Mac Margolis

There’s No App to Beat Covid in Latin America

Whether it’s standing up to corporate tobacco, pioneering the rainbow agenda or branding Big Marijuana, Uruguay’s public-policy chutzpah stands out in the Americas. So it was little surprise when this nation of 3.4 million joined the world’s pacesetters in vaccine rollout. Some 28 of every 100…

Argentina Can’t Afford to Delay Economic Reforms

Argentina is in a familiar place, buried in debt, unloved in the financial markets and at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund — or is it the other way around? When a country owes $45 billion, the balance due on the IMF’s biggest rescue loan ever in 2018, it’s not so much in hock to its…

Latin America's Populists Are Overwhelmed by COVID-19

Examples abound of how reprehensible leadership has worsened Latin America’s plight during the coronavirus pandemic. After consistently flouting public health safeguards, right-wing populist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing coeval, Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, turned…

In Era of Extremes, Argentina's Candidates Fight for the Center

As Argentines headed to the polls for primary elections last Sunday, there was a puzzler for voters: How to choose between political campaigns that demonize one another as ruin incarnate, but whose candidates have raced to claim the middle ground? To hear it from officialdom, incumbent President…

Venezuela Needs Solutions, Not Grandstanding

Venezuela’s travails have become a cause célèbre. For a land inured to international indifference or fly-by celebrities, the sudden wash of attention is odd but welcome. Where else might you see rival camps weaponizing aid meant for the sick and desperate to the tune of dueling concerts planned on…

Brazil’s New President Stumbles in Terra Incognita

To rescue Brazil from its worst economic debacle in memory, and perhaps his own worst instincts as a career dirigiste, president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has called upon a market-friendly, University of Chicago-trained wunderkind. His pick for Justice Minister? Sergio Moro, of course, the federal judge…

Politics Cost Brazil its National Museum

We don't yet know what set off the fire last weekend that reduced Rio de Janeiro’s National Museum to a charred shell. Firefighters were still combing the ruins on Tuesday for clues to the blaze that razed Latin America’s marquee science museum along with most of its irreplaceable collection. …

Latin America's Fight Against Corruption Isn't Free

Latin American corruption-busters have taken down many a tainted bigshot in recent years, but the fall of Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski marks a new twist to the hemispheric reckoning. The former Wall Street executive denied any wrongdoing, claiming he was the victim of a “crisis of…