According to a recent opinion piece in ABC Color, Latin American democracies have legal frameworks that promote economic freedoms, yet structural problems like poverty and inequality persist. The article argues that the region has become accustomed to letting opportunities for sustained growth slip away, often dwelling on what it calls 'lost decades.'
The piece references a book published in the first quarter of 2026 by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) titled 'Mercados y Desarrollo: Cómo la competencia puede mejorar vidas.' The BID work presents data showing the positive effects of fostering economic competition, including more market participants, better productivity, innovation, greater product variety and quality, improved prices, and increased employment.
ABC Color notes that competition should not be viewed as an ideological proclamation or an imported recipe from developed countries. Instead, it points to decades of empirical evidence, including research by the OECD, demonstrating how competition has driven economic growth in other regions. The BID book, the article says, reminds Latin America of this truth and shows what could be achieved if competition were promoted and defended as a central economic axis.
The main challenge, according to the piece, is to adopt competition principles as the articulating axis of national economies, strengthen competition authorities, simplify procedures, and eliminate regulatory barriers to prevent 'regulatory capture' and market distortions. The author concludes that it is possible for Latin American countries to grow and improve the lives of their citizens, urging action to 'make things happen.'
The article was written by a former superintendent of Economic Competition of Ecuador and member of Corporación CERC.