Guatemala Is Already the Best Destination in the World. What Would Happen If We Now Worked Together to Turn It Into the Planet’s Tourism Hub?
Sometimes dreams come true before we are fully prepared to receive them. That is exactly what has happened with the news that today fills all of Guatemala with pride: we have been chosen as the Best International Destination in the world for 2025, according to the demanding readers of Condé Nast Traveler, one of the […]
How Close Is Guatemala to Bankruptcy? The Fiscal Risk Few Dare to Foresee
For years, Guatemala has walked along the edge of public spending without anyone daring to precisely name the cliff looming ahead. Today, with a proposed budget ceiling of Q161 billion for 2026 — equivalent to 16% of GDP — the government projects a 3.2% deficit, implying additional borrowing of more than Q32 billion. The Monetary […]
And It Stumbled Again Over the Same Stone: The Generation That Ruined Colombia in a Single Election
Colombia, once a recent example of resilience and growth, is now dangerously approaching the edge of collapse. At the beginning of the 21st century, it went from being a narco-state to a regional model of security, investment, and modernization. The road was difficult, but it was worth it: Colombia restored its image, conquered markets, and […]
When Crime Becomes Law: Why Corruption Is Sinking the World
Can a government legalize looting? Can a system disguise theft as public policy? Corruption no longer operates in the shadows: now it sits at the head of power. In many countries, it has been sustained by left-wing governments that, under promises of social justice, free healthcare, and subsidies for all, have expanded the State and, […]
Let’s Free the Small Entrepreneur: It’s Time to Eliminate the Most Unjust Tax of All
Like every early morning, Don Manolo crosses the city in silence on his motorcycle, heading toward his bakery. When he arrives and opens the metal gates protecting the display windows, he remembers that today the ISO payment is due: that tax he does not understand where it came from and that, every year, forces him […]
What If the Secret of Progress Were Not Spending More, but Saving More to Invest Better?
Imagine an impoverished country, burdened by debt, with its young people emigrating due to lack of opportunities. I am not talking about present-day Guatemala, but about Ireland in the 1980s. Instead of continuing to spend what it did not have, Ireland changed course: it lowered taxes — including a record 12.5% corporate tax rate — […]
What If Guatemala Could Be Among the Best? The Plan That Makes Our Dream a Reality
In my June 2 column, Guatemala 2050: a city trapped between smog, crime, and traffic chaos, I warned that, if we do not act decisively, we will condemn our children to live in a capital suffocated by insecurity, traffic, and pollution. Days later, I received a message from Julio C. Urdaneta, Associate Director and Global […]
The Best-Kept Secret: The Efficiency of Foreign Direct Investment in Guatemala
In economics, the evidence is clear: the freest countries are, almost without exception, the most prosperous. This is not a political slogan, but a pattern repeated from Singapore to Switzerland, from Ireland to Taiwan. According to the Economic Freedom Index, Singapore has a GDP per capita of 91 thousand dollars, Switzerland 103 thousand, Ireland 107 […]
The Hidden Engine of Progress: How Industrial Productivity Defines the Destiny of Nations
What if the true secret behind the progress of nations were not found in grand political speeches or in the clientelist social welfare policies that dominate headlines, but rather in the silent force of industrial productivity? Since the late 19th century, when England, the United States, Germany, and Japan embraced industrialization, it became clear that […]
Why Does Nobody Trust Guatemala? The Serial Sin of Undermining Legal Certainty
Socrates said —according to Plato in his dialogue with Cephalus— that keeping one’s word is a foundational principle of justice and coexistence: “The essence of justice consists in each person fulfilling what was promised and returning what was received.” Aristotle confirmed this in his Nicomachean Ethics (340 B.C.): “Legal justice must be followed once laws […]