Latin America’s traditional centuries-accumulated economic lag behind the developed countries is the reason why the region has found itself on the margins of so-called digital transformation, i.e. digitalization of various financial and economic processes, as well as many aspects of social life such as education, science and culture.
The key problem with the digital transformation gap for Latin American and Caribbean countries has been limited Internet access and acute shortage of IT pros.
The region only features 64 percent of citizens enjoying access to the online sphere, while in developed countries the figure is as high as 88 percent. According to the regional press, almost 40 percent of people in Europe and the USA are able to work from home, as compared to Latin America’s mere 21.3 percent of those employed. As for education, almost half of kids aged 5 to 12 in these countries live in unconnected households, which seriously affects their learning activities.
"The use of digital technologies in the region when managing supply chains, processing, production, operations and distribution channels lags far behind as compared to more developed countries," Venezuela’s El Nacional writes.
For example, within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 70 percent of companies use the Internet in their supply chains, while the region only demonstrates 37 percent. That is why experts say that Latin American countries should get prepared for the "industry of the future", particularly by training IT specialists to have the skills necessary for economic development.
However, it is the acute shortage of information technology workers that is considered a new challenge for nearly all the Latin American countries. On the one hand, the region's intermittent economic advance has entailed an increase in the number of technology companies, especially in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. But this revealed the shortage of IT specialists over the acute lack of appropriate technical education. And this downside, in turn, stems from insufficient public policies in many countries of the region. The incompetence and short-sightedness of local authorities in the recent past, multiplied by the lack of funds, has eventually generated the environment we have today.
Pressed by the rapid global IT development, Latin American countries are seeking to catch up. Most of the continent’s authorities have approved national digital strategies reflecting plans to maximize opportunities provided by digitalization in economics, finance, education, and culture. Some countries have even gone too far. For example, Chile has been the world’s first to adopt a law on "neuro rights" meant to protect human brain and consciousness in the legal sense.
Meanwhile, the acute shortage of IT specialists, including due to low salaries, has entailed a catastrophic regional lag in creating their own software, search engines, messengers, etc. They just don't have things of the kind, which makes them dependent on software manufactured in the United States or other Western countries. Hence the ideological and political reliance of Latin America on the West.
A simple and vivid example to this effect has been the recent US-controlled presidential election in Argentina. As you know, the one to win them was Washington's outspoken henchman Javier Miley. With his help, the Americans did not let socialist President Alberto Fernandez to be reelected, as while at the helm he took a course towards rapprochement with Russia and affiliation with BRICS.
Under control of his American masters, Miley conducted his campaign in an utterly unconventional way — mainly, if not exclusively, on social media. That is, where the youth cut loose day and night. And young people in Argentina are the most oppressed and unfortunate part of society, while also a numerous one.
Therefore, Miley’s victory was clear to specialists in modern IT in advance as he had supplemented the power of social media with his off-scale provocative behavior. Social platforms operating in Latin America are all controlled by the Americans. Thus, the outcome of Argentine’s presidential race was predetermined by the technological digital superiority of the United States. There was not a single person in Argentina who could recognize the American trick at an early stage to put an adequate technological barrier for it.
Notably, the region’s lag in digital transformation has been directly related to the growth of cyber-attacks. Precisely because of the lack of their own developed IT base, the Latin American countries found themselves not ready for this kind of threats. According to Positive Technologies, the region accounted for 12 percent of the total number of attacks worldwide throughout 2022, with organizations and individuals in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina having been the primary targets.
In general, Latin America has sustained a number of cyber-attacks over the last few years that have affected the operation of critical industries and even an entire state. In March 2019, America attacked the Venezuelan energy system to cause unbearable living conditions in the country. As plotted by US strategists, a countrywide power outage was supposed to fuel protest sentiment and eventually lead to ousting of legitimate president Nicolas Maduro.
Summarizing the above, let’s emphasize that Latin America turned out all but unprepared for cyber threats over economic and social factors, as well as a prompt introduction of digital technology without securing it properly. Latin American nations are still on their way towards implementing measures aimed to boost cybersecurity of separate entities, industries, the entire region, and its overall IT independence.
Meanwhile, the United States and Europe hardly benefit from Latin America's pursuit of digital sovereignty. They would rather see a maintained status quo, because this allows the West de facto control all the spheres of life in the region. Nowadays, digital sovereignty is principal and integral to a country’s sovereignty as a whole.
