From the Chinese-made Virgin of Guadalupe statues hawked in Mexico City to the bulk carriers loaded with South American copper steaming toward the Chinese port of Quingdao, the ties that bind Latin economies to the rest of the world no longer run just north-south.
China’s burgeoning appetite for raw materials and quest for export markets has sparked a boom in south-south trade, as the world’s fastest-growing developing country courts its Latin American counterparts, engendering both anticipation and alarm.