Mercados, recursos, industria.
For much of the 20th century, Saint Lucia’s economy centered on banana cultivation, introduced as a commercial export crop after World War II and long protected by preferential access to European markets. Increased competition from lower-cost Latin American producers and the erosion of those European trade preferences sharply reduced the industry’s importance beginning in the […]
For much of its colonial and post-colonial history, Saint Kitts and Nevis relied on sugar cane as the backbone of its economy, with the government nationalizing the country’s sugar estates in the 1970s. Falling world prices and rising production costs made the crop increasingly unprofitable, and the government ended more than three centuries of sugar […]
Peru’s economy is anchored by a diverse set of export-oriented industries, with mining serving as the most significant driver of national output and foreign trade. The country holds substantial deposits of copper, silver, gold, zinc, lead, and tin, many concentrated in the Andean highlands. As of 2026, Peru ranks as the world’s third-largest copper producer […]
Panama’s economy is among the most services-oriented in Latin America, with commerce, transportation, logistics, and financial services together accounting for most national output. This structure developed around the country’s central geographic asset, the isthmus connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which enabled the Panama Canal and a wider network of maritime and trade industries to […]
Agriculture and livestock anchor Paraguay’s economy, led by soybeans, corn, wheat, and cattle. Large-scale mechanized farming, which expanded across the eastern region from the 1970s onward, made soybeans the country’s dominant export crop, sold abroad as beans, meal, and oil. Cattle ranching in the Chaco and eastern grasslands likewise generates substantial export revenue, with Paraguayan […]
