[pedrodelfino]

I am from Brazil and I can say: we are almost becoming the new Argentina.

And this is quite interesting because Argentina is becoming the new Venezuela (at least they were, but few weeks ago they had elections and the left wing lost). And Venezuela clearly is becoming the new Cuba.

[marcosdumay]

Your pessimism is undeserved. You seem to have formed your mood 5 years ago, and not revised it since then.

Venezuela just officialized a huge change in direction with a complete majority for opposition in parliament. Argentina has just elected an opposition president that is already undoing the policies of the previous governments.

Now, I'm also Brazilian, and, of course have more detailed info about here than those countries. I've never been so optimist about our country. You know, I've watched the TV news yesterday (I guess first time in the year), and 2/3 of it was about the president's impeachment or criminal persecution of corrupt politicians/businesspeople. Yesterday there was nobody thrown into jail, but just last week there were 11.

You know, those people didn't start yesterday. Corruption was smaller before the current government, but those businesspeople now in jail have been living from government contracts since before the military coup. Some of the politicians now in jail have been in power since the military government.

[personjerry]

Can you explain each of those statements in turn?

[jpatokal]

"Argentina is becoming the new Venezuela": formerly prosperous country adopts ridiculous economic policies (key industries nationalized and handed over as private fiefs to incompetent cronies, exchange rate controls, price caps), sees economy go down the toilet and inflation rocket out of control

"Venezuela clearly is becoming the new Cuba": Not content merely with wrecking the economy, leadership squashes all opposition and turns country into a straight-up dictatorship (of the proletariat!)

Fortunately both statements are hyperbolic, as both countries have just held reasonably fair elections where the electorates decided to kick the bums out, but there are still choppy waters ahead...

[aesoprock]

Argentina cannot into economic prosperity since 1700s

[saint_fiasco]

Weren't they prosperous for a while after World War I?

[mahouse]

They were prosperous when they had surges of incoming white immigrants from Europe, yes.

[saint_fiasco]

It was more about them selling food to war-thorn countries. Even Paraguay had a budget surplus after WWI for similar reasons, and they didn't get many white immigrants.

[wslh]

If you followed the latest news you will quickly realize that Argentina will not be like Venezuela and that Argentina could be in better shape than Brazil.

[shinigami]

I am from Brazil and I can say that we are nowhere near becoming the new Argentina.

[evook]

How can one country become another?

[chungy]

They all swap names to confuse the rest of the world. :-)

[oscargrouch]

(As a brazilian) Do you have something to say about WhatsApp and the judicial order? No?

This is Hacker News, not Reddit, lets keep it that way, ok?

[forinti]

All three countries have better HDIs than Brazil. Argentina and Venezuela also have higher incomes. So lets hope you're right!

[PauloManrique]

HDI is the worst metric to begin with.

[rurban]

And Cuba is becoming the new Mexico? :)

[Vivtek]

And Mexico will become the new Brazil, completing the cycle.