (France) receiving 89.4 million tourists. While Europe received 710 million tourists in 2018, Asia 347 million and North America 142.2 million, South America received only 37 million, Central America 10.8 million and the Caribbean 25.7 million.

According to the evaluation carried out by the World Economic Forum (WEF), several of the Latin American countries still present deficiencies in the areas of infrastructure and the legal framework, but they are very competitive in aspects related to cultural and natural resources, factors for which it is attractive to make investments or develop businesses in the travel and tourism sector of the countries of the region.

Most Latin American nations use their natural resources and good hospitality to attract tourists. They also have very open international visa policies. The countries of the region are aware of the importance of tourism in job creation (10% of world GDP) and many actively support the tourism sector. At the same time, the region shares some areas of development, such as land infrastructure and the opportunity to better value cultural resources. The following are the 10 most competitive Latin American countries for international tourism: Mexico is the highest ranked country in the region, followed by Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Barbados and Colombia.

The main statistics on international tourism for the 20 Latin American countries are summarized below, including the indicators that reflect the importance of this activity for their economies and the tourism competitiveness index of each country.

Country of Latin America	Arrivals tourists internl. 2017 (thousands)	Income tourism internl. 2017 (in millions) USD)	Income medium for arrival 2010 (USD/tur)	Arrivals for 1000. (estimated) 2007	Income per capita 2005 USD	Income % export property services 2003	Income tourism % GDP 2003	% Employment direct e indirect tourism 2005	Classif. World Competitiv. Tourism TTCI 2011	Value of Contents TTCI 2011
Argentina	5325	5060	932	115	57	74	18	91	60	42
BoliviaBolivia♪	959	784	416	58	22	94	22	76	117	335
BrazilBrazil	6589	5809	1147	26	18	32	5	7	52	436
ChileChile	6450	3634	591	151	73	53	19	68	57	427
ColombiaColombia	4027	4821	913	126	49	71	14	91	77	418
Costa RicaCosta Rica	2960	3876	1005	442	343	175	81	133	44	443
CubaCuba	3975	2907		188	169
EcuadorEcuador	1608	1657	746	71	35	63	15	74	87	379
El SalvadorEl Salvador	1556	873	339	195	67	129	34	68	96	368
GuatemalaGuatemala	1660	1556	1130	108	66	16	26	6	86	382
HaitiHaiti♪			685♪	n/d	12♪	194	32	47	n/d
HondurasHonduras	936	715	725	117	61	135	50	85	88	379
Mexico Mexico	39 300	21 333	530	201	103	57	16	142	43	443
NicaraguaNicaragua	1787	841	306	443	316	165	79	131	100	356
Panama Panama	1843	4452	1273	330	211	106	63	129	56	43
Paraguay Paraguay	1537	603	467	68	11	42	13	64	123	326
Peru Peru	4032	3710	989	65	41	9	16	76	69	404
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	6188	7178	1028	408	353	362	188	198	72	399
Uruguay Uruguay	3674	2540	636	525	145	142.	36	107	58	424
Venezuela Venezuela♪	601	473	1281	28	19	13	4	81	106	346

Note (1): The three countries marked with an asterisk (♪) do not have all their statistics available for 2010; therefore, only the 2003 data for Haiti and 2009 for Bolivia and Venezuela were included as reference.
Note (2): The shaded color Green denotes the country with the best indicator, and the shaded color yellow corresponds to the country with the lowest value, both for countries with data from 2010.

Industry

Embraer, an industrial company of Brazilian aeronautics.
Intel American Microprocessor Factory in Costa Rica.
Steel sheets manufactured by Techint of Argentina, one of the main companies in the world.
Bimbo Group headquarters, Mexican company manufacturer of processed food products.
Mercedes-Benz Factory in São Paulo. Brazil and Mexico are among the top 10 vehicle producers in the world and Argentina among the top 30.

The World Bank annually lists the top manufacturing countries by total manufacturing value. According to the 2019 list, Mexico would have the twelfth most valuable industry in the world (US$217.8 billion), Brazil has the thirteenth largest (US$173.6 billion), Venezuela the thirtieth largest (US$58.2 billion, however, which depend on oil for this value), Argentina the 31st largest (U$57.7 billion), Colombia the 46th largest (U$35.4 billion), Peru the 50th largest (U$28.7 billion) and Chile the 51st largest (U$28.3 billion).

In Latin America, few countries achieve projection in industrial activity: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and, less prominently, Chile. Started late, the industrialization of these countries received a major boost from World War II: this prevented the countries at war from buying the products they were used to importing and exporting what they produced. At that time, benefiting from the abundant local raw material, the low wages paid to the workforce, and a certain specialization brought by immigrants, countries like Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, as well as Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, were able to implement important industrial parks. In general, in these countries there are industries that require little capital and simple technology to set up, such as the food processing and textile industries. Basic industries (steel, etc.) also stand out, in addition to the metallurgical and mechanical industries.

The industrial parks of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, however, present a much greater diversity and sophistication, producing articles of advanced technology. In the rest of the Latin American countries, mainly in Central America, the industries that process primary products for export predominate.

The general characteristics of the industrial and productive composition of the exporting economies of Latin America are the extraction of natural resources, mainly the mining and oil, manufacturing and agricultural industries.

Brazil is the industrial leader in Latin America. In the food industry, in 2019, Brazil was the second largest exporter of processed foods in the world. In 2018, the country was the third largest producer of beer in the world. In 2016, the country was the 2nd pulp producer in the world and the 8th largest paper producer. In the footwear industry, in 2019, Brazil ranked 4th among world producers. In 2019, the country was the 8th.º producer of vehicles and the 9th producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry in Brazil was the eighth in the world. In the Textile industry, Brazil, although it was among the 5 largest world producers as of 2013, it is poorly integrated into world trade. In the aviation industry, Brazil has Embraer, the world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer, behind only Boeing and Airbus.

In 2019, Mexico was the 6th largest producer of vehicles, the 15th largest producer of steel, and the 4th largest producer of beer, among other industrial products. Argentina was the 31.er world producer of steel, the 28th producer of vehicles, the 22nd world producer of beer and 4th world producer of soybean oil, among other industrial products.

The countries where the agricultural industry is the most important are Brazil (20%) being the world's largest producer of orange and green coffee, Argentina (27%) and Paraguay (55%), while in Uruguay it is the cattle rancher with (19%) followed by agriculture with (16%), the only Latin American country where the manufacturing sector is the main industry, is in Mexico with (37%) followed by oil, Regarding the oil industry, this is the main one in Venezuela with (63%) of its exports, Ecuador (46%), Colombia (40%) and Bolivia with its oil gas exports with (37%)), the countries where the mining industry is the main one are Chile (51%) being the world's largest producer of copper, lithium and iodine, and Peru (58%). In the case of Panama and Costa Rica, these base their economies clearly in the service area.

According to the World Bank, the Latin American economy at market prices (Purchasing Power Parity), becomes the 3rd largest and most powerful in the world with 6.06 trillion dollars. It is mostly based on a secondary and/or tertiary economy. In recent years there have been great advances at a political, economic and social level, producing an accelerated development in practically all its countries. The region has less access to credit compared to other regions (30%), however, it has a stable financial system, with relatively small but well-established banks.

The Latin American economies with the highest growth in 2012 were Panama with a growth of 10.5%, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia between 6.9% and 4.0%.

The economic crisis in the United States and Europe only hit Latin America at the end of 2008, as there has been a decrease in world trade and a decrease in capital flows. The region contracted 1.9% in 2009, and will register an increase of 4.9% in 2010, making it one of the fastest growing regions in the world. In addition, various multilateral organizations would invest close to $90 billion between 2009 and 2010. Thus, the World Bank would invest $35.6 billion; the IDB, $29.5 billion; the Andean Development Corporation, $20 billion; the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, $4.2 billion; and the Caribbean Development Bank, $500 million. Multilateral organizations will finance infrastructure projects, social programs and commercial loans, in addition to propping up bank liquidity, among other uses.

Transportation

Quality of roads and highways
IMF 2017–2018

Maritime ports by activity
ECLAC

#	Country	Post world	Note (1.0-7.0)
1	ChileChile	24	5.2
2	EcuadorEcuador	29	5.1
3	Panama Panama	49	4.4
4	Mexico Mexico	52	4.4
5	NicaraguaNicaragua	54	4.3

#	Port and city	TEU
1	Columbus	4.324.478
2	Santos	3.836.487
3	Manzanillo	3.078.505
4	Cartagena	2.862.787
5	Panama-Pacific	2.520.587

Rodovia dos Bandeirantes, Brazil

Route 9 / 14, Zarate, Argentina

General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, Venezuela

International Airport of Mexico City

Port of Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Transportation in South America is basically carried out by road, the most developed in the region. There is also a considerable infrastructure of ports and airports. The rail and fluvial sector, although it has potential, is usually treated secondarily.

Brazil has more than 1.7 million km of highways, of which 215,000 km are paved, and some 14,000 km are divided highways. The two most important highways in the country are BR-101 and BR-116. Argentina has more than 600,000 km of highways, of which about 70,000 km are paved and about 2,500 km are divided highways. The three most important highways in the country are Ruta 9, Ruta 7 and Ruta 14. Colombia has about 210,000 km of highways and about 2,300 km are divided highways. Chile has about 82,000 km of highways, 20,000 of which are paved, and approximately 2,000 km are divided highways. The most important highway in the country is Route 5 (Pan-American Highway) These 4 countries are the ones with the best road infrastructure and the largest number of two-lane highways.

The road network in Mexico has an extension of 366,095 km, of which 116,802 km are paved; Of these, 10,474 km (6,508 mi) are multi-lane highways: 9,544 km (5,930 mi) are four-lane highways, and the remainder have 6 or more lanes.

Due to the Andes Mountains, Amazon River and Amazon Rainforest, there have always been difficulties to implement transcontinental or bioceanic highways. Practically the only route that existed was the one that connected Brazil with Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and then with Santiago, in Chile. However, in recent years, with the joint efforts of the countries, new routes have begun to emerge, such as Brazil-Peru (Interoceanic Highway), and a new highway between Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina, and northern Chile (Corredor bioceanic).

There are more than 2,000 airports in Brazil. The country has the second largest number of airports in the world, behind only the United States. São Paulo International Airport, located in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, is the largest and busiest in the country - the airport connects São Paulo with virtually all major cities in the world. Brazil has 44 international airports, such as those in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, Cuiabá, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belém and Manaus, among others. Argentina has important international airports such as Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta, Puerto Iguazú, Neuquén and Ushuaia, among others. Chile has important international airports such as Santiago, Antofagasta, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas and Iquique, among others. Colombia has important international airports such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, Cali and Barranquilla, among others. Peru has important international airports such as Lima, Cuzco and Arequipa. Other important airports are those of the capitals of Uruguay (Montevideo), Paraguay (Asunción), Bolivia (La Paz) and Ecuador (Quito). The 10 busiest airports in South America in 2017 were: São Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), São Paulo-Congonhas (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Brasilia (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro. (Brazil), Buenos Aires-Aeroparque (Argentina), Buenos Aires-Ezeiza (Argentina) and Minas Gerais (Brazil).

There are 1,834 airports in Mexico, the third largest number of airports per country in the world. The seven largest airports, absorbing 90% of air travel, are (in order of air traffic): Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. Considering all of Latin America, the 10 busiest airports in 2017 were: Mexico City (Mexico), São Paulo-Guarulhos (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), Cancún (Mexico), São Paulo-Congonhas (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Lima (Peru), Brasilia (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Tocumen (Panama).

About ports, Brazil has some of the busiest ports in South America, such as the Port of Santos, the Port of Rio de Janeiro, the Port of Paranaguá, the Port of Itajaí, the Port of Rio Grande and the Port of Suape. Argentina has ports such as the Port of Buenos Aires and the Port of Rosario. Chile has important ports in Valparaíso, Caldera, Mejillones, Antofagasta, Iquique, Arica and Puerto Montt. Colombia has important ports such as Buenaventura and Bahía de Cartagena. Peru has important ports in Callao, Ilo and Matarani. The 15 busiest ports in South America are: Port of Santos (Brazil), Port of Bahía de Cartagena (Colombia), Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Antonio (Chile), Buenaventura (Colombia), Itajaí (Brazil), Valparaíso (Chile), Montevideo (Uruguay), Paranaguá (Brazil), Río Grande (Brazil), São Francisco do Sul (Brazil), Manaus (Brazil) and Coronel (Chile).

The four main seaports that concentrate around 60% of merchandise traffic in Mexico are Altamira and Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, and Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas on the Pacific Ocean. Considering all of Latin America, the 10 largest ports in terms of movement are: Colón (Panama), Santos (Brazil), Manzanillo (Mexico), Bahía de Cartagena (Colombia), Pacífico (Panama), Callao (Peru), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina), San Antonio (Chile) and Buenaventura (Colombia).

The Brazilian railway network has an extension of about 30,000 kilometers. It is basically used to transport minerals. The Argentine railway The network, with 47,000 km of tracks, was one of the largest in the world and is still the most extensive in Latin America. It once had about 100,000 km of rails, but the raising of tracks and the emphasis placed on motorized transport gradually reduced it. It has four different trails and international connections with Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. Chile has almost 7,000 km of railways, with connections to Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Colombia has only about 3,500 km of railways.

Among the main Brazilian waterways, two stand out: Paraná-Tieté Waterway (which has a length of 2,400 km, 1,600 on the Paraná River and 800 km on the Tietê River, draining the agricultural production of the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and part of Rondônia, Tocantins and Minas Gerais) and Hidrovia do Solimões-Amazonas (it has two sections: Solimões, which extends from Tabatinga to Manaus, with approximately 1600 km, and Amazonas, which extends from Manaus to Belém, with 1650 km Almost all passenger transport from the Amazon plain is carried out by this waterway, in addition to practically all cargo transport that goes to the main regional centers of Belém and Manaus). In Brazil, this transport is still underused: the most important sections of waterways, from an economic point of view, are located in the southeast and south of the country. Its full use still depends on the construction of locks, large dredging works and, mainly, ports that allow intermodal integration. In Argentina, the waterway network is made up of the La Plata, Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers. The main river ports are Zárate and Campana. The port of Buenos Aires is historically the first in individual importance, but the area known as Up-River, which extends along 67 km of the Santa Fe portion of the Paraná river, brings together 17 ports that concentrate 50% of the total country exports.

Economic integration

The largest trade agreement or bloc in the region is UNASUR, made up of Mercosur and CAN. Economic integration is being attempted at the continental level through CELAC, Aladi and SELA. Mexico is part of NAFTA with the United States and Canada. For their part, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic have a free trade agreement in force with the United States (DR-CAFTA), and other agreements with Canada and Mexico through CARICOM. Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela also have their own bloc, called in this case the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean. In South America there is a predominant bloc, Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela with Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, and Suriname as associate members. In the south of the continent, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru make up the Andean Community of Nations, of which the neighboring countries are associate members and recently Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru formed the Pacific Alliance that will create an area of deep integration among the member countries that will seek to conquer the Asian market.

Outside the continental scope, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are the only countries in the region that are part of the Group of 20 (industrialized and emerging countries); while Chile, Mexico and Peru are part of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum). Finally, Chile, Colombia and Mexico are part of the OECD.

Current currency

Intraregional economic integration

Interregional economic integration

Country	Current currency	ISO Code
Argentina	Argentine peso	ARS
Bolivia	Bolivian	BOB
Brazil	Brazilian Real	BRL
Chile	Chilean peso	CLP
Colombia	Colombian peso	COP
Costa Rica	Colon costarricense	CRC
Cuba	Cuban peso	CUP
Ecuador	American dollar	USD
El Salvador	American dollar	SVC
Guatemala	Quetzal	GTQ
Haiti	Gourde Haitian	HTG
Honduras	Lempira	HNL
Mexico	Mexican peso	MXN
Nicaragua	Nicaragua	NIO
Panama	American dollar	PAB
Paraguay	Guaraní paraguayo	PYG
Peru	New sun	PEN
R. Dominican	Dominican peso	DOP
Uruguay	Uruguayan peso	UYU
Venezuela	Bolívar	VE

OECD

Mexico
Chile
Colombia

G-20

Brazil
Mexico
Argentina

Brazil
Mexico

BRICS

Brazil

MIST

Mexico

OPEC

Ecuador
Venezuela

NAFTA

Mexico

CIVETS

Colombia

Mexico
Chile
Peru

Attraction of foreign direct investment

Main article: Foreign direct investment in Latin America

The reception of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America marked an upward trend, especially since 2000. In 2012, incoming FDI according to the economic organization ECLAC was 173.361 million dollars, a true record, considering that incoming foreign direct investment between 2000 and 2006 totaled only 68.183 million dollars.

The largest economies that receive and export investments continue to be led by Brazil, followed by Mexico and Chile, although the trend is towards a slowdown in the economies of Brazil and Mexico, with a negative variation in their investment income of up to -34.9%; On the contrary, Chile shows an accelerated and growing investment attraction, registering a positive variation of 32.2% in 2012, and is thus the second Latin American economy in investment attraction in 2012, and the first economy with more relative investments as a share of GDP and per capita.

In addition, the growing arrival of foreign investment in Latin America has not only capitalized on the 3 largest economies receiving investment Brazil, Mexico and Chile; Countries like Colombia have, in turn, achieved historical figures in terms of attracting investment, while Peru has been the country that has increased its percentage of investments the most, registering an increase of 49% compared to 2011.

Generation of FDI

Main article: Foreign direct investment in Latin America

On the other hand, in terms of outward FDI, the largest economies that lead the reception of foreign direct investment, Brazil, Mexico and Chile, also lead foreign investment through Latin multinational companies, in this Aspect Mexico is the leader in capital exports in 2012 adding 25,597 million dollars, followed by Chile with 21,090.

Direct investment abroad by the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean grew 17% in 2012 to reach 48,704 million dollars, which represents an all-time high. FDI flows from the region have remained at high levels for the last three years. These investments came mainly from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, although in 2012 they were concentrated almost exclusively in Mexico and Chile. Trans-Latin American companies have benefited over the past three years from a good level of economic growth and investor confidence in the region, which has favored their access to credit. In 2012, in a context of global FDI contraction, trans-Latin American companies expanded, in some cases, based on business opportunities generated by the withdrawal of European firms. Indeed, seven of the ten largest acquisitions made by trans-Latins in 2012 corresponded to the purchase of assets from European companies. América Móvil was the main protagonist of this process by expanding its activities to Europe. Chilean companies invested 21.09 billion dollars abroad in 2012, which represented a new record, and concentrated their expansion in South America, mainly in retail trade, the forestry industry, and transportation. For their part, Brazilian companies continued their expansion abroad and made 7 of the 20 largest acquisitions made by trans-Latinas in 2012.

Structural, commercial and financial indicators

This section is an excerpt from Annex: Socioeconomic Indicators of Latin America § Structural, Commercial and Financial Indicators.[chuckles]edit]

Buenos Aires.

São Paulo.

Santiago de Chile.

Bogota.

Mexico City.

Major financial centres in Latin America.

Country	2019 Capitalization in stock values (M US$)	2010-2019 Attraction of FDI (M US$)	2010-2019 Generation of FDI (M US$)	2020 Facility to do Business (world rankings)	2022 Freedom economic (world rankings)	2019 Competivity economic (world rankings)	2020 Complexity economic (world rankings)	2021 Innovation (world rankings)	2020 Energy renewable (% electrical matrix)
Argentina	39 393	97 456	13 478	126	144	83	75	73	24.8
Bolivia	-	6 636	-	150	169	107	110	104	37.1
Brazil	1 187 361	795 565	145 177	124	133	71	60	57	84.2
Chile	203 791	177 308	110 024	59	20	33	76	53	48.6
Colombia	132 040	133 754	45 618	67	60	57	64	67	68.5
Costa Rica	217	27 485	-	74	55	62	48	56	99.8
Cuba	-	-	-	-	175	-	120	-	3.5
Ecuador	747	7 917	-	129	126	90	119	91	78.9
El Salvador	-	4 064	-	91	90	103	61	96	67.6
Guatemala	-	11 595	-	96	69	98	82	101	59.3
Haiti	-	1 469	-	179	145	138	-	-	23.4
Honduras	-	11 547	-	133	92	101	95	108	74.8
Mexico	413 618	326 455	112 025	60	67	48	20	55	21.0
Nicaragua	-	8 576	-	142	122	109	103	-	63.0
Panama	16 841	42 875	-	86	56	66	40	83	82.0
Paraguay	312	4 686	-	125	73	97	84	88	100.0
Peru	98 964	80 808	-	76	51	65	105	70	64.7
Dominican Republic	-	25 374	-	115	71	78	62	93	13.4
Uruguay	283	22 866	12 766	101	34	54	65	65	94.0
Venezuela	3 979	17 670	8 192	188	176	133	125	-	58.4

Notes:

In blue = More favorable value.
In the sky = Within the five most favorable values.
In red = More unfavorable value.
FDI = FDI.
All figures were closed by truncated.

Socioeconomic indicators

This section is an excerpt from Annex: Socioeconomic Indicators of Latin America § Socioeconomic Indicators.[chuckles]edit]

Country	2021 nominal GDP (M US$)	2021 GDP (M US$)	2021 nominal GDP per capita (US$)	2021 GDP per capita (US$)	2020 Inflation (%)	2020 Equality income (Gini)	2020 Poverty (% US$5.5 day)	2020 Public debt bruta (% GDP)
Argentina	416 938	991 166	10 729	23 627	53.5	42.3	14	102.0
Bolivia	43 039	105 541	3 414	9 030	1.6	43.6	20	67.3
Brazil	1 431 624	3 235 901	7 518	16 056	2.7	48.9	20	75.8
Chile	280	487 447	16 502	29 104	2.8	44.9	4	33,0
Colombia	280 401	764 843	6 131	16 893	2.4	54.2	29	62.8
Costa Rica	61 186	103 549	12 508	23 387	0.7	49.3	11	79.3
Ecuador	99 247	199 065	5 934	11 661	0.2	47.3	25	68.9
El Salvador	26 224	57 944	4 408	9 668	0.2	38.8	22	90.2
Guatemala	80 402	157 843	5 025	9 769	2.1	48.3	49	31.3
Haiti	8 050	20 381	1 814	3 127	22.3	41.1	79	54.4
Honduras	26 230	59 054	2 831	6 252	3.2	48.2	49	54.9
Mexico	1 094 528	2 565 545	926	20 036	3.3	45.4	23	45.5
Nicaragua	11 966	35 937	2 090	6 331	4.3	46.2	35	57.2
Panama	62 799	136 593	14 516	31 680	-0.8	49.8	12	69.8
Paraguay	38 287	97 779	5 400	13 975	2.9	43.5	15	33.9
Peru	210 733	422 969	692	13 895	1,8	43.8	21	35.4
Dominican Republic	81 782	208 859	8 603	20 769	3.3	39.6	12	50.5
Uruguay	57 742	80 319	17 020	24 625	9.9	40.2	3	73.0
Venezuela	43 749	-	-	-	6 500.0	44.8	33	350.0

Notes:

In blue = More favorable value.
In the sky = Within the five most favorable values.
In red = More unfavorable value.
All figures were closed by truncated.

Poverty

See also: Annex: Countries per percentage of poverty in Latin America

In terms of poverty levels, according to ECLAC in its latest report published in 2020, the Latin American countries with fewer people in this situation are Uruguay with 3.0%; Chile with 10.7% and Panama with 14.6%, meanwhile, there are countries that still have a majority of their population in poverty, as in said report is the case of Honduras, with 52.3%, or as in the World Bank database they are —in addition to Honduras— Guatemala and Haiti, the latter two with a respective 49% and 79% of their population living on less than 5.5 dollars a day.

Social inequality and poverty continue to be the main challenges in the entire region: according to ECLAC reports, Latin America is the most unequal region in the world. In Latin America, 31% of the population lived below the poverty line. poverty during 2011, a figure that is the lowest poverty rate that the region has had for several decades. Some 170 million Latin Americans lived below the poverty line for that year. During the period 2000–2011, the three most egalitarian countries, based on the Gini Coefficient, were: Uruguay (0.397), Peru (0.415) and Bolivia (0.416). The most unequal in the same period, based on the same coefficient, were Haiti (0.595), Colombia (0.585) and Honduras (0.577).

In the last decade, according to a World Bank report, and as a result of the economic boom of recent years and the creation of jobs, the middle class grew at historical levels in Latin America, approximately 50%, reaching to total 30% of the total population of the region. Almost a third of Latin American families now consider themselves middle class, a fact that has reduced the proportion of poor people to a similar percentage, 30% of the population, having left some 73 million people out of poverty. Inequality has also decreased. Despite this, the situation in Latin America continues to be very uneven in the different countries: between 2003 and 2009 Argentina achieved the highest growth of the middle class in all of Latin America, doubling the number of people in that segment of the population. Other countries such as Brazil and Colombia have achieved success in integrating large portions of the population into this segment. Others continue to be unable to translate economic growth into social improvements.

This section is an excerpt from Annex:Countries per percentage of poverty in Latin America § Indices of poverty.[chuckles]edit]

Country	Poverty indices				Indices of extreme poverty
Country	World Bank 2019 Monetary poverty (% US$6.85 day)	ECLAC 2019 Poverty (% ≤ basic ECLAC basket)	Oxford-ONU 2020 Poverty multidimensional	Countries 2019 Informed poverty (% per country methodology)	World Bank 2019 Monetary poverty (% US$1.9 day)	ECLAC 2019 Extreme poverty (% ≤ ECLAC food basket)	Countries 2019 Extreme poverty informed (% ≤% food basket of each country)
Argentina	11	27.2	-	35.5	0.8	4.2	8,0
Bolivia	16	31.1	20.4	37.2	1.9	12.1	12.9
Brazil	26	19.2	3,8	24.7	5.4	5.5	6.5
Chile	8	10.7	-	8.6	0.3	1.4	2.3
Colombia	35	31.7	4.8	35.7	5.3	12.8	9.6
Costa Rica	14	16.5	-	21.0	1.1.	3.4	5.8
Cuba	-	-	0.4	-	-	-	-
Ecuador	30	25.7	4.6	25,0	3.6	7.6	8.9
El Salvador	29	30.4	7.9	22.8	1.4	5.6	4,5
Guatemala	55	-	28.9	59.3	9,5	-	23.4
Haiti	86	-	41.3	-	29.2	-	-
Honduras	50	52.3	19.3	59.3	12.7	20,0	36.7
Mexico	31	41.5	6.6	48.8	2.6	10.6	16.8
Nicaragua	42	-	16.3	44.4	3.9	-	8.9
Panama	12	14,6	-	20.7	1.0	6.6	9.8
Paraguay	20	19.4	4,5	23.5	1.0	6.2	4.0
Peru	29	15.4	7.4	20.2	3.0	3.0	2.9
R. Dominican	20	20.3	8.8	21.0	0.8	4.3	2.7
Uruguay	5	3.0	-	8.8	0.1	0.1	0.1
Venezuela	39	-	-	32.6	6.7	-	9,5

Notes:

Blue = More favorable value.

The celestial = Within the five most favorable values.

Red = Unfavorable value.

All figures were closed by truncated.

The data from Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua are outdated more than five years ago.

Population

Population (2023)
N.o	Country	Population
1.o	Brazil	216 422 446
2.	Mexico	128 455 567
3.o	Colombia	52 085 168
4.o	Argentina	46 333 328
5.o	Peru	34 352 719
6.o	Venezuela	28 838 499
7.	Chile	19 629 590
8.	Ecuador	18 190 484
9.	Guatemala	17 586 110
10.	Bolivia	12 388 571
11.	Haiti	11 724 763
12.	Dominican Republic	11 332 972
13.	Cuba	11 194 449
14.o	Honduras	10 593 768
15.	Nicaragua	7 046 310
16.	Paraguay	6 861 524
17.	El Salvador	6 364 943
18.	Costa Rica	5 212 173
19.	Panama	4 468 087
20.	Uruguay	3 423 108
	Total	652 504 579

Demographics

Most of the population in Latin America is made up of young people, under 25 years of age, although the adult or elderly population is growing more and more, the oldest country in Latin America is Cuba, followed by Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica, where there is a strong process of collapse of the child and youth population, also in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Belize In Guatemala and Bolivia, the rate of children and young people is already beginning to decline; on the other hand, in Honduras and Haiti it is estimated that the rate of children and young people will begin to decrease in a few years, since they are still very young countries. average life varies between 70 and 80 years of age in most countries, such as Costa Rica (79.7 years), Chile (79.57 years), Cuba (79.07 years), Panama (77, 37 years), Mexico (77.14 years) and Uruguay (76.91 years), being the Latin American countries in which live longer, according to 2012 World Bank data.

Latin America is characterized by being one of the most urbanized areas in the world, where 82% of the population lives in urban contexts, only behind Anglo-Saxon America and Europe, particularly in countries such as Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, where close to 90% of the population is urban. However, it is important to consider that the criteria for determining what is urban differ from one country to another, thus, for example, while in Venezuela and Mexico any population agglomeration with 2,500 or more inhabitants is considered urban, in countries such as Argentina, Colombia or Bolivia is considered urban an agglomeration of 2000 inhabitants; In Ecuador and Costa Rica, the administrative centers of provinces and cantons are considered urban, and in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, agglomerations of 1,000 inhabitants, provided they have urban characteristics such as electricity and commerce.

The Latin American urban population is characterized by being concentrated in large metropolitan areas, such as Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Guadalajara, Caracas, which have experienced large migratory flows from rural areas and from smaller cities, at least since the beginning of the XX century. On the contrary, in some countries, such as Honduras or Haiti, more than half of the population is rural.

Projections

Year 2050

N.o	Country	Population (2050)
1.o	Brazil	230 885 725
2.	Mexico	143 772 364
3.o	Colombia	56 987 651
4.o	Argentina	52 070 088
5.o	Peru	42 022 554
6.o	Venezuela	35 937 404
7.	Guatemala	23 824 276
8.	Ecuador	22 269 779
9.	Chile	20 675 378
10.	Bolivia	16 609 854
11.	Haiti	15 087 520
12.	Honduras	14 258 514
13.	Dominican Republic	13 180 541
14.o	Cuba	10 028 085
15.	Nicaragua	9 094 641
16.	Paraguay	8 591 486
17.	El Salvador	636 854
18.	Panama	5 736 121
19.	Costa Rica	5 702 525
20.	Uruguay	337 143
	Total	736 708 503

Year 2100

N.o	Country	Population (2100)
1.o	Brazil	180 682 762
2.	Mexico	141 509 942
3.o	Argentina	56 802 493
4.o	Colombia	45 221 276
5.o	Peru	39 158 180
6.o	Venezuela	34 240 724
7.	Guatemala	31 270 073
8.	Ecuador	24 482 822
9.	Bolivia	17 390 956
10.	Chile	17 332 335
11.	Haiti	14 760 450
12.	Honduras	14 325 309
13.	Dominican Republic	11 012 548
14.o	Paraguay	8 733 633
15.	Nicaragua	8 124 405
16.	Cuba	671 461
17.	Panama	6 439 999
18.	Costa Rica	4 797 969
19.	El Salvador	4 766 079
20.	Uruguay	3 181 955
	Total	670 905 371

Metropolitan Areas

The following table shows the ten most populated cities in Latin America:

N.o	Metropolitan Area	Country	Population by Major Agglomerations of the World (2017)	Population by Last official census	Source
1	Mexico City	Mexico Mexico	22 300 000	21 815 533	[19]
2	São Paulo	BrazilBrazil	22 100 001	19 672 582	[20]
3	Buenos Aires	Argentina	15 180 000	12 801 364	[21]
4	Rio de Janeiro	BrazilBrazil	12 700 000	10 977 035	Census IBGE 2010
5	Lima	Peru Peru	10 100 000	8 472 935	Census 2007
6	Bogotá	ColombiaColombia	9 500 000	7 961 254	Est DANE 30-06-2009
7	Santiago	ChileChile	620 000	5 428 590	[22]
8	Guadalajara	Mexico Mexico	5 050 000	5 268 642	[23]
9	Belo Horizonte	BrazilBrazil	4 950 000	5 031 438	[24]
10	Monterrey	Mexico Mexico	4 750 000	5 341 171	[25]

Ethnography

Latin America is one of the areas of the planet with the greatest ethnic diversity and offers an amalgamation of peoples whose presence and percentage varies from one country to another depending on the migratory movements received throughout its history. Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, both in population and in area, so it may have the largest population of each race or ethnic group among these countries. In this region, four predominant groups can be distinguished: Amerindians, mestizos, Creoles and Afro-Americans (blacks, mulattoes and zambos).

Country	Mestizos (%)	Whites (%)	Indigenous peoples (%)	Black, Fine, Asian and Other (%)
Argentina 2	11	85	3	1
BelizeBelize 1	48.7	4.6	10.6	36.1
BoliviaBolivia 2	32	12	54	2
BrazilBrazil 3	33.1	47.7	0.3	19.7
ChileChile 2	39.7	52.7	6.7	0.9
ColombiaColombia 3	49	37	3.4	10.6
Costa RicaCosta Rica 3	3.6	80.8	2.4	13,2
CubaCuba 1	14,9	64.1	0	20
EcuadorEcuador 3	71.9	6.1	7.0	7.6
GuatemalaGuatemala 3	41.7	18.5	39.8	0.4
HaitiHaiti 1	0	5	0	95
HondurasHonduras 1	87	4	7	2
Mexico Mexico 2	70	15	14	1
NicaraguaNicaragua 1	69	17	5	9
Panama Panama 1	70	10	6	14
Paraguay Paraguay 2	75	20	2	3
Peru Peru 1	37	15	45	3
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico 1	8.5	75.8	3.3	12.4
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic 1	73	16	0	11
El SalvadorEl Salvador 1	86.3	12.7	1	0
Uruguay Uruguay 1	8	88	0	4
Venezuela Venezuela 3	51.6	43.2	1	3.6

Sources:

1. CIA Data World Factbook Archived on January 6, 2019 at Wayback Machine.
2. "Ethnic Composition of the Three Cultural Areas of the American Continent to the Beginning of the 21st Century" Dr. Lizan
3. Censuses of the respective countries

The following table shows how Latin Americans respond to the question What race do you consider yourself to belong to? In the Latinobarómetro survey.


Country	Mestizos	Whites	Amerindians	Fine	Black	Asian	Other	DK/NA
Argentina	26%	61 per cent	1%	1%	1%	0%	3%	7%
Bolivia	57%	4%	27%	1%	1%	0%	1%	9%
Brazil	17%	49%	1%	13%	17%	0%	1%	2%
Chile	25%	59%	8%	1%	0%	0%	2%	5%
Colombia	47%	26%	5%	5%	6%	0%	2%	9%
Costa Rica	31 per cent	40%	4%	17%	3%	1%	1%	3%
Dominican Republic	29%	11%	4%	24 per cent	26%	3%	0%	3%
Ecuador	81%	4%	7%	3%	3%	1%	0%	1%
El Salvador	68%	10%	5%	4%	4%	2%	0%	7%
Guatemala	15%	29%	45%	1%	1%	0%	1%	8%
Honduras	62%	9%	13%	5%	2%	1%	1%	7%
Mexico	52%	6%	19%	2%	0%	1%	3%	17%
Nicaragua	67 per cent	6%	8%	2%	3%	1%	0%	13%
Panama	53%	16%	7%	5%	10%	1%	1%	7%
Paraguay	55%	29%	3%	1%	1%	0%	2%	9%
Peru	76%	6%	7%	1%	1%	1%	1%	7%
Uruguay	7%	74%	1%	4%	3%	0%	3%	8%
Venezuela	33%	32%	4%	21%	8%	0%	0%	2%
Total	47%	24 per cent	9%	6%	5%	1%	1%	7%

Indigenous

Indigenous or original refers to the peoples and nations that existed when the Europeans arrived in the Americas. Populations from Asia entered through the Bering Strait during the last ice age, about 25,000 years ago, and colonized the four subcontinents. The only country where the percentage of indigenous people is the largest component of the population is Bolivia, while in Peru and Guatemala they make up approximately 40-45%. There are significant indigenous communities in Ecuador and Mexico. There are minorities between 5-10% in Belize, Honduras, Panama, Chile and Nicaragua. Finally, there are very small minorities (less than 4%) in Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Argentina and Brazil.

Mongrels

A representation of mestizos in a "Pintura de Castas" of the colonial era. "Spanish and Indian produces mestizo".

Mestizo or mestizo is a term within the system of races and castes or crosses used by the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire to classify the American population and attribute privileges and duties according to the belonging of each person. Within this racist system, the denomination of mestizo was applied to the person who was the result of a cross between the "white race" (for European) and the "Indian race" (by indigenous). The Royal Spanish Academy includes the word, defining it as one born to a father and mother of different races, especially a white and indigenous man, or an indigenous man and a white woman, despite the fact that in the last century the term race has fallen into disuse in academic fields, being replaced by the concept of ethnicity. Despite the universal condemnation of racism, the category continues to be used by some people and some studies, in many cases without any rigor. The use of the category "mestizo" and other categories derived from racist classifications of the population such as "zambo" or "mulatto" it has been questioned as racism by various studies.

In the term mestizo there is a certain imprecision, since in Spanish it has been applied especially to individuals resulting from miscegenation between Spaniards and Amerindians. One forgets with this use that a considerable part of the miscegenation in Hispanic America was between whites with blacks, blacks with Amerindians or the secondary miscegenation of mestizos with Amerindians and blacks. The untamed, acquired such a denomination for exhibiting a phenotype, which indicated that they were the mixture of a mestizo and an Indian, in the case of the zambo, of a black and an Amerindian, as well as a white with black in the case of the mulatto or brown., and from a mestizo to the result of a white with an Amerindian, and from this result with another Amerindian, an undomestic is obtained. The countries with the highest predominance of the mestizo population are in order: Honduras, El Salvador, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua and Ecuador. There are also significant numbers of the mestizo population, although not the majority in countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and the Canadian province of Quebec.

Creoles and whites

Criollo was originally a term used in the Spanish viceroyalties in America to distinguish people who were born there but were of European descent, from those who were born in the American viceroyalties but were of indigenous or African descent. Later the term was used to differentiate people of "European race" whose ancestors were already in America at the beginning of the 19th century, from the people of the new immigrants.

Due to racist pressures, both before and after the viceregal era, many people with indigenous or African ancestors hid those roots in order to be classified as "white" or "creoles". In the opposite sense, some social sectors of European descent oppose "Creole" to "civilized" or "European", assigning a devaluing and derogatory charge to the Creole condition.

European emigration to Latin America has hosted a considerable number of people from different countries, mainly Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico, where the largest number of people from European countries were concentrated. The main European diasporas to Latin America were especially Spanish in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Mexico, Portuguese in Brazil and Venezuela, Italians in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Germans in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, French in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Irish in Argentina, Mexico and Chile, English in Argentina, Chile, and finally Croatians in Argentina and Chile.

Recent genetic studies have established that large sectors of the population traditionally classified as "European", "white" or "criollos", actually have one or more indigenous or African ancestors. In Argentina, for example, where it was established in the census in 1947 that more than 95% of its population was white, recent genetic studies have established that more than half of the population has at least one indigenous or African ancestor, generally maternally..

Contrary to these studies, other sources maintain that in countries with a predominance of this ancestry, such as Uruguay, Argentina and Costa Rica, they exceed 80% of the population.

In Puerto Rico (United States) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France) -dependent territories- there is also an absolute Creole majority, which represents between 70-80% of those countries. In countries like Cuba, the white population comes to represent 65%, while in Chile and Brazil a little more than 50%, and finally in Venezuela and Colombia it has percentages of 35-47%.

Other countries that present themselves as a minority but are visible are Paraguay, Guatemala and Nicaragua that have percentages that are between 17-20%, in Mexico there is no specific number of exactly how much the percentage of the Creole population is, there is a number of no more than 9%, 15% or 20%, the Dominican Republic and Peru with more than 15%, El Salvador and Bolivia approximately 12% and finally Panama 10%. On the other hand, in countries such as Ecuador, Haiti, Belize and Honduras are small minorities of the population.

In quantity, the countries with the largest number of people of Creole origin are Brazil (approximately 91 million), Argentina (approximately 38 million), Mexico (20 million), Colombia (approximately 16 million), Venezuela (more than 13 million) Chile (more than 12 million), Cuba (more than 7 million) and Peru (more than 4.6 million). In Argentina, the population classified as "white" in many cases it does not correspond to that classified as "creole", because they are descendants of immigrants who arrived between 1850 and 1950, mostly Italians.

Immigrations from Spain and Portugal during the conquest and, above all, during the European Colonization of America, were later joined by immigrants from other European countries, mainly from Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland and Croatia. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay significantly increased their population, receiving important migratory flows from Europe from the second half of the 19th century, mainly from Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany. Chile received a large number of mainly Spanish (Basque) immigrants, with contributions from Germans, Italians, Croatians, French, Swiss, Arabs and British, who make up the country's Creole population, estimated at 64%. For its part, Cuba received considerable immigration based, almost entirely, on Spaniards. Costa Rica received a considerable number of European immigrants, and also maintains homogeneous Caucasianism among its population. Puerto Rico also received European immigration, mainly from Spain itself and also from France, but at the beginning of the XIX century. Mexico during the 20th century and the mid-19th century also received immigrants, mainly Spanish exiles, as well as Italians, French, English, Germans, and very recently Americans and Canadians of British and German origin. Colombia received mainly Spanish and Arab immigration; Paraguay received European immigration in the 20th century just like Colombia, but in a much smaller flow. Peru received immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, also in smaller flows. Venezuela, being today a multi-ethnic country, also had great immigration in the 20th century, especially from Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Germans; this thanks to the economic growth due to the discovery of oil, which significantly modified its ethnography, currently the Creole population represents 43.6% of the total population of the country. We can also include here the Canadian province of Quebec and the French overseas territory of San Pierre and Miquelon; both have European ancestry from France since the conquest and colonial times. Although in the province of Quebec, other immigrants also joined, mainly from the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and France itself, as well as some Arab countries.

Recent studies of mitochondrial DNA, only transmitted through mothers, in the white phenotypic population in these countries reveal that there is also a percentage of miscegenation in this population. This coincides with the historical data on the predominance of male immigrants.

Afro-descendants

East and Southeast Asians

Latin America has also received minorities of immigrants from the Far East, both from East Asia and Southeast Asia. These immigrants have progressively mixed with the local population, giving rise to new types of miscegenation. They come mainly from China, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Korea and Laos, forming important communities in certain countries: Japanese mainly in Brazil (the largest Japanese ethnic community outside of Japan), Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and Bolivia; Chinese and Taiwanese in El Salvador, Panama, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Puerto Rico; Filipinos in Argentina, Mexico and Puerto Rico; Koreans in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, and Chile; Laotian in Argentina. It should be noted that the Chinese and Japanese community in Peru —together with the one based in Brazil—, is one of the most important and numerous in the region.

Near-Eastern

Since the late XIX century, a significant number of immigrants from the Near East have arrived in Latin America, mainly from Arab and Jewish, although not exclusively. Although many of them arrived directly from the Ottoman Empire, prior to 1918, most came directly from countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Israel or the Palestinian Territories. They were installed mainly in countries such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Around 10,000 immigrants from the Near East entered Peru.

It is significant, for example, the flow of Palestinians that arrived in Chile from the XIX century; these immigrants currently form the largest and largest Palestinian colony outside the Arab world with around 450,000-500,000 members.

In Ecuador it is estimated that currently more than 500,000 people descend directly from the Lebanese and Sephardic communities who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries. Several influential presidents and politicians have Lebanese ancestry (Julio Teodoro Salem, Abdalá Bucaram, Alberto Dahik, Jaime Nebot Saadi and Dalo Bucaram), various writers and artists (Jorge Enrique Adoum, Jorge Saade) as well as other figures in the country's public life. like Constanza Báez Jalil (ex-miss Ecuador), Diego Spotorno and Elsa Bucaram.

Jews, for their part, emigrated mainly to Argentina, where they form the largest Jewish community in Latin America, as well as to Brazil, Chile, Mexico (a country of disputed geographical and regional classification) and Panama from Europe and the Middle East. Currently the Jewish population is estimated at: Argentina 235,000, Chile 150,000, Brazil 96,700, Uruguay with 10,000 and Peru with 3,000, in addition to smaller agglomerations in practically all the countries of the region. Most of the Jews who arrived in Latin America are of Ashkenazi origin from Eastern Europe. There are also numerous Jews of Sephardic origin, who came from the Balkans, Turkey and Palestine.

Gypsies

Roma from different sub-ethnic groups from Asia and Europe (the Balkans, Romania, Hungary, etc.) also live in this region, living mainly in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Chile, with smaller numbers in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador.

Chinese immigrants working on cotton crops in Peru.

Immigration

Latin America receives immigrants since European colonization, particularly from Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Mediterranean. After that time, immigration to this subregion did not stop, but experienced large migratory flows between 1850-1950, 55% of immigrants were Europeans (not counting the Spanish) followed by immigrants from East Asia; among the main destinations Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Cuba and Puerto Rico stood out. After 1950, immigration was in crisis and gradually decreased for the second time after the global crisis of 1929, although it did not rise again, mainly due to some civil wars and dictatorships that occurred later, this also caused internal immigration in the region, that is, the emigration of a people from a specific country to another nearby (such as Paraguayans in Argentina or Bolivians in Chile). The 1990s helped the region recover its good immigration image. Currently, with the exception of Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Venezuela, most of the countries have a foreign population of less than 5%. Arab immigration, especially from the mid-19th century to the 60s of the 20th century, continues, although less. Like all immigration and mixing, it is culturally and genetically enriching.

Foreign population by country:

Country	immigrants (cant.)	(%)	Original countries
Argentina	1 954 100	4.74 %	Paraguay Paraguay, ItalyItaly, SpainSpain, BoliviaBolivia, Peru Peru
Venezuela Venezuela	1 505 787	5.45 %	ColombiaColombia, SpainSpain, Portugal, ItalyItaly, Peru Peru
ChileChile	1 492 522	7.7%	Venezuela Venezuela, Peru Peru, HaitiHaiti, ColombiaColombia, BoliviaBolivia
Mexico Mexico	1 224 169	0.99 %	United States of America SpainSpain, GuatemalaGuatemala, Argentina, France
BrazilBrazil	938 833	0.46 %	Portugal, JapanJapan, ItalyItaly, SpainSpain, BoliviaBolivia
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	524 632	5.06 %	HaitiHaiti, United States of America SpainSpain, Puerto RicoPuerto Rico, ItalyItaly
Costa RicaCosta Rica	387 243	9.05 %	NicaraguaNicaragua, ColombiaColombia, United States of America ChinaChina, NetherlandsNetherlands BelgiumBelgium
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico	350 105	10 %	Dominican RepublicDominican Republic, CubaCuba, France, SpainSpain, United States
Panama Panama	224 000	6.7 %	United States of America ColombiaColombia, ChinaChina, Jamaica, SpainSpain
Uruguay Uruguay	194 000	2.67 %	SpainSpain, Argentina, BrazilBrazil, ItalyItaly, JapanJapan
EcuadorEcuador	131 944	0.88 %	ColombiaColombia, Peru Peru, Venezuela Venezuela, BrazilBrazil, Argentina
ColombiaColombia	120 347	0.25 %	Venezuela Venezuela, United States of America EcuadorEcuador, SpainSpain, Peru Peru
GuatemalaGuatemala	103 100	0.65 %	El SalvadorEl Salvador, Mexico Mexico, United States of America GermanyGermany, South KoreaSouth Korea
Paraguay Paraguay	101 174	1.35 %	BrazilBrazil, Argentina, BoliviaBolivia, United States of America ChileChile
Peru Peru	99 510	0.2 %	United States of America ChinaChina, BoliviaBolivia, Argentina, SpainSpain
BoliviaBolivia	87 338	1.06 %	Argentina, BrazilBrazil, Mexico Mexico, Peru Peru, ChileChile
CubaCuba	59 410	0.53 %	SpainSpain, Mexico Mexico, United States of America Venezuela Venezuela, Russia Russia
El SalvadorEl Salvador	51 010	0.77 %	HondurasHonduras, GuatemalaGuatemala, Mexico Mexico, NicaraguaNicaragua, SpainSpain
NicaraguaNicaragua	40 911	0.69 %	HondurasHonduras, United States of America El SalvadorEl Salvador, Costa RicaCosta Rica, SpainSpain
HondurasHonduras	32 815	0.4 %	El SalvadorEl Salvador, NicaraguaNicaragua, United States of America Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia BelizeBelize
BelizeBelize	15 727	4.71 %	GuatemalaGuatemala, United States of America United KingdomUnited Kingdom, CanadaCanada, BahamasBahamas
HaitiHaiti	9866	4.71 %	Dominican RepublicDominican Republic, Jamaica, CanadaCanada, France, CubaCuba

International migration

International migration is a phenomenon that has marked Latin America for decades, it has been influenced by globalization, as well as by economic and social crises in the different countries of the region. By the year 2000, Latin America and the Caribbean had approximately 26 million people who had emigrated from their country of origin, in 2010 this figure increased to about 28.5 million people and in 2020 it is estimated that there were approximately 41 million international emigrants from foreign countries in the region, a 44% more than in 2010. Below is the number of international migrants by country with their main destination:

Population living abroad (2019):

Country	Emigrants (cant.)	Emigrants (%)	Target countries
Mexico Mexico	11 796 178	9.32 %	United States of America CanadaCanada, SpainSpain
Venezuela Venezuela	7 100 000	24.73 %	ColombiaColombia, Peru Peru, United States
ColombiaColombia	2 869 032	5.81 %	Venezuela Venezuela, United States of America SpainSpain
BrazilBrazil	1 745 339	0.83 %	United States of America JapanJapan, Portugal
CubaCuba	1 654 684	14.60 %	United States of America SpainSpain, ItalyItaly
El SalvadorEl Salvador	1 600 639	24.80 %	United States of America CanadaCanada, GuatemalaGuatemala
HaitiHaiti	1 585 681	14.08 %	United States of America Dominican RepublicDominican Republic, CanadaCanada
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	1 558 668	15.05 %	United States of America SpainSpain, ItalyItaly
HondurasHonduras	1 515 681	14.08 %	United States of America SpainSpain, Mexico Mexico
Peru Peru	1 512 920	4.71 %	United States of America ChileChile, SpainSpain
GuatemalaGuatemala	1 205 604	6.84 %	United States of America Mexico Mexico, BelizeBelize
EcuadorEcuador	1 183 685	6.85 %	United States of America SpainSpain, ItalyItaly
Argentina	1 013 414	2.16 %	SpainSpain, United States of America ChileChile
BoliviaBolivia	878 211	7.63 %	Argentina, SpainSpain, United States
Paraguay Paraguay	870 638	12.19 %	Argentina, SpainSpain, BrazilBrazil
NicaraguaNicaragua	682 685	10.42 %	HondurasHonduras, United States of America Costa RicaCosta Rica
ChileChile	650 151	3.40 %	Argentina, United States of America SpainSpain
Uruguay Uruguay	633 493	18.30 %	Argentina, SpainSpain, BrazilBrazil
Costa RicaCosta Rica	150 400	3.8 %	United States of America NicaraguaNicaragua, Panama Panama
Panama Panama	161 187	6.7 %	United States of America Costa RicaCosta Rica, SpainSpain

Considering the 33 sovereign countries that the United Nations includes within Latin America and the Caribbean, it can be analyzed that the majority of Latin American and Caribbean migrants are in the United States, being around 23 million people (55.9% of the total), however, intraregional migration is also very relevant and covers more than 11 million people (26.9% of the total). On the other hand, in Europe there are more than 5 million (12.4% of the total) and in other regions of the world close to 2 million people from Latin America and the Caribbean (4.8% of the total).

Languages

See also: Indigenous Languages of America

Romance languages in Latin America:
Spanish, Portuguese, French.
Distribution areas of the most spoken American indigenous languages in South America in the early 21st century: quechua in blue; guaraní in yellow; aimara in orange; mapuche in black.
The main linguistic families of South America (except Quechua, Aymara, Mapuche and Guaraní).

As the name indicates, the official and majority languages of Latin American countries are Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and French. However, within these territories a multitude of American languages are spoken, whether with recognized official status or not, which enrich the linguistic heritage. Some of these American languages are:

Quechua: 9 to 14 million speakers (in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador).
Guaraní: 7 to 12 million speakers (in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia).
Aimara: 2 to 3 million speakers (in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru).
Nahuatl: 1.3 to 5 million speakers (in Mexico).
Maya, from 0.9 million to 1.2 million speakers (in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico).
Mapuche: 250 000 speakers (an isolated minority in southern Chile and Argentina).

Religion

Main article: Religion in Latin America

Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady Appeared, Brazil.
Synagogue of the Israelite Congregation Argentina.
Interior of the Church of La Merced de Quito, Ecuador.
Lutheran Church of Valparaíso, Chile.
Mohammed VI Mosque for the Dialogue of Civilizations, Chile.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is an important place of Christian pilgrimage.
Procession of the Divine Shepherd, in Venezuela, the third largest procession in the world.
Francisco, born in Buenos Aires, became the first pope born in America.

Most of the Latin American population professes Christianity, mainly Catholic Christianity. Apart from this, Protestant Christianity is increasingly professed in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Belize are the exception, where the Protestants are in a minimal difference with the Catholics. Therefore in almost all Latin American countries Catholicism is the predominant religion. We must also mention the indigenous beliefs that have been preserved to this day, and that are also practiced through rituals in countries such as Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. In Mexico and Guatemala, the best known is the typical ofrenda de día de muertos. In Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, a ritual known as ofrenda a la Pachamama y la Challa is performed.

In Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Haiti, Venezuela and in the French overseas regions (Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique), some rituals of African origin are intermingled with properly Christian practices, resulting in rituals such as such as: santeria, umbanda, macumba, candomblé and voodoo.

Judaism has a strong presence particularly in Argentina, being the fifth largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel, with a population of between 250,000 and 300,000 people. The city of Buenos Aires is home to a population of approximately 245,000 Jews, according to a 2005 census.

Costa Rica has the Catholic religion as official, according to its political constitution, although with freedom of worship. With immigration, other religions such as Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto and others have also arrived.

In the same way, secularization has had an impact on Latin American society (something that was not seen in decades ago), and despite the fact that Latin America is one of the most religious regions in the world, current statistics show a growth of irreligious people that is gaining strength in nations like Uruguay, Cuba and recently Chile. In the case of Mexico and Brazil, in percentage terms, the non-religious represent a low minority, although in quantity they position themselves as one of the most irreligious people in the region.

Religious beliefs

Country	Is identified as religious	Belief in a God	Belief in a Heaven	Belief in Hell	Belief in life after death	Belief in the soul	Belief in the concept "sin"	Growth in telepathy	Growth in reincarnation	Belief in a Devil
Argentina	71.5	93.3	80.5	46.5	63.2	85.3	77.2	39.2	53.0	15.2
Brazil	81.2	98.7	82.4	67.2	70.7	82.1	89.0	56.7	56.9	13.0
Colombia	83.2	98.6	81.7	62.6	69.7	81.9	59.2
Chile	52.2	92.5	79.8	50.7	81.8	89.4	85.8	48.7	60.0	20.7
El Salvador	69.7	99.4	86.1	76.4	83.4
Guatemala	72.2	58.9	63.9	70.8	58.7
Mexico	74.7	93.8	88.1	62.6	75.6	93.0	75.6	42.7	57.8	14.8
Peru	84.4	98.0	84.6	64.9	71.9	89.0	94.1	40.9	47.1	72.2
Dominican Republic	76.4	92.7	81.1	67.7	72.1
Uruguay	53.8	42.6	50.8	32.8	45.1	60.9	52.5	16.8	28.1	13.7
Venezuela	78.6	99.1	88.4	54.6	61.9

Pew Center Research (2020)

Countries	Total	Christians %	Christian population	Irreligion %	Irreligion population	Other religions %	Population Other religions
Argentina	43,830,000	85.4%	37,420,000	12.1%	5,320,000	2.5%	1,090,000
Bolivia	11,830,000	94%	11,120,000	4.1%	480,000	1.9%	230,000
Brazil	210.450,000	88.1%	185.430,000	8.4%	17.620,000	3.5%	7.400,000
Chile	18,540,000	88.3%	16,380,000	9.7%	1,800,000	2%	360,000
Colombia	52,160,000	92.3%	48.150,000	6.7%	3.510,000	1%	500,000
Costa Rica	5,270,000	90.8%	4.780,000	8%	420,000	1.2%	70,000
Cuba	11,230,000	58.9%	6.610,000	23.2%	2.600,000	17.9%	2.020,000
Ecuador	16,480,000	94%	15,490,000	5.6%	920,000	0.4%	70,000
El Salvador	6.670,000	88%	5,870,000	11.2%	740,000	0.8%	60,000
Guatemala	18,210,000	95.3%	17.360,000	3.9%	720,000	0.8%	130,000
Guyana	850,000	67.9%	580,000	2%	20,000	30.1%	250,000
Haiti	11,550,000	87%	10,040,000	10.7%	1,230,000	2.3%	280,000
Honduras	9,090,000	87.5%	7.950,000	10.5%	950,000	2%	190,000
Mexico	126,010,000	94.1%	118.570,000	5.7%	7.240,000	0.2%	200,000
Nicaragua	6.690,000	85.3%	5,710,000	13%	870,000	1.7%	110,000
Panama	4,020,000	92.7%	3.720,000	5%	200,000	2.3%	100,000.
Paraguay	7.630,000	96.9%	7.390,000	1.1%	90,000	2%	150,000
Peru	32,920,000	95.4%	31,420,000	3.1%	1.010,000	1.5%	490,000
Dominican Republic	11,280,000	88%	9,930,000	10.9%	1,230,000	1.1%	120,000
Suriname	580,000	52.3%	300,000	6.2%	40,000	41.5%	240,000
Uruguay	3,490,000	57%	1.990,000	41.5%	1.450,000	1.5%	50,000
Venezuela	33,010,000	89.5%	29,540,000	9.7%	3,220,000	0.8%	250,000
Latin America	653,390,000	89.7%	585.850,000	8%	52,430,000	2.3%	15,110,000

Health

See also: Annex:Health Indicators in Latin America

Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, considered the best hospital in Latin America.

Health in Latin America is another piece of evidence that marks a contrast between many countries in the region, although in general, but with different magnitudes, most maintain the same problem in common, substantially given by accessibility, inequality, Segmentation and poverty in Latin America.

On the other hand, Colombia is the nation with the highest universal health care in Latin America, exceeding 95% of its population in 2019. According to the WHO, Colombia ranks 22nd worldwide among 191 countries in terms of the general functioning of their health system.

Although in recent decades the social protection policy has been consolidated, accepting and defending the inalienable right of a person to have access to quality health, the gap between many countries in the region is still notorious, according to confirmed in the UNDP UN publication on the health index, headed by Costa Rica (0.937), Chile and Cuba, both with (0.935), Uruguay (0.902) and Panama (0.900) that reach levels similar to those of developed countries, compared to countries such as Bolivia (0.740) and Guatemala (0.811), which register the lowest rate in Latin America.

Other relevant indicators that exert influence when evaluating a health system are the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age from the UNDP UN, highlighting with low rates Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Panama, and Bolivia and Guatemala with the highest infant mortality rates, and also the life expectancy at birth of the same organism, which reflects the life expectancy of the population and the Maternal Mortality Rate Archived April 30, 2019 at Wayback Machine...

Social protection in health

Costa Rica, Chile and Puerto Rico lead life expectancy: in 2019 they reached 80 years in life expectancy at birth.

Social protection in health, as an inalienable citizen right, and independent of a Welfare State based on the labor society, represents the model to be achieved and the challenge for all the countries of the region, both low-income low as high.

All are facing the challenges of providing social protection in health: those with high incomes in relation to the aging of their populations and an increase in diseases related to lifestyles; those with low and medium income due to low public spending, low coverage of the poor and difficulties in accessing services and the high level of out-of-pocket spending; and in all.

According to ECLAC, in Ecuador and Guatemala 30% of public spending on health is allocated to the richest sectors, while only 12% goes to the poorest. That is, those who have less must spend more to take care of their health. In Peru, public spending on health is distributed evenly, which results in a disproportion, since the poorest groups have fewer resources and need more state support. While other countries in the region Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay allocate 30% to the lower-income population.

The distribution of health resources, and how it affects those who live in areas with less attention capacity, but also people who live in areas with better provision of services is the underlying issue in Argentine health.

Health problems in Latin America

Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina lead the number of doctors per capita in Latin America.

The underlying problem in Latin America continues to be the lack of access and equity. Fulfillment of the MDGs requires that Latin America and the Caribbean become fairer. In many of the aspects related to health, it seems to be a distant horizon.

In the region, there are less than 2 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants. In addition, for accessibility reasons, many people cannot reach them. In some countries, the number of doctors is much lower: for every 1,000 inhabitants, 0.25 in Haiti, 0.76 in Bolivia, 0.56 in Paraguay.

Worse is what happens with nurses, who should be more than doctors, since they are the ones who support —especially— hospitalized patients. In all of Latin America, there are 8.2 per 10,000 inhabitants.

Hospital beds are also insufficient. That means not all patients who need them have them. There are 1.9 per 1,000 inhabitants. Although in El Salvador they are barely 0.5 and, in Guatemala, 0.7.

And if health and access to the services that care for and promote it are rights and objectives to be fulfilled, they are also a condition of possibility for the global development of societies.

People with good health have better conditions to work, create and grow.

These health care problems are due to several sets of causes, the first of which is related to economic conditions (poverty, inequality, low quality of life, and social exclusion).

In this regard, a group of countries points to trends of a general nature: poverty, unemployment, and poor environmental conditions and basic sanitation. These barriers refer to the lack of economic means to finance the cost of care, especially in poor populations that have not been able to access the benefit plans offered through insurance regimes.

A second set of factors is associated with budgetary limitations to provide human, technological and infrastructure resources to the institutional network of public health services.

The budget deficit appears as the first cause associated with attention problems in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Peru. The scarce supply of services in rural and peri-urban areas stands out in Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay.

Structure of medical and health care

This section is an excerpt from Annex:Health Indicators in Latin America § Structure of medical and health care.[chuckles]edit]

Country	Medical structure				Health structure
Country	2018 Doctors every 1,000 hectares.	2018 Nurses every 1,000 hectares.	2019 Hospital beds every 1,000 hectares.	2020 Best hospital country	2017 % drinking water Safe urban	2015 % service Safe sanitation	Treatment waters served
Argentina	4.0	2.6	5,0	5o	99	26.5	12
Bolivia	1.6	1.6	1.3.	Thirty-seventh	-	19,0	31
Brazil	2.2	10.1	2.1	1o	92	38.6	40
Chile	2.6	13,3	2.1	2nd	99	85.5	100
Colombia	2.2	1.3.	1.7.	3o	81	19.6	8
Costa Rica	2.9	3.4	1.1.	Eleventh	96	-	37
Cuba	8.4	7.6	5.3	-	-	30.9	-
Ecuador	2.0	2.5	1.4	Fourteenth	85	42.4	24
El Salvador	1.6	1,8	1.2	-	77	-	3
Guatemala	0.4	0.1	0.4	-	66	-	9
Haiti	0.2	0.7	0.7	-	-	-	5
Honduras	0.3	0.7	0.6	-	-	-	11
Mexico	2.4	2.4	1.0	Thirteenth	43	45.2	63
Nicaragua	1.0	1.5	0.9	-	67	-	50
Panama	1.6	3.1	2.3	Fifteenth	-	-	21
Paraguay	1.4	1.7.	0.8	40o	72	-	15
Peru	1.3.	2.4	1.6	Seventeenth	59	30.3	72
Puerto Rico	1,8	-	3.3	-	94	32.1	-
R. Dominican	1.6	1.4	1.6	59th	-	-	20
Uruguay	5.1	1.9	2.4	-	95	63.6	60
Venezuela	1.9	0.9	0.9	-	-	19.1	20

Notes:

In blue = More favorable value.
In the sky = Within the five most favorable values.
In red = More unfavorable value.

Medical and health practice

This section is an excerpt from Annex:Health Indicators in Latin America § Medical and Health Praxis.[chuckles]edit]

Country	2019 Hope at birth (years of life)	2016 Mortality infect-contagious (every 100,000 hectares.)	2015 Mortality maternal (every 100,000 nv.)	2018 Mortality children (every thousand nv.)	2016 Obesity and/or overweight (% pobl. total)	2018 Malnutrition (% pobl. total)	2017 Tabaquismo (% pobl. adult)
Argentina	76.7	85.2	52	9,3	62.8	3,8	21.9
Bolivia	71.5	145.9	206	24,0	56.0	15.5	-
Brazil	75.9	87.5	44	13.4	56.5	2.5	13.8
Chile	80.1	38,0	22	7.1	63.1	3.5	45,0
Colombia	77.3	62.6	64	16.8	58.9	5.5	8.2
Costa Rica	80.3	30.5	25	8.4	61.6	3.2	10.1
Cuba	78.8	41.1	39	4.0	58.5	2.5	27.8
Ecuador	77.0	78.0	64	9.7	55.9	8.8	-
El Salvador	73.3	71.9	54	9,2	59.7	8.9	10.5
Guatemala	74.3	141.1	88	20,0	55.7	16.1	-
Haiti	64.0	263.7	359	59.0	54.7	48.2	8.5
Honduras	75.3	67.3	129	22.8	55.7	13.8	-
Mexico	75.1	52,0	38	12.1	64.8	7.1	14,3
Nicaragua	74,5	53.6	150	12.2	58.1	17,2	-
Panama	78.5	75.8	94	14.0	58.8	6.9	6.0
Paraguay	74.3	78.8	132	12.6	53.5	8.8	13.4
Peru	76.7	116.9	68	15,0	57.5	6.7	10.2
Puerto Rico	80.1	42.5	14	7.1	-	-	-
R. Dominican	74.1	96.2	92	22.8	61.1	5.5	9.7
Uruguay	77.9	42.6	15	6.8	62.9	2.5	22.5
Venezuela	72.1	69.7	95	15.2	63.4	31.4	-

Notes:

In blue = More favorable value.
In the sky = Within the five most favorable values.
In red = More unfavorable value.

Education

See also: Annex:Indicators of Education in Latin America

Countries for literacy levels, according to the Human Development Report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) (2012). Cuba, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina have the most literate population in Latin America.

Educational levels in Latin America can be evaluated in different ways, by quality, development, accessibility, among others. The main international organizations that generate educational indicators for Latin America are the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) of the Organization of the United Nations (UN) together with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) which provide relevant data for the evaluation of the most complete educational systems in the region.

Chile leads the list of Latin American countries with the highest levels of education, according to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), followed by Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay, while the countries furthest behind are Colombia, Peru and Honduras.

The levels of literacy in Latin America are evidence of the large gaps that exist between the countries of the region, from Cuba (99.7), Uruguay (98.4), Argentina (98.1), Costa Rica (97.6), and Chile (96.6) with virtually non-existent illiteracy rates, to Haiti (60.7), Guatemala (79.1) and Nicaragua (82.5), where significant sections of the population lack the ability to read and write.

Primary education is compulsory, free and provided by the state in most countries, although there are also private paid education centers, with the exception of Cuba. Due to the economic conditions of several countries, there are still deficiencies both in the rural environment and in the suburban environment, which produces a source of social inequality. More than 15 million children between the ages of 3 and 6, 40% of children of this age, are out of school. Of these, around 7% are malnourished. About 32 million people are illiterate in the region.

The average duration of studies in colleges or primary schools is 12 years, in some it is 11 years. The duration of the careers in the universities is usually 5 years.

In terms of university studies, the University of São Paulo stands out, 32nd worldwide in the Webometrics 2021 ranking, and 33rd in the URAP 2021 world ranking; the National Autonomous University of Mexico, number 100 in the world in the 2021 QS ranking; and the University of Buenos Aires, also in said ranking at 66 worldwide. The oldest university on the continent and that has been operating without interruption since its creation is the University of San Marcos, founded in Lima in 1551. It is followed in seniority by the University of Mexico, founded that same year, and the Santo Tomás University, in Colombia, which was founded in 1580. It is worth mentioning that the first university founded in American territory was the old University of Santo Tomás de Aquino, founded in Santo Domingo in 1538, although it disappeared in 1823.

Educational indicators

This section is an excerpt from Annex:Indicators of Education in Latin America § Coverage Indices.[chuckles]edit]

Country	2019 Average education (years)	2019 Expectations education (years)	2019 Literacy (%  15 years)	2019 Primary complete (% 15-24 years)	2019 Secondary complete (% 25-29 years)	2019 Terciaria complete (% 25-34 years)	2019 Terciaria development (% 18-22 years)
Argentina	10.9	17.7	99.0	99	70	18	39
Bolivia	9.0	14,2	92.5	97	56	25	45
Brazil	8,0	15.4	93.2	94	64	17	19
Chile	10.6	16.4	96.4	99	86	30	43
Colombia	8.5	14,4	95.1	98	75	35	28
Costa Rica	8.7	15.7	97.9	98	63	28	30
Cuba	11,8	14,3	99.8	99	84	-	-
Ecuador	8.9	14,6	92.8	96	63	-	-
El Salvador	6.9	11.7	89.0	87	35	15	17
Guatemala	6.6	10.8	81.3	76	33	8	9
Haiti	5.6	9.7	61.7	63	14	7	5
Honduras	6.6	10.1	87.2	81	34	8	11
Mexico	8.8	14,8	95.4	97	51	23	22
Nicaragua	6.9	12.3	82.6	75	17	-	13
Panama	10.2	12.9	95.4	96	61	18	33
Paraguay	8.5	12.7	94.0	96	-	22	-
Peru	9.7	15,0	94.4	95	72	15	29
Puerto Rico	-	-	92.4	-	-	-	-
R. Dominican	8.1	14,2	93.8	92	56	15	20
Uruguay	8.9	16.8	98.7	97	35	16	20
Venezuela	10.3	12.8	97.1	-	-	-	-

Notes:

In blue = More favorable value.
In the sky = Within the five most favorable values.
In red = More unfavorable value.

Culture

The main characteristic of Latin American culture is the syncretism of very different cultures, the main sources being:

The native cultures of America, such as Maya, Aztec, Inca and other pre-Columbian cultures.
European cultures, especially those from the Iberian peninsula: the Spanish and the Portuguese. In addition, there is the French, and to a lesser extent, that of Italy, Germany, England and the Netherlands.
African cultures, with an impact mainly on the Caribbean and Brazil.

Literature

Main article: Latin American literature

Octavio Paz (Mexico)

Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)

Pablo Neruda (Chile)

Gabriela Mistral (Chile)

Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala)

Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

Winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Latin American Literature, mainly in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, has obtained the following Nobel Prizes: Gabriela Mistral (1945), Saint-John Perse (1960), Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), Pablo Neruda (1971), Gabriel García Márquez (1982), Octavio Paz (1990) and Mario Vargas Llosa (2010). The Argentines Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Sabato, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Juan Gelman, the Mexicans Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes and José Emilio Pacheco, the Chileans Gonzalo Rojas, Jorge Edwards and Nicanor Parra, as well as the Paraguayan Augusto Roa Bastos and the Uruguayan Juan Carlos Onetti, were awarded the Cervantes prize.

Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most important and recognized Latin American writers, just as his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a masterpiece of Spanish-American literature. It is one of the most translated and read works in Spanish^{[citation required]}. It was cataloged during the IV International Congress of the Spanish Language as the second most important work in Spanish after Don Quixote de la Mancha by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and therefore the main work in Latin America.^{[citation required]}

During the first quarter of the XX century, a group of poets managed through their works to renew the Latin American literary scene, bringing with it the beginning of avant-garde in Chile. Outstanding works such as Desolation by Gabriela Mistral, Residencia en la tierra by Pablo Neruda or Altazor by Vicente Huidobro, became truly universal artistic proposals. For his part, Vicente Huidobro developed a new poetic idea called creationism that would leave its mark on Spanish ultraism and dimensionalism thought, which brought together such dispersed weighers as Kandinsky, Picasso, Stravinski or Modigliani. Later, the work of another transcendental Chilean poet such as Nicanor Parra, father of anti-poetry and whose influence continues to be prominent to this day, would appear on the scene.

Jorge Luis Borges was one of the outstanding authors of Latin American XX century literature. He received the first Prix International in history in 1961, and the Jerusalem Prize in 1971. Blind at age 55, he was highly controversial, with political stances that prevented him from winning the Nobel Prize in Literature for which he was a candidate for nearly thirty years.. The writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee said of him: He, more than any other, renewed the language of fiction and thus opened the way for a whole generation of outstanding Spanish-American novelists. Another prominent Argentine writer was Julio Cortázar.

Music and dance

Main article: Music of Latin America

Ricardo Arjona
Soda Stereo
Juan Gabriel
Celia Cruz

Roberto
Juan Luis Guerra
Carlos Santana
Shakira
Juan Diego Flórez

Latin American music is perhaps the best-known cultural manifestation and the one that has most influenced other cultures worldwide. Curiously, it is where cultural syncretism is most evident. Its importance is due not only to the quality of the music itself, but also to the influence that it has exerted, mainly Caribbean rhythms, on other music such as jazz, rock or pop rock.

The emergence in the 1960s and 1970s of Neofolklore and the Latin American tune that sought to rescue the roots of Latin American identity and was decidedly committed to politics deserve special mention. Brilliant and universal interpreters of the stature of the Chileans Víctor Jara and Violeta Parra, the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui and also the Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa, the Venezuelan Alí Primera or the Cuban Silvio Rodríguez stood out. Hymns and songs such as Plegaria a un labrador, Gracias a la vida, El aparecido, Ojalá or El pueblo united will never be defeated are songs whose figuration has transcended the Latin American sphere and have become popular worldwide. In the specific case of Chile, groups such as Inti-Illimani, Quilapayún or Los Cuatro Cuartos, works and instrumentals such as the Cantata de Santa María de Iquique, the cantata A Joaquín Murieta by the ensemble Cuncumén and Víctor Jara stood out. or the minstrumentals Charagua and La Partida.

Grupo de mariachis playing at the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Mexico's mariachi is one of the most representative rhythms of Latin music in the world, as well as ranchera music (which includes the banda style in its derivative versions). Norteño music derives from the European polka, it was brought to Mexico at the end of the 19th century, due to the migratory trend of Europeans, coming from Italy who settled in the mining area of northern Mexico. It also has native music such as the sounds of the huapango, being the most recognized letter La bamba. Trio music is a typical country romantic style. In November 2011, UNESCO inscribed El Mariachi, string music, song and trumpet as a member of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

From Cuba come the son, the guaracha, the chachachá, the bolero, the mambo and the danzón, among others. For their part, merengue and bachata have their origins in the Dominican Republic, the country where the vast majority of their exponents and composers originate. On the Central American side, in El Salvador the traditional genre is xuc par excellence, a genre created by Salvadoran maestro Francisco Palaviccini, giving great importance to the musical culture of El Salvador with songs like "El Carbonero", & #34;Inside Cojutepeque", "Carnival of San Miguel" among other. The tip, of Honduran origin, is a very peculiar dance due to its rapid and coordinated hip movements, with a certain resemblance to the Brazilian samba. From Panama, the tamborito, the Cumbia and the tamborera are their native musical airs with the greatest projection.

Cumbia, one of the autochthonous genres of Colombia, has been popularized, fused and adapted to the culture and idiosyncrasy of almost all Latin American countries since the 1940s. XX, early XXI), the bambuco (early 20th century), and the joint (mid-20th century). The corridor, a musical genre of Andean origin, is indigenous to Colombia but also very popular in Ecuador. In Venezuela the national music is the joropo with its llanera, central and oriental variants. The Zulian bagpipe, the central and Zulian parranda, the Corian polo, the Venezuelan merengue and the Venezuelan waltz are also popular.

The Tango of Argentina and Uruguay.

In Argentina the greatest musical exponent is the tango; Said rhythm and dance find their roots in the massive immigration, mostly European, that reconstituted the River Plate society. Broadway performances, musicals, and other productions have been based on this musical style. In 2009 UNESCO declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Folk music is very important in the north of the country, with roots in the original indigenous peoples, it has well-known exponents such as Atahualpa Yupanqui, Mercedes Sosa and Soledad Pastorutti. Also popular in Argentina are the milonga, the zamba, chamamé on the coast and in the north of the country, an iconic quartet from the province of Córdoba, and rock with internationally recognized exponents such as the band Soda Stereo.

Couple dancing Marinera Norteña in Trujillo, Peru.

In Peru, the huayno is typical, an important musical genre and Andean dance of Inca origin. The sailor, in its northern sailor variant also has an influence from the tondero, which predates the zamacueca, it is an exclusively Peruvian dance. In addition, the use of wind instruments such as the panpipe is common in the Peruvian Andes, since pre-Hispanic times. A percussion instrument used in the festejo genre is the cajón, this instrument has been used since the 19th century by the Creole Afro-Americans of Peru. Currently, foreign rhythms such as salsa, cumbia, merengue, vallenato, reggaeton, and rock and pop are very popular in Peru.

In Bolivia, one of the countries with the greatest geographical diversity, there are equally diverse rhythms such as the taquirari, the chovena and the carnavalito, the result of the Spanish and Guarani miscegenation. In the Andean zone, the saya, the huayño and the cueca, also of mestizo origin, stand out, the existence of the charango is fundamental in these rhythms. In recent years there has been an important boom in new rhythms such as the brincao, with a lively and cheerful character.

In Paraguay the Paraguayan polka, the polka-song, the guarania and the galopa are very traditional. On the Uruguayan side, candombe is typical, originating in Montevideo, an autochthonous rhythm from African slaves. In Chile, the cueca is its most famous rhythm and dance, but it stands out above all in the birth and development of the tune and the new Latin American song.

Samba, choro and bossa nova are known worldwide as the music of Brazil.

Reggaeton arises as a result of the fusion of different rhythms such as hip hop and reggae. It has its origins in Panama and Puerto Rico, and its music scene spans the entire continent. Also in Puerto Rico, the infusion of African, indigenous and regional rhythms gave way to the bomba and the plena.

Latin American music has also contributed singers who have achieved worldwide fame such as the Colombians Shakira and Juanes, the Cubans Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada (the three of whom are naturalized Americans), the Puerto Ricans Ricky Martin, Chayanne and Luis Fonsi and the Mexicans Vicente Fernández, Thalía, Juan Gabriel, Lila Downs, Julieta Venegas, Luis Miguel and the guitarist Carlos Santana (US national).

Latin rock has spread throughout the continent and beyond its borders since the 1980s. Important groups have been: Arena Hash, Caifanes, Café Tacuba, Enanitos Verdes, Grupo Río, La ley, Los Jaivas, Los Prisoners, The Three, Maná, Soda Stereo, Sui Géneris, The Grandparents of Nothing, The Fabulous Cadillacs, etc.

The main music festival in Latin America is Rock in Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, held since 1985. It is followed by the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, which has been held annually in that Chilean city since 1960.

Since the year 2000, the Latin Recording Academy (or LARAS for its acronym in English) awards the Latin Grammy to the most outstanding Latin artists.

Cinema, theater and fashion

Main article: Cinema of Latin America

Alfonso Cuarón, double winner of the Oscar Award for Best Director.
Alejandro González Iñárritu, also double winner of the Oscar Award for Best Director.
Gisele Bündchen, model, the best paid in the world for fourteen years in a row.
Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer, one of the most renowned worldwide.
Salma Hayek, an actress, one of the most internationally recognized.
Oscar de la Renta, a fashion designer, one of the most renowned worldwide.

Latin American filmography is rich and diverse. Mexico has been the Latin American country with a long and cinematographic tradition. Historically, the main centers of production have been Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, which from 1930 to 1996 concentrated 89% of the cinematographic production in Latin America. Colombia and Cuba have also made important contributions, although to a lesser extent.

Latin American cinema flourished after the advent of sound, posing a language barrier to Hollywood's export south of the border in the first decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Third Cinema movement emerged, led by Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. More recently a new style of directing and storytelling has been dubbed the "new Latin American cinema".

Mexican cinema in its Golden Age, between 1936 and 1957, boasted a powerful industry comparable to that of Hollywood of its time. Mexico became the center of commercial films, from Latin America in particular, and Spanish-speaking in general. The powerful Star System of Mexican Cinema catapulted important stars such as María Félix, Dolores del Río, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete or Cantinflas and directors such as Emilio Fernández and the Spanish Luis Buñuel. The films María Candelaria (Emilio Fernández, 1943) and Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961) are the only Spanish-language films to have won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, while the film La perla (Emilio Fernández, 1947), was the first Latin American film to receive the Golden Globe. In the 1970s, Mexico was the location of many action and horror films. Recently, Mexican cinema has resurfaced with films of international significance such as Amores Perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001) that have led their directors Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Inarritu to Hollywood. Alejandro González Iñárritu has directed films such as Babel (2006), Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015). For these last two, the filmmaker has won the Oscar for best director. Alfonso Cuarón has directed films such as Children of Men in 2006, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004 and Gravity in 2013, a film with which he became the first director Latin American to win the Oscar. Guillermo del Toro, also a Mexican, has achieved recognition and prestige abroad with films such as Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and both installments of Hellboy (film) (2004 and 2008).). In 2018, he was awarded the Oscar for Best Director and Best Film for The Shape of Water, becoming the third Mexican director to receive this award. Carlos Carrera, Arturo Ripstein or Michel Franco are also well-known Mexican filmmakers. Some Mexican actors have achieved international success by positioning themselves in Hollywood cinema, such as Ramón Novarro, Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez, Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado and Salma Hayek.

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) is a Mexican film festival considered one of the most important in Latin America and the world. It is appreciated by film critics and the general public for its careful selection of films and for being an unparalleled meeting point between Mexican filmmakers, the public and the international film community.

The Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico, considered one of the best festivals in Latin America.

The Guadalajara International Film Festival is held in the city of Guadalajara. It is the most solid festival in Latin America and Mexico, with an offer for the Film Industry that has allowed it to position itself nationally and internationally. It is a forum for training, instruction and creative exchange between professionals, critics of international cinematography and students from Latin America.

Mexican Anthony Quinn and Puerto Ricans José Ferrer, Rita Moreno and Benicio del Toro are the only Latin American actors to win the Oscar. Other Latino actors who have been nominated for this award are the Mexican Katy Jurado (1954), Salma Hayek (2002), Adriana Barraza (2006) and Demian Bichir (2011), the Argentine Norma Aleandro (1988), the Puerto Rican Rosie Pérez (1993), the Brazilian Fernanda Montenegro (1998) and the Colombian Catalina Sandino Moreno (2004).

The Colón Theater in Buenos Aires, considered one of the top five in the world.

Argentine cinema has historically been one of the three most recognized in Latin American cinema. It was a gigantic industry in the first half of the 20th century, and it reemerged after the military dictatorship. Between 1930 and 1950, Argentine cinema lived its golden age, in which Argentina became the largest producer of films in the Spanish-speaking world. Argentina is the only country in Latin America to have won Oscars: La historia oficial in 1985 and El secreto de sus ojos in 2010. Despite the fact that the Argentine economic crisis affected film production at the time, several Argentine films achieved international successes such as Nine Queens (2000), The Son of the Bride (2001), La Ciénaga (2001), The Broken Embrace (2004), Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Wild Tales (2014).

In Brazilian cinema, the cinema novo stands out, a movement created from a particular way of making films with critical scripts and political messages as well as photography based on the light of landscapes tropical. Brazilian cinema does not usually have much outlet outside the country, but movies like Central do Brasil (1999), Cidade de Deus (2003) and Tropa de élite (2007) have obtained some recognition.

Cuban cinema since the revolution is produced by the Cuban Institute of Cinematography. The most prominent filmmaker in this country is Tomás Gutiérrez Alea with productions such as Strawberry and Chocolate.

In the field of theater, Latin American participation differs greatly from nation to nation. The city of Buenos Aires, with more than 300 theaters, makes it the fourth city in the world with the most stages. Among them, the Teatro Colón is, due to its impeccable acoustics, trajectory and dimensions, one of the five most important opera houses in the world. world together with La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Semper Opera in Dresden, the Paris Opera and the Sydney Opera.

Painting and art

Main article: Latin American Art

Frida Kahlo (Mexico)

Diego Rivera (Mexico)

Wilfredo Lam (Cuba)

Joaquín Torres García (Uruguay)

Fernando Botero (Colombia)

Jesus Rafael Soto (Venezuela)

Despite the richness of pre-Columbian art, painting in some Latin American countries has been more influenced by European pictorial styles, such as Argentina, and in others, such as Mexico, they have preserved them. During the colonial period, the mixture of indigenous and European traditions (due to the teachings of Christian friars) produced a particular Christian art called Indo-Christian art. But for the most part, the tradition of indigenous art was put into a corner during this period, due to the influence of European pictorial movements, mainly Spanish, Portuguese and French baroque painting, which in turn followed the classical canons set by the Italian masters. In general, this artistic Eurocentrism began to decline at the beginning of the 20th century when Latin American artists began to recognize their differential condition and began to follow their own path.

At the beginning of the 20th century Latin American art was heavily inspired by the Russian Constructivist movement. Joaquín Torres García and Manuel Rendón are credited with importing the constructivist movement into Latin America from Europe.

The Soumaya Museum, the Mexican capital is the second city with more museums in the world just behind London.

Muralism is the main artistic movement that emerged in Latin America and is represented by painters such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Juan O'Gorman in Mexico, and Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martínez Delgado in Colombia and Antonio Berni, Xul Solar and Benito Quinquela Martín in Argentina. Some of the most impressive muralist works can be found in Mexico, Colombia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is perhaps the best-known Latin American artist. She painted depictions of her own life and Mexican culture in her own style that blended pictorial realism, symbolism, and surrealism. Kahlo's works have the highest sales price of all Latin American painting.

Colombian painter, sculptor and draftsman Fernando Botero is currently considered the most valued living artist from Latin America in the world today. Universal icon of art, his extensive work is recognized by children and adults everywhere alike.

Mexico City ranks second with the most museums in the world, only below London. The National Museum of Anthropology stands out, considered the largest in Latin America and the one that receives the largest number of visitors with 2.6 million annually. Other important museums are the National Museum of History, the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art and the Soumaya Museum.

World Heritage Site

**Countries with the largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites 2021**
Post	Country	Natural sites	Cultural sites	Mixed sites	Total sites
1.	Mexico	5	28	2	35
2.	Brazil	7	15	1	23
3.	Peru		9	2	11
4.	Argentina	5	6	0	11
5.	Cuba	2	7	0	9
6.	Colombia	2	6	1	9
7.	Bolivia	0	7	0	7
8.	Chile	0	7	0	7
9.	Panama	3	2	0	5
10.	Ecuador	2	3	0	5

_{♪ Updated to July 2021.}

Sports

Pelé, considered the best footballer in history.
Diego Maradona, also considered best footballer in history.
Julio César Chávez, five times world champion of lightweight boxing, superlight and superpluma.
Theophile Stevenson, three times Olympic champion of heavyweight boxing.
Juan Manuel Fangio, five times world champion Formula 1.
Ramon Fonst, four times Olympic fencing champion.

Maria Well, best tennis player in Latin America, with 19 Grand Slam titles.
Luciana Aymar, eight times the best female lawn hockey player.
César Sky, the best swimmer in Latin America, Olympic champion, multiple world champion and world plus-marquest.
Yulimar Rojas, Olympic and historical record in triple female jump.
Robert Scheidt, twice Olympic champion and 13 times world champion sailing.

Baseball is an important sport in the Latin American Caribbean. In the image practiced by Venezuelans in 1895.
Brazil, Chile, Peru and Venezuela stand out in water and beach sports.
Colombia and Ecuador have grand slams winners in route cycling.
Rally Dakar on its way to South America. Argentina and Chile stand out in rally sports.
Mexico is the largest exponent of clavadism in Latin America.
Colombia is the top historical winner in global speed skateboarding on online skates.

Latin America has been elected in two editions of the Olympic Games, the first in Mexico City at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games and the other in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, the countries of the region until the Tokyo-2020 edition have won a total of 656 medals in summer Olympic games, being 180 gold, 204 silver and 272 bronze. The 10 countries with the highest number of medals are listed in the table below.

#	Country				Total
1	CubaCuba	82	72	78	232
2	BrazilBrazil	37	42	71	150
3	Argentina	21	25	29	75
4	Mexico Mexico	13	24	24	61
5	ColombiaColombia	5	10	14	29
6	Venezuela Venezuela	2	4	10	16
7	ChileChile	2	7	4	13
8	Uruguay Uruguay	2	2	6	10
9	Puerto RicoPuerto Rico	1	2	6	9
10	Costa RicaCosta Rica	1	1	2	4

The country that has participated the most in the competitions is Argentina, present in 23 Olympics and among the others only Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba have participated in 20 or more editions.

The region has hosted seven World Cups. The first edition of the Soccer World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, then Brazil in 1950, Chile in 1962, Mexico in 1970, Argentina in 1978, again in Mexico in 1986 and for the last time in Brazil in 2014. The three countries Soccer players from the region have obtained the title in 10 of the 21 editions played until 2022: Brazil (5), Argentina (3) and Uruguay (2), being the second region that has obtained it the most times, after Europe with 12.

The Brazilian national team is the most outstanding in history and the Uruguayan national team is the one with the most official titles in history with 19. The match between the Brazilian and Argentine national teams is called the Superclásico de the Americas, the main player on the continent and one of the most famous globally. The Brazilian Pelé and the Argentine Diego Maradona have repeatedly been considered the best soccer players in history.

In other areas, there are important tournaments at the national team level such as the Copa América, where the 10 national teams affiliated with Conmebol participate. Uruguay and Argentina, with 15 cups, are the teams that have won it the most times, followed by Brazil with 9. At the club level, the main tournament is the Copa Libertadores de América (led by the Argentine club Independiente with seven titles), considered the second major continental club tournament in the world and the third in the world, behind the FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

Latin America also excels in baseball specifically in the Caribbean region (Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and the Caribbean Coast of Colombia). Cuba was Olympic champion several times, while the Dominican Republic was world champion in 2013. Likewise, there are other team sports that are practiced in some countries, such as basketball, with Argentina and Brazil being the most outstanding representatives, obtaining world and Olympic titles. Argentina is world champion (1950) and Olympic champion (2004), while Brazil has two world championships (1959 and 1963) and rugby in Argentina (mainly), Chile and Uruguay.

Latin America also stands out in boxing, Mexico and Cuba being the most prominent representatives by obtaining world and Olympic titles, Mexican boxers have obtained more than 200 world titles during their history. The most prominent Latin American boxers are Héctor Camacho, Félix Tito Trinidad, Julio César Chávez, Carlos Monzón, Pascual Pérez, Salvador Sánchez, Alexis Argüello, Antonio Cervantes, Roberto Durán, among others.

Martial arts are also widely practiced in this region, including karate in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela; kick boxing in Argentina, Colombia and Puerto Rico and vale tudo and Jiujitsu (or Brazilian jiu-jitsu) in Brazil. This last style of combat was created by the Gracie family. Fighting sports such as judo, widely practiced in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela, are also practiced. Taekwondo is common in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Professional wrestling is common in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico.

Athletics has had prominent Latin American figures throughout history. Cuba stands out as the best exponent in different athletic events, in contrast, other countries have also produced world-class athletes, such is the case of the Ecuadorian Jefferson Pérez, the Dominican Félix Sánchez and the Mexican Ana Guevara who have managed to position themselves in the number position one of the IAAF world ranking and are among the 10 best athletes in history in their respective tests.

Water sports are also widely practiced in Latin America. In swimming, Brazil is one of the great powers with outstanding swimmers worldwide such as César Cielo, considered one of the best in history. In diving, Mexico is the best Latin American representative with a long tradition of divers founded by Joaquín Capilla who became the first Hispanic to win an Olympic gold medal as well as many others who have excelled in World Championships and Olympic Games such as Carlos Girón, Fernando Platas and Paola Espinosa who is the first Latina woman to become a world champion.

Motor racing is also practiced in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. The Argentine Formula 1 driver Juan Manuel Fangio, winner of the 1951, 1954, 1955 championships, is famous worldwide. 1956, 1957 and that the Brazilian Chico Landi had as his contemporary and the pioneers of Latin America in the competition, in total Brazil had 32 pilots in the category and the most outstanding pilots are Emerson Fittipaldi who won the titles in 1972 and 1974, Nelson Piquet champion of 1981, 1983 and 1987 and Ayrton Senna champion of 1988, 1990 and 1991. The pilot Fittipaldi has also created the only Latin American team to compete in Formula 1, the Copersucar Fittipaldi which competed between the years 1976 and 1982. The Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan, winner of the 2004 IndyCar Series, also stands out.

Cycling is practiced in Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia; mountaineering in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru; track skating is practiced in Colombia and figure skating in Mexico. Chile is recognized as the "world's best destination for extreme sports" by the World Travel Awards.

In tennis, players have stood out mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Mexico. The match between the Argentine and Chilean teams corresponds to the "main Latin American tennis classic". Argentina won the Davis Cup in 2016 and is the country that has had the most players in the ranking of the top 10 individual ATP Ranking players in the world. Chile has been twice world team champion and double Olympic champion in Athens 2004. Also notable were the number one tennis players in the individual world, the Brazilians Gustavo Kuerten and Maria Bueno, the Chileans Marcelo Ríos and Anita Lizana, the Ecuadorian Pancho Segura and the Mexican Rafael Osuna.

In polo, Argentina, Brazil and Chile stand out. Argentina is the country that practices it the most and the most prominent historically, achieving Olympic gold medals and five world championships. Currently, it has the best league in the world. It is the only country that has achieved teams with a handicap of 40 (the highest that can be obtained) and the one with the most players with a handicap of 10. Brazil has three World Cups and Chile two.

Volleyball is also one of the most practiced sports in Latin America, with Brazil, Cuba and Peru standing out as one of the greatest powers in this sport. It is also very popular in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Regardless of its level of popularity, some countries have defined a discipline as a National Sport by law. Such is the case of Argentina (duck), Colombia (tejo), Chile (hopscotch and Chilean rodeo) and Mexico (charrería).

At the continental level, the Pan American Games, the Central American and Caribbean Games, the Odesur Games, the Bolivarian Games, the Ibero-American Games (in certain sporting events), the ALBA Games (also known as the Friendship Games) stand out. and the America's Cup.

The region has not achieved any medals or winning places in the Winter Olympics. The best result has been that of the Brazilian Isabel Clark who was ninth in snowboard cross at the Turin Games in 2006.

Science and technology

ALMA Radiotelescope in Chile, the largest astronomical project in the world.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, its central campus was declared a World Heritage Site in 2007.
University of São Paulo
Centro de Lanzamiento de Alcântara (CLA)
SAC-D Satellite / Aquarius
Amazônia-1 satellite photographed in orbit
Uyuni - Bolivia satellite CBERS-4
Atucha Nuclear Complex
Almirante Alvaro
Central Nuclear Laguna Verde
Sirius particle accelerator

The Latin American scientific contribution according to global impact metrics such as the one published by Clarivate Analytics in the 2022 annual list of "Highly Cited Researchers", an analysis that is indexed to online scientific information services such as the Web of Science and which recognizes world-class researchers and their exceptional research work, represents only 0.5% of the world total with 34 outstanding researchers with the presence of 20 Brazilians, 5 Mexicans, 4 Chileans, 3 Argentines and 2 Colombians.

The Latin American scientists awarded the Nobel Prize are the Argentines Bernardo Alberto Houssay (1947), Luis Federico Leloir (1970) and César Milstein (1984), the Venezuelan Baruj Benacerraf (1980) and the Mexican Mario J. Molina (nineteen ninety five).

In Latin America, a field of science that is quite developed is astronomy, mainly in Chile. Other centers are located in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico (the latter with the collaboration of NASA).

In Costa Rica, the plasma motor has been developed since 2005, which is intended to be used in future space missions to facilitate travel over greater distances and in less time, as well as for various other uses. The project is in charge of the former NASA astronaut, the Costa Rican Franklin Chang Díaz. In 2016, Costa Rica became the only country in the Americas —along with the United States— to successfully carry out a plasma discharge, using a stellarator, device designed by the Laboratory of Plasmas for Fusion Energy and Applications of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, as part of an investigation of this university with the objective of creating a fusion reactor that allows converting plasma into an alternative source of energy.

The history of putting satellites into orbit in Latin America begins with the launches of the Brazilian BrasilSat in 1985, the Mexican Morelos I and the Argentine Lusat 1 in 1990. Since then, several South American countries have followed the example. Brazil currently has 16 satellites, Argentina with 10, Mexico with 7, Chile with 2, Venezuela with 2, Bolivia and Colombia with 1, respectively. The growth of satellite activity led many Latin American countries to create their space agencies in recent decades:

Latin American Space Agency
Space Agency	Foundation	Website	Country
National Commission on Space Activities (CONAE)	1991	www.conae.gov.ar	Argentina
Bolivian Space Agency (ABE)	2010	www.abe.bo	Bolivia
Brazilian Space Agency	1994	www.aeb.gov.br	Brazil
Bolivarian Space Agency	2008	ABAE	Venezuela
Colombian Space Commission (CCE)	2006	www.cce.gov.co	Colombia
Mexican Space Agency (AEM)	2010	www.aem.gob.mx Archived on 16 June 2016 at Wayback Machine.	Mexico
Paraguay Space Agency (AEP)	2014	(AEP)	Paraguay
National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA)	1974	(CONIDA)	Peru
Central American Association of Aeronautics and Space (ACAE)	2010	(ACAE)	Costa Rica
Chilean Space Agency (ACE)		Website	Chile

Brazil through its space agency (AEB) supported by the aerospace and technological hub located mainly in the São José dos Campos region with high-tech manufacturers such as Embraer or Avibras, has developed, launches and produces a series of space vectors at the Alcântara Launch Center (CLA) from the Sondas, today replaced by the VS which have dozens of flights from the country or others such as the German DLR. Also designed and built a series of observation satellites and other scientific purposes and has put into flight its first Scramjet engine developed for the 14-X hypersonic vehicle, launched from the CLA. It is now developing the VLM-1 launcher scheduled for its maiden flight in 2022 or 2023 and has recently also signed contracts with private companies such as Virgin Orbit for the use of its infrastructure for space launches.

The Sirius particle accelerator is located in the Brazilian city of Campinas, with a magnetic ring of 518 meters and 3 GeV of power. Brazil also carries out experiments in the area of nuclear fusion, with three tokamaks (experimental reactors for the study of plasma fusion) and the INPE operates the ETE (Tokamak Spherical Experiment) designed and built in the country.

In the area of Nuclear Energy, the country has several reactors for energy production and dominates the complete uranium enrichment cycle that supplies the consumption of its Almirante Álvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Plant and has exported nuclear fuel to Argentina, for use in the Atucha nuclear reactor and the Carem-25 modular reactor. The country is building its first nuclear submarine, the SSN Álvaro Alberto, a development of the Riachuelo-class submarines in the production race.

Brazil has a tradition in civil engineering with major works such as the Itaipu Dam, Brasília and others. In the area of biotechnology and agronomic engineering, it has benchmark companies in tropical soils such as Embrapa, which allowed the expansion of agriculture in relatively infertile soils in the interior of the country, allowing the country to become one of the largest food exporters in the world.

Brazil, together with Argentina, are the two Latin American countries to have supercomputers in the Top500 list of the 500 largest supercomputers, with 6 such equipment in Brazil and 1 in Argentina and the science of Brazil in the period 2011 to 2016 published more than 250,000 articles in the Web of Science database in all areas of knowledge, with one of the highest growth in scientific production among all nations, and reached the 11th position among knowledge producers in the world. world, contributing 2.12% of the articles from 183 countries.

Mexico has had remarkable advances in science and technology. According to the information provided by Scopus, a bibliographic database of scientific information, the Spanish web portal SCImago placed Mexico in the 28th place on an international list, considering a total of 82,792 publications, and also in the 34th place, considering his h-index score of 134. The calculations of both evaluations correspond to the period 1996-2008.

On July 31, 2010, the decree creating the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) was published, thus allowing Mexico's incursion into space technologies.

In Mexico, government institutions such as the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) and the Mexican Navy contribute by developing microprocessors, A.I. military, computer systems, rockets and missiles as well as various electronic devices for use by the Armed Forces or for sale to other Latin American nations. It should be noted that, according to the AllBusiness.com site. one in four household appliances sold in the United States are of Mexican origin.

Argentina successfully cloned the first bovine in 2002, making it the first Latin American country and one of the only nine countries in the world to have completed this task. On April 6, 2012, the unprecedented cloning of Rosita ISA was achieved, the first bovine born in the world to which two human genes were incorporated, and which will result in a milk with human lactoferrin and lysozyme (a protein and an enzyme) with antibacterial and antiviral properties ideal for the immune system of babies. Argentina is also among the only four countries in the world (together with the United States, Italy and Canada) to achieve the cloning of horses of high competitive value.

In nuclear energy Argentina is, along with Brazil, the most advanced country in terms of production and research through the CNEA with the Atucha and Embalse plants as well as a series of research reactors or low and medium power nuclear power plants such as the CAREM 25.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Argentina carried out experiments sending different animals in suborbital flights aboard rockets of its own making, which made this country the fourth nation to have sent animals into space, and one of the only six currently to have done so, along with the United States, the Soviet Union, France, Japan, and China.

In Cuba, biotechnology has been highly developed since the eighties, standing out centers such as "Molecular Immunology", "Tropical Medicine", which have branches and companies mixed all over the world. Public health and its members are an exportable line of the first order, the country, in addition to providing free aid to many underdeveloped countries, offers its trained doctors and equipment to countries with higher levels of development.

In Peru, Pedro Paulet is the creator of the first functional rocket in history, before those manufactured in Germany and the United States.

Venezuela, for its part, has formed its own space agency (ABAE) that intends to provide support to the Simón Bolívar Telecommunications Satellite, of primarily governmental interests. This country also has one of the largest astronomical observatories that operates near the equator, also ranking among the highest in relation to the sea. Built in the mid-50s, it is one of the most important astronomical observation points in the country, and is also commonly referred to as the Mérida Astrophysics. Regarding scientific matters, Venezuela promotes local studies on atomic energy for mainly medical purposes, and for the generation of electricity.

Regional scientific cooperation

The Angicos operation from the Hell's Barrier Launch Center in 2007 was the first joint space mission between Brazil and Argentina, a VS-30 rocket flew at a height of 121 kilometers where Argentine scientific experiments were carried out and also the use of a Brazilian GPS tracking system.

Brazil and Argentina will jointly build the Long Latin American Millimeter Array (Llama) radio telescope that will be installed in the province of Salta, in the Argentine Andes. The positioning of the Llama, 150 kilometers from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), will allow it to also operate as one more antenna for the European observatory located in Chile.

The Argentine satellite ARSAT-1 underwent a test campaign that lasted eight months at the facilities of the Integration and Testing Laboratory (LIT) of the National Institute for Space Research of Brazil (INPE) in São José dos Campos. It was the largest piece of equipment in volume and mass, approximately three tons when loaded with fuel, ever tested in Brazil.

The SABIA-Mar of Argentine-Brazilian Satellites for Environmental Information of the Sea would be a future constellation of Argentine-Brazilian satellites for the study of the oceanic biosphere.

The Brazilian RMB and Argentine AR-10 nuclear research and radiopharmaceutical reactors are considered twins, built in cooperation between the Argentine CNEA and the Brazilian National Nuclear Energy Commission with an engineering project in charge of INVAP.

Brazil-Colombia cooperation agreement to be developed in areas such as terrestrial observation, development, assembly, testing and operation of satellites and shared use of scientific and technological infrastructure between the two countries.

Chile and Brazil are members of the PLATO consortium, a mission proposed by ESA that seeks to place a space observatory in orbit to search for exoplanets, its launch estimated in approximately 2026.

Human rights

Women's Rights

Today, most countries recognize the right of women to health, to work, to occupy senior and political positions, etc., and mistreatment is even punished with severe sanctions. Other rights that have also been recognized are both to be part of the army and to perform military service. Ironically, in many countries where a woman can perform military service, she is only voluntary while in the case of a man, this service is compulsory. Another is the case of Costa Rica and Panama, which do not have an army.

It is important to see that women have made progress in their rights, however inequality continues to be seen when occupying leadership positions, only a few women have achieved it, however, every day we see how the labor sector is being invaded by women, and we can applaud the fact that the government punishes those who treat them with violence, that there will be opportunities for training, credit and psychological support for those who need it.

Rights of children and adolescents

Refers to the rights to education, as well as clothing, food and protection against mistreatment. In this region, some children or young adolescents are victims of abuse, exploitation, pedophilia or sexual harassment. Some countries already typify laws to penalize these practices motivated by mistreatment and discrimination. There are free education systems that are attended by most of the students, who in these countries do not have high economic resources. There are also private establishments that are only accessible to families with greater resources. The same scenario is repeated for universities. Cuba is the only country that does not have private institutions and its population accesses educational rights for free.

Worker Rights

This is about protecting people's jobs. Most countries have laws that protect employees against unfair dismissal and exploitation, as well as guarantee the formation of unions.

Rights of native peoples

Refers to the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the descendants of Africa. Because racism is still strong, some countries have recognized their rights, as is the case in Bolivia, as well as in Cuba, Venezuela, and especially Colombia, where their protection is constitutional. It is a matter of that in these towns all their rights as citizens are recognized, and that they can be part of politics.

Sexual diversity

Main articles: Homosexuality in Latin America, LGBT Legislation in Latin America and the Caribbean and Same-sex marriage in Argentina.

Legal status of homosexuality: Legal homosexual practices Gay marriage Civil Unions No civil unions Recognition of homosexual marriages in other countries Illegal homosexual practices Minor penis Older Life imprisonment

Homosexual practices are legal in all countries in this region. The last country to decriminalize them was Nicaragua, ceasing to consider homosexuality a crime in the penal code that came into force in 2008.

Even though homophobia is strong within some societies in this region, legislators have made efforts that have made Latin America one of the places with the most tolerant and progressive legislation in the world. Most of the countries have legislation against discrimination based on sexual orientation, among these states are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, as well as Puerto Rico, Chile (Law & #34;Zamudio" Anti-discrimination promulgated in 2012) and all the French dependencies of the Caribbean.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Uruguay are the only countries in Latin America where marriage between same-sex couples is legal as well as the rights to adoption as any couple heterosexual throughout the territory, in Mexico it is legal in some states. The countries of the region that have approved laws that allow civil unions for homosexual couples throughout their territory are: Colombia (2007), Uruguay (2008), Ecuador (2008) and Bolivia (2020). There are laws regional civil union rights in Mexico, and Brazil. In Uruguay, civil union rights are acquired after 5 years of cohabitation. Chile became in January 2015 the seventh South American country to establish civil union for gay couples after the Senate approved the Civil Union Agreement (AUC), while Honduras has banned gay marriage.

In 2003, the city of Buenos Aires became the first Latin American city to allow civil unions for homosexual couples. On March 4, 2010, the Assembly of Representatives of the Federal District where Mexico City is located issued a law that allows marriage between people of the same sex, as well as the possibility for said couples to adopt children, this being the first city in Latin America to allow it in the form of marriage. A few months later, on July 15, 2010, Argentina legalized same-sex marriage throughout its territory, becoming the first country in the region to legalize it.

In addition, some discrimination persists in the legislation, such as the prohibition to serve in the army, the police and all security establishments in Panama.

Argentina, in addition to being the first country in the region to enact the law on homosexual marriage, on May 24, 2012 became the first Nation in the world to enact the Law of Gender Identity. Said norm establishes that any person can be identified in the DNI with the gender that he wishes, without the need to undergo surgery. In addition, social and prepaid obras must cover sex change interventions, thus making Argentina one of the countries with the most regulations in favor of the rights of sexual diversity in the world.

Homosexuality in Latin America also includes lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals included in the same term (LGBT). Despite the fact that today the vast majority of Latin Americans profess Christianity (mainly Catholics and Protestants), attempts have been made to fight for equality and against homophobic attitudes that have given success and acceptance for sexual orientation. it has gradually grown since the late 1990s.

Argentina was the first country to enforce same-sex marriage, and in a few years this was achieved in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

Although Chile only recognizes civil unions between equal couples, between 6 and 7 out of 10 Chileans are in favor of same-sex marriage, which places it along with Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay among the most less homophobic countries in the region.

Mexico has had a gradual process for sexual equality due to the strong opposition of the followers of Christianity. Despite this, in March 2010 and a few months before the legalization of equal marriage in Argentina, Mexico City became the first city in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage and according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, around 61% of Mexicans have a positive opinion about same-sex marriages, this contrasts with other sources that say that more than half of the population opposes said marriage. Since 2022 equal marriage It is legalized throughout the country.

In Puerto Rico, there are laws that facilitate marriage between same-sex couples, also having one of the most prominent LGBT artists in the region, Ricky Martin, and marriages can take place in churches without any controversy.

For its part, in countries like Venezuela, there are already laws that endorse civil unions between gays and lesbians, thus increasing the paths towards a society with greater social equality and the possibilities of the validity of gay marriage.

In El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic there is still discrimination against LGBT people, although homosexuality is legal but there is still no civil union. In the case of Panama, despite being the last country in the region to decriminalize homosexuality, the level of tolerance is increasing thanks to awareness campaigns. However, the LGBT community is still subject to discrimination by some sectors of the community. the society.

Finally, in Belize, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Suriname there is a strong penalty against LGBT people, in the case of Cuba it is only acute discrimination, but there is no penalty.

Country	% acceptance of LGTBQ+
Argentina	74
BoliviaBolivia	21
BrazilBrazil	60
ChileChile	68
ColombiaColombia	40
Costa RicaCosta Rica	45
EcuadorEcuador	17
El SalvadorEl Salvador	10
GuatemalaGuatemala	12
HondurasHonduras	12
Mexico Mexico	61
NicaraguaNicaragua	16
Panama Panama	23
Paraguay Paraguay	15
Peru Peru	25
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	55
Uruguay Uruguay	62
Venezuela Venezuela	30

Defense

The region's armed forces are generally medium and large in size, with professional armies mostly equipped with modern equipment and ammunition. These armies are specialized above all in United Nations peacekeeping missions, and in carrying out joint tasks with other armies on the continent or the world.

The countries with the largest troops are Colombia 2,140,000 (450,000 permanent, 1,450,000 reserve and 240,000 paramilitary force), Brazil with 1,667,710, Venezuela with 1,143,577, Mexico with 707,405 and Argentina with 581,240. On the other hand, in terms of technological superiority the situation varies, the armies of Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia having made acquisitions to modernize their equipment. Some countries lack an army, such as Costa Rica and Panama, however they allocate their economic resources to other sectors.

Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile maintain a local production capacity for weapons. In the Brazilian case, a significant part of its defense material is manufactured locally through industries such as Embraer, Avibras, AMRJ and others, which are also exported to other countries. The Niterói Class frigates, Tupi Class and Riachuelo Class submarines, transport aircraft such as the Embraer C-390 Millennium, Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano training and A-1 AMX attack are made in the country. Also ground material such as the IMBEL IA2 rifle, armored VBTP-MR Guarani, Astros II multiple rocket launcher as well as ammunition such as bombs, missiles and rockets. For its part, Argentina produces the IA-63 Pampa, Pucara Fenix and IA-100 Malvina aircraft at the Argentine Aircraft Factory.

Military service remains compulsory for men in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, and is voluntary for women. It is voluntary, without gender discrimination, in countries such as Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Argentina and Brazil have been the only countries in Latin America to have owned aircraft carriers: the ARA Independencia and the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo of the Argentine Navy, and the NAeL São Paulo and the NAeL Minas Gerais (A- 11) of the Brazilian Navy, the force currently operates the NAM Atlântico (A140) as an aircraft carrier.

In the field of atomic energy, only Argentina and Brazil have been on the verge of manufacturing nuclear weapons. If the prototype of a plutonium implosion-type nuclear bomb was materialized in the 1970s by Argentina, an arms race with Brazil would have been unleashed. Finally, in 1991 the parliaments of Argentina and Brazil ratified a bilateral inspection agreement that created the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) to supervise that the nuclear energy of both nations is produced for peaceful purposes. Subsequently, Argentina ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995 and Brazil in 1998.

On the other hand, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico are the only Latin American nations equipped with nuclear power plants to meet the great energy demand of their industries: Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse in Argentina, Angra I and Angra II in Brazil and Green Lagoon in Mexico.

Portahelicópteros NAM Atlântico (A140) de la Marina de Brasil.
Submarine Clase Scorpène de la Armada de Chile.
Campero Clase Sierra de la Armada de México, built in Tampico and Salina Cruz Mexico.
Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft from the Venezuelan Air Force.
Gripen F-39E fighter aircraft from the Brazilian Air Force.
MiG-29SE fighter aircraft from the Peruvian Air Force.
A-4AR Fightinghawk fighter from the Argentine Air Force.
FAB medium transport aircraft KC-390.
Black Hawk helicopter from the Colombian Air Force.
MBT TAM of the Argentine Army
MBT Leopard 2 of the Chilean Army.
Launch rockets and Astros 2020 missiles from the Brazilian Army.

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