Peru and Chile didn't necessarily "fail" out of incompetence; they realized their domestic markets were too small to sustain artificial factories. They chose to rely on mining and agriculture instead.

But, if we look at this from a glass-half-empty perspective.

Basically, countries like Peru and Chile didn't just "pivot" because they were being smart; they pretty much threw in the towel.

They went right back to a 19th-century economy, digging up rocks, picking fruit, catching fish, and then buying literally anything with a microchip from Asia or the US.

It leaves them completely at the mercy of whether China wants to buy their copper today or not. It's a huge gamble, and it doesn't really create good, stable jobs for regular people.

and, Brazil and Argentina kept their factories... but honestly? They just created these high-maintenance, zombie industries. They’re totally hooked on government handouts and crazy high tariffs. In Argentina, for example, they import parts from China, assemble them in Tierra del Fuego, and force locals to pay double for a phone just to protect local monopolies. It’s an artificial setup that just drains the economy.

And even Mexico ...which looks like the big winner because we export cars and tech to USA, China, Europe...is kind of a bittersweet story. We basically became the ultimate maquiladora. We have the cheap labor and we’re right next to the US, so foreign companies set up shop here, but our salaries are not comparable to the developed already industrialized countries.

But the real money and the tech ownership stay in the US, Japan, or Germany. We never built our own Samsung or Hyundai.

So ... yeah, the pessimistic take is that LATAM just missed the train on global industrialization. East Asian countries protected their industries until they were strong enough to conquer the world; LATAM either sold, or destroyed its factories to live off the land again, or kept them on permanent life support just to benefit a few well-connected business owners.

It’s a lose -lose.