Could this be helped by first world countries donating solar and wind generation equipment, and peace corps training programs to train and supervise the installation in country?
Disclaimer: I am Brazilian, I know how Latin America & 3rd world "works".
No, it wouldn't help. This crisis is not caused by lack of resources. It is caused by corruption, cronyism, patronage and, above anything else, gigantic incompetence.
If "first world countries" give some help it will probably only benefit the corrupt officials.
Why incomppetance? People seem to be really competente at using corruption to their benefit. If it would benefit them to be competent, they would improve, but they have no insentive to do so.
So I think its wrong to say "above anything else, gigantic incompetence", its more like "above anything else, bad insentives".
No. Argentina, Brazil and other latam countries really do not need donations. Venezuela is a very rich country that actually have the second largest oil reserves, ironically. It would be like donating stuff to Saudi Arabia.
Our problem is rampant corruption, populism and mismanagement derived from it.
Brazil is trying to get out. Argentina is out of it, lets hope is not too late.
For Venezuela is already too late.
Argentinian here. The problem is a bit more complex than "populism", because of course if non-populist governments were handling the country perfectly, there would be no risk of "populist" options.
The causes for the problems in Latin America are complex, there is no single root cause that can be easily explained in an Internet forum, and keep in mind many of these countries -- well, I can at least speak for Argentina -- were historically owned and managed by decidedly non populist landowners which influenced the following generations of leaders (and some of these families still own portions of the country). So if populism was a reaction to conservatism and prior authoritarian governments, it cannot (alone) be the root cause of our problems.
Sure, corruption is a problem as well, but I think that alone it doesn't explain our problems either.
I think corruption and populism are more symptoms than causes.
I do not agree with you. I think that the real issue with both Argentina and Brazil is that the ruling class is more interested in going on holidays to Miami and Europe than in the health and progress of the country. It also does not help that just 40 years ago the military wiped out an entire generation of left-wing politicians, which left us with very bad country management :(.
Venezuela is not a very rich nation. It would be like claiming that Afghanistan is very rich because they have massive deposits of metals.
In just three years, their inflation (the bolivar has lost 97% of its value) and economic contraction has taken their GDP per capita from ~$14,000 to ~$4,000. They've lost at least 70% of their economy, and it's not over yet.
Saudi Arabia's economic output is nearly five times greater per capita. Their median income and median household net wealth are both vastly higher than Venezuela. Saudi Arabia still has substantial capital reserves, while Venezuela has almost none.
Venezuela now has a $20 monthly minimum wage. [1] Most of the nation is struggling to afford food.
Saudi and Venezuela couldn't be any more different outside of being petro states.
I don't think you and the parent contradict each other. Venezuela has natural resources, favorable geography, a reasonably well-educated population, and (until recently) reasonably modern infrastructure. Many countries have fared far better with far less. The problem is management.
> No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time
Churchill quoting one of his predecessors in his autobiography "Churchill by Himself".
EDIT: thanks for the replies everyone. sadness.