As I mention in a previous article the Costa Rican government did not have money invested on Wall Street. Furthermore the country doesn’t huge companies on the verge of bankruptcy like General Motors or Ford. We just don’t have manufacturing of that size. Also, sub-prime loans don’t exist here. Make no mistake about it there will be some trickle down effect here.

Lets’s look at what another expert says about the outlook in Latin America. Latin America will face serious challenges in 2009 – especially tighter credit and cost-cutting – but the region is now in bettershape than it has been during previous crisis and still offers good opportunities, according to Latin America division heads of leading U.S. and European multinationals surveyed by Latin Business Chronicle. “No country anywhere can completely escape the effects of the economic slowdown, even if that country possesses abundant natural resources or enjoys internal prosperity,” says John Slater, vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean for U.S.-based Continental Airlines.

However, several executives also argue that Latin America is in better shape than ever to face the crisis. “Latin America is an “expert” when dealing with crises and moving forward,” says Fernando Garcia, vice president for Latin America for U.S.-based American Power Conversion (APC). “Compared with previous crises originated internally, this time it is a crisis provoked by the international contagion and not by inherent problems in Latin America. In general, Latin American economies are quite healthy and that can speed up a recovery.”

Better prepared

There are two key elements that will help the economies of countries in Latin America face the current economic downturn, argues Hernán Rincón, Latin America president for U.S.-based Microsoft, the world’s largest software producer. The first is that countries in the region have, and are maintaining, sufficient foreign reserves to endure current conditions. Secondly, inflation in the majority of the countries has been stable and under control. “The current economic situation is definitely impacting all industries in the region and throughout the world,” he says. “Nevertheless, Latin America has maintained in recent years good macroeconomic conditions that will allow for a faster recovery from this current environment, compared to previous crisis that have impacted Latin America.”

While there clearly are several challenges that will face companies operating in Latin America in 2009, tighter credit tops the list, according to our survey. “The biggest challenge facing many companies in Latin America will be access to credit,” says Leo Rodriguez, president of Latin America for U.S. based Emerson and Emerson Process Management.

The intention of this info. below is to inform potential retirees of the risk of living in possible risks of living in Panama or Mexico. Mush has been written about the increase in crime in Costa Rica but this article should open your eyes about other countries in the region.

Panama

This is one retirees experiences there.

“One of the reasons I want to move from Panama is that my wife is afraid to leave the house because of the rapidly rising crime rates, especially the murders and killings that saturate the television stations every night.  It has been said that the largest number of assassinations never make it to the news room because the government is covering up in order to protect the image of Panama as a retirement paradise.  Another is the incredible deterioration in the quality of life in the capital city in the last five years.  I have neighbors who are extremely inconsiderate of their co-owners and insist on making life difficult for others in their pursuit of self satisfaction, “the world be damned, I want mine” attitude.  You can call it “juega vivo” to the extreme. It gets tiring after a while to have to be fighting the service providers such as the banks, cable companies, phone companies to keep them from abusing their customers with incompetent service.  It is almost as if it were a national obligation to stick it to the other guy lest you be considered…..what is the term?  You are not fighting tooth and nail to exercise one upmanship on all with whom you come in contact throughout the day to day dealings that are required. This is especially true when you see the maniacs driving on the roadways of the capital. They could care less who gets hurt because of their negligence.”

The country beginning with the government from the highest to lowest level is totally corrupt.  The business sector probably less so. That isn’t to say that there are no honest people, there are but they have no power to make changes.  It isn’t hard to imagine that if improvements are not made in reducing corruption, the consequences of political upheaval will make living here more unbearable.  Most Anglos do not follow the news because their Spanish is not good enough and are not aware of what is going on. I, fortunately, am fluent in the language, read it and therefore do notice the ongoing coverups. “

I hope this satisfies some of the curiosity as to why I would want to leave. I sincerely hope for the sake of the future Panamanians, that this can be turned around.

Mexico

Mexico is in bad shape

Indiscriminate kidnappings. Nearly daily beheadings. Gangs that mock and kill government agents.
This isn’t Iraq or Pakistan. It’s Mexico, which the U.S. government and a growing number of experts say is becoming one of the world’s biggest security risks.
The prospect that America’s southern neighbor could melt into lawlessness provides an unexpected challenge to Barack Obama’s new government. In its latest report anticipating possible global security risks, the U.S. Joint Forces Command lumps Mexico and Pakistan together as being at risk of a “rapid and sudden collapse.”
“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels,” the command said in the report published Nov. 25.
“How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”
Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden told reporters on Friday that that Mexico could rank alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama — perhaps a greater problem than Iraq.
The U.S. Justice Department said last month that Mexican gangs are the “biggest organized crime threat to the United States.” National security adviser Stephen Hadley said last week that the worsening violence threatens Mexico’s very democracy.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told The New York Times he ordered additional border security plans to be drawn up this summer as kidnappings and killings spilled into the U.S.
The alarm is spreading to the private sector as well. Mexico, Latin America’s second biggest economy and the United States’ third biggest oil supplier, is one of the top 10 global risks for 2009 identified by the Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm.
Mexico is brushing aside the U.S. concerns, with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez-Mont saying Wednesday: “It seems inappropriate to me that you would call Mexico a security risk. There are problems in Mexico that are being dealt with, that we can continue to deal with, and that’s what we are doing.”
Still, Obama faces a dramatic turnaround compared with the last time a new U.S. president moved into the White House. When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the nation of 110 million had just chosen Vicente Fox as president in its fairest election ever, had ended 71 years of one-party rule and was looking forward to a stable, democratic future.
Fox signaled readiness to take on the drug cartels, but plunged them into a power vacuum by arresting their leaders, and gangs have been battling each other for territory ever since.
Felipe Calderon, who succeeded Fox in 2006, immediately sent troops across the country to try to regain control. But soldiers and police are outgunned and outnumbered, and cartels have responded with unprecedented violence.
Mob murders doubled from 2007, taking more than 5,300 lives last year. The border cities of Juarez and Tijuana wake up each morning to find streets littered with mutilated, often headless bodies. Some victims are dumped outside schools. Most are just wrapped in a cheap blanket and tossed into an empty lot.
Many bodies go unclaimed because relatives are too afraid to come forward. Most killings go unsolved.
Warring cartels still control vast sections of Mexico, despite Calderon’s two-year crackdown, and have spawned an all-pervasive culture of violence. No one is immune.
Businesses have closed because they can’t afford to pay monthly extortion fees to local thugs. The rich have fled to the U.S. to avoid one of the world’s highest kidnapping rates. Many won’t leave their homes at night.
The government has launched an intensive housecleaning effort after high-level security officials were accused of being on the take from the Sinaloa cartel. And several soldiers fighting the gangs were kidnapped, beheaded and dumped in southern Mexico last month with the warning: “For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10.”
But the U.S. government is extremely supportive of the Mexican president, recently handing over $400 million in anti-drug aid. Obama met briefly with Calderon in Washington last week and promised to fight the illegal flow south of U.S. weapons that arm the Mexican cartels.
While fewer Americans are willing to drive across the border for margaritas and handicrafts, visitors are still flocking to other parts of Mexico. And the economy seems harder hit by the global crisis than by the growing violence.
The grim assessments from north of the border got wide play in the Mexican media but came as no surprise to people here. Many said the solution lies in getting the U.S. to give more help and let in more migrant workers who might otherwise turn to the drug trade to make a living.
Otherwise the drug wars will spill ever more heavily into America, said Manuel Infante, an architect. “There is a wave of barbarity that is heading toward the U.S.,” he said. “We are an uncomfortable neighbor.”

In past articles about retirement in Costa Rica I have talked about all the country has to offer for Americans who want to move here: great weather, excellent health care, friendly people, NO army or terrorism, beautiful beaches, mountains and countryside, excellent housing options, an incredible lifestyle and a whole lot more. Unfortunately living here is not for everyone. I would be lying if I said it was.

Some people discover after living here for a while the country just isn’t for them. Most return to the U.S. but some choose to move to neighboring Nicaragua or Panama instead. What I have noticed is that the people who choose these country’s are usually the misfits from Costa Rica. Most often they are the ones who say they can’t afford  to live here and are willing to sacrifice Costa Rica’s great quality of life for a downgrade in the nearby countries. With the exception of two people, I don’t know any foreigners with a lot of money or who were successful here who moved to either Nicaragua or Panama.

Others who moved to the neighboring countries were troublemakers or couldn’t get along with anyone or just had to leave  because of legal troubles. One chap I met got involved with an under age woman and had to flee Costa Rica. Another guy represented an investment group that defrauded its investors. While another person was an alcoholic and  got into a lot of problems and made many enemies here.

I realize I am generalizing but what I just said is more the rule than the exception. Both countries seem to be receptacles for undesirable  Gringos with a lot of baggage.

A lot of Americans who retire in Costa Rica the country’s maze of bureaucratic is enough to drive them crazy. Mexico is another place many Americans choose to retire. Lately violence has reached epidemic proportions there which his scaring many potential retirees away. However, another factor the country’s endless bureaucracy  is another factor which may also contribute to driving potential retirees to away and to other countries like Costa Rica.

Read this article from the Los Angeles Times to get an idea of  how frustrating Mexico’s bureacracy can be.

Reporting from Mexico City — Arturo Sandria visited government agencies not once, not twice, not three times. (Hint: Try an even dozen.) He stood in mind-numbing lines, filled out forms, took another number, filled out more forms and, he says, paid $250 in bribes.

But after six months, he was still in pursuit of his prize: a permit to paint his house.

“Tedious,” Sandria declared of his paper chase. “They ask for a lot of things that aren’t really necessary.”

On a recent day, Sandria, a 50-year-old electronics technician, waited in (yet another) line at (one more) overcrowded government agency. He clutched a dogeared manila folder stuffed with documents outside a hulking downtown branch of Mexico City’s government, his 13th such visit.

“There could be three or four more,” said Sandria, a stocky man in a red Miami Heat jacket. “I could get up there and they could say, ‘You’re missing a check mark or a period.’ “

Sandria’s ordeal in red tape is excruciatingly familiar to many Mexicans, who long ago learned to weather a day-to-day obstacle course of bureaucratic requirements, or tramites (TRAH-mee-tehs), that would probably send most Americans into fits of hair-pulling.

As in the United States, there are tramites for opening a business, registering a car, building a porch. But what puts Mexican red tape in a league of its own are the reams of required paperwork — identification, proof of residence, birth certificates, deeds and titles — and a bureaucracy that can be as picky as it is ponderous.

Too often, many Mexicans complain, only bribes seem to get the creaky wheels of government turning.

So it stirred a sense of sweet vengeance when the government of President Felipe Calderon recently offered cash prizes in a contest to identify the country’s “most useless tramite.” An ad campaign depicted a haggard resident, laden with files, standing before a glowering bureaucrat.

Venting years of frustration, 20,000 Mexicans poured forth with nominations by Internet, telephone and even the postal system, which enjoys its own place in the nation’s pantheon of inefficient agencies. The winners, who will take home a total of nearly $50,000, are to be announced this month.

“The idea here is to have an assessment of tramites seen from the point of view of citizens,” said Salvador Vega Casillas, who heads the federal comptroller’s office, the Public Function Secretariat. “It is the first time the government is paying money to be criticized.”

Calderon, of the pro-business National Action Party, or PAN, says streamlining government and improving accountability will make Mexico more competitive, easier to live in and less prone to corruption.

The often-Kafkaesque requirements encourage residents to offer bribes as a way around the labyrinthine tramites. A study last year by the nonprofit group Transparency Mexico found that Mexico’s 105 million residents annually pay bribes totaling more than $2 billion, often for basic services such as getting a water line installed or garbage collected.

“This is the same amount of money we are spending on the whole federal judiciary system,” said Eduardo Bohorquez, director of Transparency Mexico. “This is a high burden.”

Many Mexicans express weariness born of years of wrangling red tape. Ni modo — what can you do?

But that is slowly changing as the country evolves from a sheltered regime, ruled for decades by the same party, to an emerging democracy more willing to embrace products and ideas from outside. The shift has brought genuine political competition and stirred residents to demand more from rulers. Or less, in the case of tramites.

“They say, ‘If I can get better service at the cinema, why can’t I get it from my government?’ ” Bohorquez said.

Despite Calderon’s call to slim down the government, today there are more than 4,200 federal tramites, nearly double the number in place before his conservative party took over from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, whose 70-year rule ended in electoral defeat in 2000.

Officials say the big jump resulted from bureaucrats run amok as they sought to reshape the Mexican system, and from the PAN’s effort to codify government procedures after the PRI’s long rule, during which benefits were often doled out willy-nilly by local bosses.

Vega said officials hope to cut the number of tramites to 3,000 by the end of Calderon’s term in 2012 and to simplify them by allowing residents to fill out forms or make appointments online.

“We’re trying to return to a happy medium,” he said. “To streamline government, make it more accessible, cheaper to operate but also much nicer to the public.”

That last part shouldn’t be hard, given the burden that tramites impose on almost all Mexicans.

For example, pensioners have to report to a social security office every three months to prove to bureaucrats that they’re still alive. Villagers may travel five or six hours by bus to sort out a land-ownership issue, only to be told to come back another day. Registering a car or getting a taxi license can take days. Part of the reason Mexico City’s sidewalks are jammed with makeshift taco stands and card tables brimming with clothing, toys and hardware for sale is that many vendors want to skirt the headache of licensing a formal shop.

Mexican bureaucrats can be sticklers; scratching out a mistake on a form can send you back to the starting line.

“For me, it’s a way to justify the taxes we pay, to justify all the hiring,” Esteban Gasca, a 52-year-old economist, said as he left a federal passport office that is housed in the city government’s complex. He carried a manila folder and, despite the happy din of an office workers’ holiday party in the plaza outside, a less-than-festive expression. He was leaving empty-handed for the second day in a row.

The day before, Gasca had shown up at this branch, or delegacion, to get his passport renewed. But he was told his birth certificate had to be reissued on an updated form first. Another tramite, another line, another agency.

That done, he came back, only to learn that he’d been given the wrong hours for passport renewal. His plans to visit the United States this month were looking shaky. Gasca said he’d try to get the new passport at a different delegaciondelegacion, or come back one more time.

“You have to resign yourself,” he said.

Upstairs, in a bustling municipal office, a trio of colorful holiday-season piñatas offered scant cheer for two dozen residents waiting in a cramped corner for their chance to complete tramites at eight numbered desks. The whisper of shuffling papers was punctuated by the periodic shtunkshtunk of a clerk’s stamp: confirmation of a tramite accomplished.

Outside, Arturo Sandria waited with his folder of house-painting documents, including letters of permission from a city planning office and a federal agency that oversees the historic district where his house sits. Other people leaned against the wall, cradling their bundles of paperwork in folders and plastic sleeves. A woman in her 20s balanced a stack of files; she was holding a spot for her boss.

After four more hours of waiting, Sandria would triumph at last. His permit was approved, his tramites ended. He plans to start painting the middle of this month.

He’s settled on beige.

The other day a guest writer contributed an article about Nicaragua to this blog.  In it he summarized up the reasons for not retiring or living there. Below you will find more negative news about the country.

Crime is on the upswing in neighboring Nicaragua, according to the U.S. State Department which paints a grim picture of the country in a report released Monday.

The State Department warned that “gang violence, drive-by shootings, robbery, assault and stabbings are most frequently encountered in poorer neighborhoods, including the Ticabus area, a major arrival and departure point for tourist buses.  However, in recent months it spread to more upscale neighborhoods and near major hotels, including the Zona Hippos.” Although visitors are advised to take taxis instead of walk, the State Department said that robbery, kidnapping, and assault on passengers in taxis in Managua are increasing in frequency and violence, with passengers subjected to beating, sexual assault, stabbings, and even murder.

The State Department also said that in 2008 a U.S. citizen was injured critically in a gang drive-by shooting in the San Judas areas and that another U.S. citizen was kidnapped and left for dead.

“Violent criminal activities and petty crime are also increasing in the tourist destination of San Juan del Sur.” said the report.  “In 2008, a U.S. citizen family was violently assaulted and kidnapped by several armed men.  Other American citizens have been the victims of armed robberies by assailants wielding machetes, knives, and/or guns along the beaches in and around San Juan del Sur.

The State Department also warned that U.S. citizens  “are increasingly targeted shortly after arriving in the country by criminals posing as Nicaraguan police officers who pull their vehicles — including those operated by reputable hotels — over for inspection.  In each case, the incidents happened after dark and involved gun-wielding assailants who robbed passengers of all valuables and drove them to remote locations where they were left to fend for themselves.

“U.S. citizens should exercise caution when approached by strangers offering assistance,” said the report.  “Several U.S. citizens traveling by bus from San Juan del Sur to Managua have reported being victimized by fellow women travelers who offered to assist them in locating and/or sharing a taxi upon arrival in Managua.  In all cases, upon entering the taxi, the U.S. citizens have been held at knife point, robbed of their valuables and driven around to ATM machines to withdraw funds from their accounts.”

The U.S. Embassy reported it has received an increasing number of complaints from U.S. citizens who have been stopped by transit police authorities demanding bribes in order to avoid paying fines.  Motorists in rental cars and those whose cars have foreign license plates are more likely to be stopped by transit police, said the report, adding that transit police have seized driver licenses and car registration documents from motorists who refuse to or are unable to pay.