Dutch Disease: How Remittances (and Our Mistakes) Killed the Export Miracle Since 2013
“Dutch disease,” a term coined by The Economist in 1977, is not an academic curiosity; it is a mechanism that ultimately affects the model of country we have built — consciously or unconsciously. It describes how a massive inflow of foreign currency can weaken local industry and make the currency more expensive by shifting resources […]
The Five-Engine Model for a Guatemala of Wealth per Capita
I do not believe in privileges or special conditions for specific sectors, but I do believe in country models that allow nations to compete among the global elite. Guatemala is one of the few countries on the planet that could activate the five engines shared by the world’s most productive economies: high-value industry, strategic logistics, […]
The Mirage of Second Place: Size Is Not Prosperity
In 1960, Guatemala ranked as the 11th economy in wealth per person within the Central American and Caribbean bloc. By 2024, it had fallen to 27th out of 30. However, during the first weeks of February, several government-aligned media outlets — beginning with Diario de Centro América — celebrated the IMF projection according to which […]
Dare: Guatemala’s Leap of Faith
“No es porque las cosas sean difíciles que no nos atrevemos; es porque no nos atrevemos que son difíciles.” – Seneca, Moral Epistles. In The Sickness Unto Death (1849), Søren Kierkegaard argues that heroism is daring: throwing oneself into the unknown knowing that we may lose everything, but understanding that this is the only authentic […]
Chapín: An Identity Built by Many Peoples
Guatemalan Identity and the Meaning of Being Chapín In Guatemala we have a national nickname: chapín. We pronounce it with pride, yet almost nobody asks where that word really comes from or what it means. The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines mote as the nickname given to a person because of some quality […]
The Historical Parallel Between Jasaw Chan K’awiil and Lester Martínez Tut’s World Boxing Conquest
A phrase often attributed to Mark Twain transcends time: “history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” These are echoes that reappear at different moments with the same profound meaning. Civilizations that fall and rise again. Peoples who descend into darkness and later find, against all odds, a new summit. Guatemala has already lived […]
The Arévalo Model vs. the Milei Model: Mortgaging Today or Building Tomorrow
Argentina and Guatemala are currently growing at similar rates. Both countries are moving at around 4%, a figure that, at first glance, suggests stability. But that coincidence is misleading. Growth, by itself, says nothing about the quality of an economy or its future. What matters is not how much growth there is, but where that […]
The Guatemala Interoceanic Corridor: The Race to Secure the Geopolitics of Redundancy
Today’s global logistics crisis did not begin with the war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran. It is the result of accumulated pressures over nearly two decades. As early as 2008, the system was already facing accelerated demand from emerging economies such as China and India, geopolitical tensions in key producers like Iran and […]