Latin America is in a mess. But it still has strengths

In his mind’s eye as he writes, Bello can see the limitless expanse of the Pacific at Lima, the tiny fishing boats that plug across the bay in search of corvina and chita, the pelicans skimming inches above the waves, the vultures circling on the clifftop. He can glimpse, too, the sinuous roads that snake beside heartstopping abysses as they endeavour to connect towns in the Andes, landslides permitting. He can feel the clammy heat of the dark floor of the Amazon rainforest and the arid scrub of the Brazilian sertão. He can see the flat emptiness of the Argentine pampas with their solitary ombú trees, and the soaring volcanoes of Mexico and Central America. Latin America has always been, first and foremost, about geography—stunning, bountiful, impossible and treacherous.