Published in Hispanic Executive Oct/Nov/Dec 2014

Foreign investors poured $182 billion into Latin America and the Caribbean in 2013.

Central America, South America, and the Caribbean promise economic opportunities in a number of industries from extraction to automotive manufacturing to agriculture. And an emerging middle class stands to capture the attention of consumer brands from every sector.

“Latin America, in terms of gross national product, is similar to China,” noted of Mexichem chairman Juan Pablo Del Valle Perochena in a publication by FTI Consulting. Latin America and the Caribbean’s 260 million people account for a $3.6 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) annually. “Within 10 years we’ll have 350 million people … making an additional $3.8 trillion of GDP,” he continued. “If that growth doesn’t excite businessmen and entrepreneurs, what does?”

From 50,000 feet, Latin America looks like an investor’s playground, but it’s in the absence of a deep dive that interested parties find themselves hacked, sabotaged, or played. The environment is one in which opportunity and potential are counterbalanced by corruption and crime. For more than three decades, global business advisory firm FTI Consulting has been helping businesses assess and mitigate the risks of doing business around the globe …

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