The best quotes of the year in Latin America business this year.

BY LATINVEX STAFF

The editorial staff of Latinvex selects the best quotes of the year relating to Latin America business.

We have listed by country or topic in alphabetical order.

ARGENTINA

“In Argentina, there is a man who exercises absolute power. And there is a woman who controls that man.”
Gustavo González, CEO of newspaper publisher Perfil, August 31, 2025, on the influence of Karina Milei over her brother Javier Milei.

“My objection is that the Milei plan does not do what it says on the tin. He has not in fact thrown open the economy to market forces. He has not liberated Argentina from the eternal misrule of the Peronist casta. He invokes Smith, Hayek, and Friedman only to betray them.”
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Daily Telegraph, September 26, 2025.

“Milei has gone from international political rockstar to beggar in less than two years.”
Agustino Fontevecchia in Buenos Aires Times, September 27, 2025.

“The world’s biggest deadbeat has passed the begging bowl again.”
Currency expert and Professor of Applied Economics at The Johns Hopkins University Steve Hanke in Fortune, October 13, 2025.

“The country is in the hands of a frightened madman who is gambling with other people’s money.”
Professor Carlos Rodríguez, the “Chicago school” doyen of Argentina’s free marketeers, as quoted by the Daily Telegraph, September 26, 2025.

“The last thing Argentina needs right now is more debt.”
A senior official with an international financial institution, on the $20 billion US bailout of Argentina, as quoted by the Financial Times, September 25, 2025.

“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market???”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on X, September 25, 2025, after the US pledged a $20 billion bailout to Argentina just as the South American country was selling record soy to China.

“We thought that Trump would be a second Milei, and he turned out to be a second Cristina Kirchner. What he’s doing is textbook Kirchnerism.”
Harvard international economics professor Ricardo Hausmann, as quoted by Andres Oppenheimer, April 11, 2025.

BRAZIL

“We realized that we could be Churchill or Chamberlain. I didn’t want to be Chamberlain.”
Brazil Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who led the trial against former president Jair Bolsonaro accused of plotting a coup, as quoted by The New York Times, September 12, 2025.

“What Trump is doing is gangster stuff.”
Aloysio Nunes, former foreign minister of Brazil during the Temer Administration, as quoted by O Globo, July 10, 2025, after Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on all US imports from Brazil.

“Trump’s crude blackmail will not pass.”
Editorial in O Globo newspaper in Brazil, July 10, 2025, after Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on all US imports from Brazil.

“Santa Claus arrived early for President Lula, and the gift was sent by Trump through this clumsy attack on Brazil’s sovereignty in order to protect a wannabe dictator and a clear loser.”
A senior Brazilian diplomat to The Washington Post, July 20, 2025, on Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on Brazil.

BOLIVIA

“I want to say, as much as it hurts me, that this is a cesspool of extraordinary dimensions.”
Bolivia’s new president Rodrigo Paz on the conditions he encountered at government offices after the handover of power, as quoted by Infobae, November 14, 2025.

COLOMBIA

“There is no other credit card with an $8 billion limit for Colombia.”
Mauricio Cardenas, former finance minister in Colombia, on the Petro government’s decision to cancel a credit line with the International Monetary Fund, as quoted by La FM, October 1, 2025.

“The health system is in coma.”
Jorge Toro, head of Unips Colombia, which represents health providers in the country, on how President Gustavo Petro has ruined what was Latin America’s best healthcare system, as quoted by Bloomberg, August 19, 2025.

“Relations between Washington and Bogotá shift from Plan Colombia to Colombia without a plan.”
Juan Esteban Orduz in El Pais, Spain, July 15, 2025.

“Vampires come, but vampires disappear when the sun rises, Georgieva.”
Colombian president Gustavo Petro on X, April 26, 2025, addressing IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva after the fund suspended a credit line for the South American country.

“For Petro, Congress is good when it approves reforms, but when it doesn’t, he calls it a traitor.”
Jaime Alberto Cabal, president of Colombia’s retail association Fenalco, after Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced plans to call for a referendum on labor reform following failure to get Congress approval, as quoted by El Colombiano, March 14, 2025.

“Cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whisky.”
Colombian president Gustavo Petro during a live cabinet meeting, February 4, 2025.

MEXICO

“The U.S. reasons for the tariffs constantly shift. If we can’t identify the problem, we can’t identify the solution.”
A Mexican official complaining about the chaos and drama of Donald Trump’s tariffs, as quoted by Reuters, March 6, 2025.

“We’re watching as power is falling almost entirely into the hands of one party. There isn’t any balance of power.”
Georgina De la Fuente, election specialist with the Mexican consulting firm Strategia Electoral, on the direct election of Supreme Court and other judges in Mexico, as quoted by the Associated Press, June 3, 2025.

“The only path to development is through institutions that uphold the law.”
Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s president from 2006 to 2012, as quoted by the Mexico Brief, March 28, 2025.

“It seems like the court that is going to form is one that Lopez Obrador always dreamed of having when he was president. The objective, to be clear, was to have a judicial branch submissive to the executive branch.” 
Laurence Pantin, co-coordinator of the Justice Observatory at Tec de Monterrey and director of the civil organization Fair Trial, on direct elections of judges, as quoted by Reuters, June 4, 2025.

PANAMA

“Picking a fight with Panama is really weird. The country is ideologically aligned with the US. We don’t export migrants and we’re already trying to counter Chinese influence. But no leader can hand over the canal because it is written into our constitution, and he wouldn’t last two hours if he tried. What Trump has been saying is so outrageously false that Panamanians thought it must be a joke at first. Now they are scared. The US has all kinds of ways to destroy our economy.”
Cristina Ramirez, a Panamanian political scientist at King’s College London, as quoted by The Daily Telegraph, March 7, 2025.

“Trump is playing straight into the hands of the Chinese. The more he plays the Ugly American, the easier Beijing can exploit the Latin backlash.”
Ambrose Evans-Prichard on Trump’s threats to take the Panama Canal, writing in The Daily Telegraph, March 7, 2025.

“Free is not an option as presented. Let’s discuss it. But the treaty is law in Panama, and it’s rule of law in the States, so no one can force anyone to break the law.”
Panama Canal CEO Ricaurte Vasquez, rejecting Donald Trump’s demand for free passage for US vessels, as quoted by Financial Times, June 10, 2025.

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