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Latin America Business: Quotes of the Year
The best quotes of the year in Latin America business.
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
“The Peronists have perfected the process of handing over a broken economy to the opposition, who has no choice but to apply drastic measures to resuscitate the investment climate, measures that inevitably hurt the underclasses who yearn again for the economy-destroying subsidies of the Peronists.”
John Price, the Managing Director of Americas Market Intelligence, in analysis on the outlook for Latin America 2023.
“We found a patient in intensive care, about to die.”
Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, as quoted by Clarin, December 13, 2023.
“Waiting on rains for soybeans and a pipeline to be completed can’t be the country’s only path to salvation.”
Roger Horn, Mariva Capital Markets, on Argentina’s urgent need to change economic policy, as quoted by Bloomberg, October 23, 2023
“Massa is no Messi even with an assist from the IMF.”
Alberto Ramos, chief Latin American economist at Goldman Sachs Group, in client note published by Latinvex, January 18, 2023
BRAZIL
“They screwed their shareholders and all the possible financing routes and kidnapped their creditors.”
Marcelo Farias, a manager at BB Asset and one of the 26-member group that holds 4.7 billion reais in Light debt,as quoted by Bloomberg, April 18, 2023.
“You have a citizen who …has no feeling for the suffering of the people.”
Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, once again attacking the head of the Central bank, Roberto de Oliveira Campos Neto, in an interview with Rádio Gaúcha, June 29, 2023
“This was not the project I bought into. I did not buy into an insolvent project.”
Former Americanas Chief Executive Sergio Rial, who testified in a congressional investigation, resigned on Jan. 11, the same day Americanas revealed accounting inconsistencies that were later found to be fraud.
“Unlike what Lula said, the spending cap is not stupidity. Stupidity is saying that the spending cap is stupid.”
Maílson da Nóbrega, a partner at Tendências Consultoria and Brazil’s finance minister between 1988 and 1990, as quoted by Valor Economico, January 4, 2023.
CHILE
“The Chileans have shot themselves in the foot. While the policy opens up opportunities for more development, it’s going to have the opposite effect because of the uncertainty.”
Reg Spencer, analyst at Canaccord Genuity, on Chile’s new lithium restrictions, as quoted by the Financial Times, May 2, 2023.
COLOMBIA
“Petro is making sure that instead of being the first of many leftwing presidents in Colombia, he will be the only one.”
Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, on Colombia President’s increasingy radical decisions, as quoted by the Financial Times, Apil 26, 2023.
“It’s just unimaginable that you would be able to replace 60% of exports with tourism and agriculture.”
Luis Fernando Mejia, head of the Bogota-based think-tank Fedesarrollo and a former director of Colombia’s national planning department, on President Petro’s plans to stop new oil and mining exploration, as quoted by Reuters, March 14, 2023.
“What is bad for Petro is good for investment, for the dollar and for the country.”
Juan Pablo Vieira, CEO of JP Tactical Trading, on Colombia’s radical president Gustavo Petro’s latest setback, as quoted by La Republica, June 6, 2023.
ECUADOR
“They can obstruct via the National Assembly but not govern — a recipe for paralysis and instability.”
Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, on the party of former Ecuador president Rafael Correa creating problems for president-elect Daniel Noboa, as quoted by the Financial Times, October 16, 2023.
MEXICO
“AMLO has a done a lot of bad things, but this is the worst, the most dangerous, by far.”
Unnamed prominent Mexican businessman to the Financial Times, February 27, 2022, on the president’s actions weakening the independent electoral agency INE.
“López Obrador’s legacy will be a much weaker Mexican state, a more polarized nation and a poorer country that has higher levels of violence and is less connected to and in sync with the world than when he took office.”
Arturo Sarukhan, board member of the Inter-American Dialogue and former Mexican ambassador to the United States, as quoted by the he Inter-American Dialogue’s daily Latin America Advisor, November 6, 2023.
“AMLO Says What’s Yours Can Be His in Mexico.”
The Wall Street Journal editorial, May 22, 2023, on the takeover of a part of Grupo Mexico’s railway on May 19, 2023.
“Your position that there should be no restructuring is not going over very well with me.”
US Bankruptcy Judge Lisa G. Beckerman to TV Azteca (owned by Ricardo Salinas, pictured above), as quoted by Bloomberg, August 29, 2023.
“You came, opened solar or wind plants and then couldn’t connect them because the government had a tantrum and wanted to bet on fossil fuels.”
Mexico’s opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez on changes to the country’s energy policies after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came to power, as quoted by Bloomberg, September 8, 2023.
MOREOVER
“Che Guevara has ceded some ideological space to the less racy Thomas Piketty among today’s Latin American left, but the myth of the Cuban revolution lives on.”
Michael Stott in the Financial Times, April 6, 2023.
“Any intern at BTG or Bank of Chile or any other great Chilean bank learned in the first three months of job that you shouldn’t do that —but apparently they didn’t learn.”
Billionaire Andre Esteves, the co-founder and chairman of Brazil’s Banco BTG Pactual, on the failure at Silicon Valley Bank to manage the interest rate risk, as quoted by Bloomberg, March 28, 2023.
“We have to be fair to everyone; we can’t say we will sell milk to you but we won’t buy your beef.”
UK farming minister Mark Spencer at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference, on plans to buy beef from Mexico, as quoted byTh e Guardian, February 21, 2023.
LATIN AMERICA BUSINESS: YEAR IN REVIEW
Latin America Business: Best in 2023
Latin America Business: Worst in 2023
