Skyscrapers and Shacks: Report from Guatemala City

Latin America has some of the highest levels of social inequality in the world. That is why it is one of the few parts of the planet, besides universities, where people still take Marxism seriously and why drug cartels flourish. The rich just get richer and the poor struggle to survive however they can. One consequence of this is a massive construction boom in the cities as the wealthy invest and launder their legitimate and ill-gotten gains in real estate (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Nearly completed apartment building in Zone 10...