MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latinamerica's major threats: lack of energy and Chavez

Lack of energy, Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez and international terrorism are the major threats for Latinamerica concluded Wednesday several experts from the region in the framework of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

"The lack of a reliable provision of energy in Latinamerica is the major risk, and the major security risk is international terrorism", summed up the moderator of the conference on Latinamerica, Rafael Fernández de Castro, head of the Foreign Relations department from the Mexican Autonomous Technology Institute and editor of the Spanish edition of Foreign Affairs. "Venezuela's Chavez is also capitalizing international attention because neither Brazil nor Mexico, the main countries in the region, are showing leadership", and haven't developed an alternative message. However is spite of this, politically Latinamerica "is not divided between left wing or right wing countries but rather responsible governments and populist governments" added Fernandez de Castro. Felipe Larrain, Economics professor in Chile's Catholic University argued that although the region's economy has not grown as fast as Asia, "much has been achieved and advanced in macroeconomics" and the last four years have been of consistent expansion which makes the region "attractive" for international investors. But since a world deceleration is expected this year, "this will also have an impact on Latinamerica". Another major challenge is fighting inequality in the region, helping 40% of the population living in poverty conditions to have improved access to education, health and jobs. Latinamerica according to international statistics remains the area of the world with the greatest wealth distribution inequality.