Guillermo Zubillaga, the head of AS/COA's Venezuela Working Group, spoke to Business Insider Today about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

"The economic situation has gotten worse—the repression, extrajudicial killings, use of torture, the censoring of the press—all those things have gotten worse," he said. "The other thing of course is the deterioration of public services like electricity or water."

Due to Venezuelans moving away in large numbers, the fiscal standings of neighboring countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have been compromised because they cannot sustain the size or rapid increase of the migration flow.

"The Venezuelan exodus is only second largest to Syria and it's projected to be even bigger," he said.

Zubillaga also stated that Venezuelans do not have access to cash and experience difficulty when procuring necessities.

"The average Venezuelan goes to a market, goes to a store and they see prices that they cannot afford," he said. "They see prices of a deodorant that is equivalent to their monthly minimum wage."

When asked why Juan Guaidó's opposition movement, which earlier this year inspired protests and calls to oust President Nicolás Maduro, lost momentum, Zubillaga explained that it is difficult for people to simultaneously protest and provide for themselves.

"It's really hard for a big portion of the population to maintain themselves in the streets, to stay in the streets, actively engaged in trying to find a political solution to a brutal dictatorship that has lately increased, and strategically, the numbers of extrajudicial killings."

Watch the full interview.

Panelists

• Kiki del Valle, Senior Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Mastercard LAC
• Osvaldo Gimenez, CEO, MercadoPago and EVP, MercadoLibre
• Fernando Iraola, Managing Director, Head of Latin America Corporate Banking & Global Transaction Services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Cristina Junqueira, Co-founder, Nubank
• Jorge Becerra, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group (moderator)

“Seven years ago, the term fintech or unicorn did not exist,” said Cristina Junqueira of Nubank, one of the newest financial technology unicorns of Latin America, on a panel at twenty-fifth annual Council of the Americas Symposium in Miami. Industry leaders joined her in discussing how digital technology has transformed the payments and banking industry, expanded financial inclusion, and improved customer experience and security. For MercadoPago’s Osvaldo Gimenez, increasing case-uses for a single smartphone application is top of mind for the industry. Kiki del Valle of Mastercard said tokenization will be at the forefront of the next digital wave, in which regulators will play a crucial role, added Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Fernando Iraola.

Watch more videos of the 2019 Symposium.

Welcoming Remarks:

• Susan Segal, President & CEO, AS/COA

Panelists:

• Ana Paula Assis, General Manager, IBM Latin America
• André El-Mann, CEO, Fibra Uno
• Andrés Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation and Chairman AS/COA
• Gerardo Mato, Chairman, Global Banking and Markets – Americas, HSBC
• João Miranda, CEO, Votorantim
• Martin Reeves, Managing Director & Senior Partner, Director of the BCG Henderson Institute (moderator)

How can leaders adapt to the trends transforming business in Latin America and across the globe? Industry executives shared their insights at the twenty-fifth annual Council of the Americas Symposium in Miami. For IBM's Ana Paula Assis, leaders should be empathetic, humble, and collaborative. Embracing technology and the constant need to learn and adapt are other components of strong leadership, added Fibra Uno's André El-Mann. And putting sustainability at the heart of decision-making is key to converging technology with business and society, said HSBC's Gerardo Mato. AES’s Andrés Gluski talked about the importance for incumbents to disrupt today’s business for the products of tomorrow and to have the humility to have a light touch and let smaller acquisitions develop freely. “To change, you don’t have to send a lot of people to Palo Alto,” said Votorantim CEO João Miranda, also the 2019 BRAVO Business CEO of the Year. “Change comes from within.”

Watch more videos of the 2019 Symposium.

Una serie de hechos han puesto en álgida situación a Latinoamérica. Política, asuntos sociales y económicos parecen ser el detonante, pero ¿podríamos decir que la región está en crisis? Brian Winter, el vicepresidente de políticas públicas de AS/COA y editor jefe de Americas Quarterly, analiza la situación en conversación con la Voz de América.

"América Latina siempre es una región diversa, pero me parece que en este caso hay un denominador común, que es la falta de crecimiento económico en la región", dijo Winter, explicando que la región solo va a crecer un 0.2 porciento en promedio este año, según la última previsión del Fondo Monetario Internacional.

"Obviamente en cada país, hay circunstancias particulares, pero lo que vemos en casi todos los países de la región es una gran frustración con la economía y la gente está con la sensación de que sus vidas no están mejorando", dijo Winter. "Detrás de esas manifestaciones de lugares como Chile y Ecuador, que son democracias de centro derecha, por ahí Caracas tendría un cierto interés en ver inestabilidad en esos países justamente para distraer un poco la tensión central".