Editor's letter

Abstract

This first volume of Latin American Policy for 2021 includes eight academic articles and four perspective essays. The articles cover issues ranging from mining governance to social, criminal, and fiscal policies. Paúl Cisneros opens with a study on the design, dynamics, and outcomes of mining policies in Colombia and Ecuador. Chong-Sup Kim and Seungho Lee then offer a general analysis of corruption in Latin America. They argue that there is a link between natural resources and corruption that is mediated by the workings of a social contract. Jonathan Matusitz and Demi Simi examine the role of U.S. government deception in the handling of the anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada. They use theory to explain how U.S. federal employees propagated falsehoods and deception for political gain. Nicolás Didier focuses on the relationship between higher education enrollment and the gender wage gap in Chile, concluding that credentials have a differential effect across genders, which can be interpreted as a systematic bias toward “human capital pricings.” Helder Ferreira do Vale proposes a theoretical framework to analyze conditional cash-transfer programs that are the result of a process of social policy innovation in Brazil. His study concludes that Brazil's Bolsa Família and Bolsa Verde show the trajectory of social-assistance development as outcomes of institutional dynamics that attempted to foster social investment and to reduce risks. Jonathan D. Rosen examines tough-on-crime strategies in El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, finding that fear is a key factor that influences support for mano dura policies. Next, Sylvia Gonzalez-Gorman analyzes the implications of the border wall on economic integration between Mexico and the United States and explores whether it undermines Mexico's goal of economic integration. Finally, Vladimir Hlasny assesses how to redistribute fiscal instruments in Mexico from 2010 to 2014, to ascertain what deficits exist in reporting income and determining tax distribution. He concludes, among other things, that in-kind transfers, cash-like transfers, and direct taxes have the strongest equalizing effects. In the Perspectives section, we have included four compelling essays on current topics. Detlef Nolte, who was the director of the Institute for Latin American Studies (2006–2018) with the famous think tank German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), offers a general overview of the ups and downs of Latin American regionalism. Meanwhile, José Briceño-Ruiz, Thomas Legler, and Juan Pablo Prado Lallande explore the evolution of the Pacific Alliance ten years after its creation. The two final essays consider a hot topic that is very controversial in Mexico, where the federal government stepped back from the major energy reforms implemented in the country in 2013 and 2014. Sergio M. Alcocer, the president of the Mexican Council on Foreign Affairs, a famous think tank, analyzes the repercussions for Mexico’s power industry of the most recent changes in the electricity legislation undertaken by the government. Meanwhile, Feng Zhou, Qiong Tang, and Changchun Zhou, from the Chinese non-governmental organization Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO), reflect on the most recent power outage suffered in the northern part of the country, when Texas gas pipelines froze and natural gas exports to Mexico were halted. Isidro Morales, editor in chief, is affiliated with the School of Social Sciences and Government at Tecnológico de Monterrey, and is an external fellow of the Mexico–United States Center and the Energy Center at Rice University’s Baker Institute.