Just a few years ago, Latin America was thought to be moving toward prosperity, but the euphoria was short lived. From Patagonia to the Rio Grande, the sweeping reforms that promised economic growth have borne little fruit. Why did the reforms of the late 20th century, seen at the time as a universal model for underdeveloped countries, fail in Latin America? Why do Latin America’s democracies often act like dictatorships while its private enterprises act like government bureaucracies? Leading Latin American political journalist Alvaro Vargas Llosa (author of the new book Liberty for Latin America) diagnoses the region’s deep-seated malady and proposes genuine reform, liberalizing and decentralizing its institutions and empowering its 500 million people.