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Latin America is finally turning its back on the failed promises of socialism and electing leaders who say they believe in democracy, property rights, and the free market. Voters from Santiago to Buenos Aires have sent a clear message that corruption, crime, and runaway government spending won’t be tolerated any longer, and those victories deserve celebration by every American who values liberty.
Yet as Steve Forbes rightly warns, the International Monetary Fund—an unelected, technocratic cartel—threatens to choke the life out of this hopeful turn by insisting on the same old prescriptions: higher taxes, currency tinkering and inflationary devaluations. Those policies have a predictable record of crushing entrepreneurship and punishing the poor, which is the last thing these new governments need as they try to deliver results.
Take Argentina under Javier Milei: he rode to power promising radical market reforms and dollarization, but reality has shown how dangerous entanglement with the IMF can be. Instead of a clean pivot to sound money, Argentina has leaned on large IMF packages and currency management programs that risk undermining Milei’s reform agenda and exposing ordinary Argentines to renewed inflation and instability.
There are proven alternatives. Dollarization worked in Ecuador and El Salvador and Panama has long anchored its economy to the U.S. dollar, giving those countries a shield against inflation and currency chaos. If new Latin leaders truly want growth and stability, they should study those examples and resist IMF-led schemes that substitute financial engineering for real structural reform.
What these nations need are radical pro-growth policies: sharp tax cuts, simplified flat taxes, rapid deregulation, and legal reforms that make starting and running a business cheap and fast. History and common sense tell us low taxes and sound money unleash private-sector dynamism far better than bureaucratic austerity and recurring devaluations ever will.
For Americans who care about security and prosperity, this is not a distant issue. A prosperous, free-market Latin America is our best partner against authoritarian influence from rivals abroad; handing those countries back to IMF-driven stagnation hands our adversaries a strategic win. Washington should be cheering on the free-market reformers and offering practical support, not letting distant technocrats dictate policies that punish the poor and enrich entrenched interests.
The choice is stark and simple: allow Latin nations to chart a path toward liberty and growth, or let a stale, one-size-fits-all IMF playbook erase the gains those voters just fought for. Patriots in both hemispheres should demand that elected leaders break with the failed consensus of higher taxes and controlled currencies, embrace real reform, and prove that free enterprise can lift millions out of poverty.
