168,000 Days Asking Permission to Open a Port
In 1594 the town council of Panama wrote to that of Guatemala. Panama was short of the most essential goods: wheat, flour, barley, tallow, dried meat, other meats, sugar, preserves, fruits, and vegetables. All of that was in surplus on this side, and it would have sold well over there. There was something to sell. […]
Why Doesn’t the T-Shirt Exporter Pay, While the Coffee Exporter Does?
Anyone in Guatemala who wanted to buy something as simple as imported chocolate, before 1986, had three doors available. The Comisariato Militar, if you had a military ID and knew someone inside: a “passport to paradise” of imported consumer goods. Selectas or Exclusivas, if you had the money of the capital’s upper class. For everyone […]
Less Free Than Athens
Lisandros was born in Phoenicia but has lived in the port of Athens for twenty years. He rents a workshop where he manufactures amphorae to export olive oil. He hires both free workers and slaves. He asked no one’s permission to open his business. No one demands monthly reports from him. If a trading partner breaks […]
Should Guatemala Follow Mexico? A Mirror We Cannot Ignore
Do you remember Demetrio? The man from the Alka-Seltzer commercials of the 1980s who, after a night of excess, would return home feeling miserable. Well, when Demetrio wanted to buy his Corolla in the year 2000, he needed twenty-seven months of salary to pay for it. That same year, a Demetrio in Guadalajara needed only […]
The Country That Settles for Less: How Lack of Ambition Has Crushed Our Competitiveness
On a March afternoon, with the sun tinting the jacarandas purple and the palo blanco trees golden, Guatemala looks like paradise. The song of blackbirds and the flutter of hummingbirds remind us that we live in a privileged land. But the danger of paradise is complacency. We’ve clung to stability, to the “we’re fine as […]