Cash transfer in the Covid-19 pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean

Este artigo apresenta resultados parciais de uma investigação em desenvolvimento por pesquisadores de universidades brasileiras, argentinas e uruguaias. Os programas de transferência de renda são vistos como medidas sociais para mitigar a pobreza, bem como para diminuir o aumento do desemprego, do trabalho informal e do desperdício de renda. A metodologia de pesquisa foram estudos bibliográficos e documentais;dados secundários;acesso a sites e dados da Comissão Econômica para a América Latina e o Caribe. A discussão enfoca concepções, modalidades e o debate sobre Programas Focalizados de Transferência de Renda e Renda Básica Universal como referência para discutir a realidade dos programas de transferência de renda na América Latina e Caribe. Os resultados apontaram para a ampliação dos programas focalizados de transferência de renda;criação de programas emergenciais para atender as consequências econômicas e sociais geradas pela pandemia de Covid-19, mas não foi identificada a implementação da Renda Básica Universal e Incondicional.Alternate :Este artículo presenta resultados parciales de una investigación en desarrollo por investigadores de universidades brasileñas, argentinas y uruguayas. Los programas de transferencias monetarias son vistos como medidas sociales para mitigar la pobreza, así como para disminuir el aumento del desempleo, el trabajo informal y el desperdicio de ingresos. La metodología de investigación fueron estudios bibliográficos y documentales;Datos secundarios;acceso a sitios web y datos de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe. La discusión se centra en las concepciones, modalidades y el debate sobre los Programas de Transferencias Monetarias Focalizadas y la Renta Básica Universal como referencia para discutir la realidad de los programas de transferencias monetarias en América Latina y el Caribe. Los resultados señalaron la ampliación de los programas de transferencias monetarias focalizadas;creación de programas de emergencia para atender las consecuencias económicas y sociales generadas por la pandemia del Covid-19, pero no se identificó la implementación de la Renta Básica Universal e Incondicional.Alternate :This article presents partial results of an investigation under development by researchers at Brazilian, Argentine and Uruguayan Universities. The cash transfer programs are seen as social measures to mitigate poverty, as well as to decrease the rise of unemployment, informal work and waste of income. The research methodology were bibliographic and documental studies;secondary data;access to websites and data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The discuss focus on conceptions, modalities and the debate on Focalized Cash Transfer Programs and Universal Basic Income as reference to discuss the reality of cash transfer programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The outcomes pointed out the enlargement of the focalized cash transfer programs;creation of emergence programs to meet the economic and social consequences generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but it was not identified the implementation of the Universal and Unconditional Basic Income.

'I'm in a Dilemma of Coming Back, not Coming Back, What to Do, I'm a Bit Stuck': Exploring the Wellbeing and Mental-health of Latin American Students in Sydney During COVID-19

There is a lack of data exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the wellbeing and mental health on Latin American students in Australia, whose experiences, besides anecdotal evidence from different mass media outlets and social media platforms, remain underrepresented in the significant and rigorous scholarly work that has emerged in 2020 and in 2021. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing and mental health of this sector of the student migrant population through 12 qualitative semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using theoretically informed frameworks to explore the meanings that Latin American students ascribe to their experiences in regard to wellbeing and mental health in the context of the COVID-19. Our findings show that students created their own coping mechanisms and social and familial support networks, as a way of compensating for the lack of access to mental health services. The main factors discouraging students to access counselling and/or psychological support are the consultation costs and provision of these services in English, rather than Spanish or Portuguese.

Is Latin America Experiencing a Second Cycle of Leftist Politics?

Recent electoral victories by left-leaning leaders and parties mark another turn in the oscillations of Latin American politics, but they also signal enduring changes. The electoral success of the left is a sign of both the durability of electoral democracy and the persistence of social pres-sures in highly unequal societies. In this article, we discuss how the electoral fates and governing strategies of leftist movements and parties reflect the conditions in which they emerged. We ana-lyze the political and organizational legacies of Cold War repression as well as the ways in which global events such as 9/11, the commodity boom of the 2000s and its exhaustion, the covid-19 pandemic, and the new global wave of progressive movements, have shaped the ebb-and-flow of left-wing politics. We conclude with reflections on the possibilities for the construction of social democracy as an alternative to radical populist and right-wing oligarchical politics. © 2023, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C.. All rights reserved.

No Calm Before the Storm: Low-Income Latina Immigrant and Citizen Mothers Before and After COVID-19

Government pandemic provisions occurred alongside a safety net that excludes or dissuades Latina mothers from participation. These families are also disproportionately exposed to punitive immigration policies and rhetoric that may shape their views on such provisions and, in turn, influence their post-pandemic well-being. To understand these complexities, we draw on interviews before and after COVID-19 with thirty-eight Latina immigrant and citizen mothers, most of whom are undocumented (N = 29). We find that pre-pandemic distrust of public institutions and the safety net was common, increased after COVID-19, and negatively affected undocumented respondents' post-pandemic circumstances relative to that of citizen mothers. Findings suggest that safety net expansion on its own will not offset pandemic effects for these families without addressing exclusion from public benefits and alienation from and distrust of government.

RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC WITH INTEGRAL AND MUTUAL HEALTHCARE ORIENTED TO THE WELL-BEING OF ALL PERSONS

Introduction. The complex problem of COVID-19 and the possibilities of responding through innovative general health strategies have been raised. The development of innovative health strategies was stimulated by the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care and by related perspectives around the 2018 Astana Conference. To this may be added the contributions of the International College and the Latin American Network of Person Centered Medicine toward the exploration and formulation of innovative concepts and strategies of health focused on persons.Objectives: (1) Ontological clarification of the concept of health and of the strategies and tactics for health actions;(2) Delineation of and assessment of multifactorial support for promising general health strategies focused on persons;and (3) Elucidation of the relevance of such strategies to respond to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: (a) Analysis and reflection on health concepts and strategies by a multidisciplinary authors group;(b) Selective review of the international and Latin American literature on health systems and the pandemic, displayed, and analyzed tabular and narratively.Results1. Ontological concepts corresponding to the meaning and functions of health and of specific general strategies and tactics to restore and promote health were formulated.2. A general health strategy was outlined based on an analysis of the process of building promising health constructs emerging from conferences and international declarations in recent years. Then, early and contemporary historical considerations, as well as contextual perspectives (Social Determinants of Health, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Essential Functions of Public Health) were identified as supporting the specific elements of the persons-centered mutual and integral healthcare strategy.3. The relevance of the essential concept of health and the elements of the examined general health strategy was ascertained positively to respond to the demands of the current pandemic.Discussion: The value, implications, and limitations of the results obtained were discussed in the light of COVID-19 and future pandemics. Emerging recommendations on desirable next steps were also presented.Conclusions: The contributions of this study include the ontological clarification of the concept of person-centered health and the strategies and tactics for health actions, as well as the historical and contemporary multifactorial substantiation of the general health strategy involving Integral and Mutual Health Care Oriented to the Well-being of all Persons, particularly in the face of the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Older Latino Immigrants

This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latino immigrants age sixty and older from Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Based on 178 interviews with immigrants in Florida and Massachusetts, this study identifies the financial and health hardships they endured, the kinds of government and nonprofit aid they accessed, the factors keeping many from accessing aid, and the coping strategies they adopted. Respondents faced unemployment, hunger, and loss of income. Unauthorized immigrants and people in mixed-status families were deliberately excluded from federal aid. Many other immigrants who qualified were reluctant or refused it. Immigrants without legal status and those who had more recently arrived were the most severely affected. Individuals and families responded to these challenges by doubling up, going without food and medicine, and working while sick. Greater outreach and more humane public policies could have prevented much of this suffering.

Suffering, the Safety Net, and Disparities During COVID-19

The economic and public health crisis caused by COVID-19 was devastating and disproportionately hurt Blacks and Hispanics and some other groups. Unemployment rates and other measures of material hardship were higher and increased more during the crisis among Blacks and Hispanics than among non-Hispanic Whites. Congress authorized a historic policy response, incorporating both targeted and universal supports, and expanding both the level and duration of benefits. This response yielded the remarkable result of an estimated decline in the Supplemental Poverty Measure between 2019 and 2020. We study administrative data to investigate the impact of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the crisis. We find that participation in SNAP increased more in counties that experienced a larger employment shock. By contrast, the increase in total SNAP benefits was inversely related to the employment shock. The SNAP benefit increases were less generous to Black and Hispanic SNAP participants than to White.

Two Years Later: How COVID-19 Has Shaped the Teacher Workforce

The unprecedented challenges of teaching during COVID-19 prompted fears of a mass exodus from the profession. We examine the extent to which these fears were realized using administrative records of Massachusetts teachers between 2015–2016 and 2021–2022. Relative to prepandemic levels, average turnover rates were similar going into the fall of 2020 but increased by 17% (from 15.0% to 17.5%) going into the fall of 2021. The fall 2021 increases were particularly high among newly hired teachers (31% increase) but were lower among Black and Hispanic/Latinx teachers (5% increases among both groups). Gaps in turnover rates between schools serving higher and lower concentrations of economically disadvantaged students narrowed during the first 18 months of the pandemic. The same holds true for gaps in turnover between schools serving higher and lower shares of Black and Hispanic/Latinx students. Together, these findings highlight important differences in teachers' responses to the pandemic across subgroups and the need to improve early-career retention to ensure long-term stability within the teacher workforce.

China-LAC Countries' "Belt and Road” Cooperation in the Post-Pandemic Era: BRI in Transformation

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is considered one of the most important public goods that China has contributed to the world in the twenty-first century, attracting the attention and participation of countries around the world. Latin American and Caribbean countries (LAC) are important partners for the BRI. In recent years, the relationship between China and LAC has been heating up, and cooperation in various fields has fully developed, providing a guarantee for the mutually beneficial development of China and LAC. The BRI has become a development opportunity that Latin America's political, business, academic, and nongovernmental communities are focused on. In 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) ravaged the world, causing serious losses, economic stagnation, and social problems in many countries. On September 8, 2020, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in LAC countries was close to 7.87 million, of which Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, had more than 4.19 million confirmed cases. Due to the economic and social turmoil caused by the pandemic, the LAC economy declined by 7.9% in 2020 according to a new report from World Bank, making it a far deeper recession than the 2008–2009 global financial crisis or the Latin America debt crisis in the 1980s, erasing the growth achieved in the prior 10 years. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) pointed out that international trade continues to shrink, and LAC exports are expected to drop by 23%, which greatly hinders normal economic cooperation between China and Latin American countries. Under such circumstances, there needs to be a new vision of the BRI and China-LAC cooperation. This chapter analyzes the achievements of BRI cooperation between LAC and China, the LAC economic and social stagnation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the transformation of the "Belt and Road” joint construction between China and LAC in the post-pandemic era. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Latino-Targeted Misinformation and the Power of Factual Corrections

Do individual, interpersonal, or institutional factors condition the effects of misinformation on beliefs? Can interventions such as fact checks stem the tide of the "infodemic” within marginalized communities? We explore the sudden flood of misinformation and disinformation targeting Latinos during the 2020 election and global COVID-19 pandemic to answer these questions. In a preregistered experiment, we find that exposure to misinformation can decrease factual accuracy, and neither trust in nor consumption of media, including ethnic media, serves as a buffer against these misinformation effects. However, fact checks eliminate the effects of misinformation on false beliefs without "backfiring” and reducing accuracy. Fact checks improve factual accuracy among subgroups varying in levels of political knowledge, trust, and acculturation. These findings provide crucial support for recent investments into fact checking by Latino-oriented media outlets and address gaps within the literature over whether such interventions are also effective within marginalized groups.

Colonias, Water, and Extractable Bodies: COVID19's impact on the Rio Grande Valley

This paper develops the concept of "extractible bodies" and extends it to apply to Latinxs' experience in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) subject to structural problems and predatory market practices before and during the pandemic. The RGV has had more COVID cases than counties of equal population size. Through a mixed-methods approach, this paper describes, in detail, how racist state practices, structural inadequacies, poor administration, and predatory capitalism effectively explain why the RGV was the epicenter of COVID-19 in the State of Texas in 2020. We introduce a concept, extractable bodies, to show how Mexican Americans provide limitless opportunities for exploitation while, at the same time, lacking basic public services and shouldering the blame for such circumstances. We focus our analysis on Latinx "essential workers" in an area challenged by health issues, high obesity rates, inadequate infrastructure, the situation in las colonias, and how these factors contributed to the COVID crisis.

Psychiatric ward lockdown in Latin America: Experiences from the coronavirus pandemic

The political leaders of many Latin American countries reacted too slowly to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. The preventive lockdown of a specialized psychiatric hospital provides the context for discussing both practical challenges and issues related to the structural ordering of mental health services. The pandemic has brought to the fore several structural problems and the need for innovative practices. Psychiatric inpatient services in Latin America have many modalities, given the rich history and influences of psychiatry in this area of the world, as well as the complexity that many schools of mental healthcare and mental health politics around the world have brought to it. The French and German schools of psychiatry served as the foundations of modern mental healthcare in the southern Latin American countries, while the northern Latin American countries have deep roots in the American model of mental healthcare. While the background in which mental healthcare takes place is varied, the impact of the COVID pandemic in Latin American countries has many points in common that makes the containment of the COVID-19 infection a complex phenomenon in itself. This chapter will cover the pandemic experience in Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Civic Engagement and Latina Immigrant Mothers' Remote Learning Involvement During COVID‐19

Immigrant incorporation scholars have established that racialized immigrant parents encounter several barriers in their children's schooling: namely, language and cultural differences, discrimination, unfamiliarity with the U.S. schooling system, and unhelpful school agents. However, less is known about the mechanisms that lessen these challenges. Drawing on insights from immigrant incorporation and civic engagement literature, this study examines how advocacy organizations can mediate the barriers racialized immigrant parents face in their children's schooling. A case study of 20 Latina immigrant mothers is used to demonstrate how civically engaged parents drew on their participation with a local advocacy organization—Parent's Choice—to overcome the barriers that emerged during the transition to remote learning due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Findings suggest that immigrant mothers leveraged their connection to Parent's Choice to learn how to use technology, get district‐related updates, secure devices necessary for at‐home learning, create complaints or demands for services at their children's school, fill out paperwork, and access community‐based referrals. Parent's Choice provided support and empowered Latina immigrant parents by minimizing the overwhelming barriers they faced during online learning. These findings complicate our understanding of immigrant civic engagement patterns and provide implications of how civic engagement can facilitate the incorporation of marginalized parents in educational institutions.

Disputing Epidemics, Public Health, and Alternative Therapies in Latin American History

Villella reviews The Gray Zones of Medicine: Healers and History in Latin America edited by Diego Armus and Pablo F. Gomez, Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy from the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain by Paula S. De Vos and For All of Humanity: Mesoamerican and Colonial Medicine in Enlightenment Guatemala by Martha Few.

Covid-19 en América Latina y México: brechas del bienestar

Este trabajo aborda empíricamente las brechas estructurales del bienestar reveladas por la epidemia de Covid-19 en cuatro países de América Latina: Argentina, Costa Rica, México y Panamá. Para ello, aborda diversos ámbitos: el sanitario, el económico, el del empleo y el de la protección social, particularmente en el ámbito de la afiliación a los sistemas de pensiones, la mayor o menor incidencia de la crisis en el ascenso de la pobreza y la pobreza extrema y la capacidad para responder a ese repunte, la agudización de las desigualdades de género y el surgimiento de brechas que magnifican las desigualdades educativas.Alternate abstract:This article empirically addresses structural welfare gaps revealed by the Covid-19 epidemic in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama. To do this, it examines various areas: healthcare, the economy, employment, social protection, particularly in the field of affiliation to pension systems, the greater or lesser incidence of the crisis in the growth of poverty and extreme poverty and the ability of each state to respond to that rise, the worsening of gender inequalities, and the emergence of gaps that magnify educational inequalities.

Marca país y su contribución al desarrollo sostenible: Inculcación de valores sociales y espíritu empresarial

El mundo cada vez es más complejo y preocupado por los recursos que la compone, la actual pandemia COVID-19 evidencia que no sólo las empresas sino también los países se ven envueltos en una competición a todos los niveles para convertirse en referencia impactando en las 3 dimensiones (económica, social y ambiental). El propósito de la presente investigación fue analizar las principales motivaciones que llevan las empresas con certificación B en América Latina. La metodología fue cualitativa bajo el método de teoría fundamentada, la unidad de análisis estuvo correspondida por 183 empresas bajo criterios de exclusión como: Pertenecer a las industrias de educación, turismo y hotelería, y apoyo a los emprendimientos, pertenecer a solo países de Latinoamérica y tener la certificación B. Los principales hallazgos fueron que las Empresas B responsables desarrollan una economía más inclusiva, sostenible y respetuosa con el medio ambiente en beneficio de la sociedad, que van más allá de la noción de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial. Las conclusiones evidencian que estas empresas se alejan de las empresas tradicionales, puesto que combinan el desarrollo social y el crecimiento económico posicionando a los países que tienen este tipo de empresas como referentes.Alternate :The world is becoming increasingly complex and concerned about the resources that compose it, the current COVID-19 pandemic shows that not only companies but also countries are involved in a competition at all levels to become a reference impacting on the 3 dimensions (economic, social and environmental). The purpose of this research was to analyze the main motivations of B-certified companies in Latin America. The methodology was qualitative under the grounded theory method, the unit of analysis was 183 companies under exclusion criteria such as: Belonging to the industries of education, tourism and hospitality, and support for entrepreneurship, belonging to only Latin American countries and having the B certification. The main findings were that responsible B companies develop a more inclusive, sustainable and environmentally friendly economy for the benefit of society, that they go beyond the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility. The conclusions show that these companies move away from traditional companies, as they combine social development and economic growth, positioning the countries that have these types of companies as benchmarks.

Resilience of Colombian Entrepreneurships during COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

MSMEs were facing major challenges driven by uncontrollable macro-environmental factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper shows the strategies that a sample of Colombian start-ups developed for their survival in the first months of the COVID-19 crisis and the close relationship between these strategies and the aid policies deployed by the Colombian government. This study involved 220 Colombian enterprises from different sectors of the economy (agriculture, commerce, services, and industry) and different stages of the life cycle. Our statistical analysis was based on a deep survey of highly significant rank correlation, the qualitative association between variables, a structural equation model, and mediation analysis. Among our results, we highlight a high dependence on ICT technologies, varied access to economic aid, and strong dependence on negative crisis impacts with the need for aid and deep business changes. Concerning the last conclusion, we found a significant mediating effect of the adaptability of the start-ups in order to explain why older, bigger, and more necessary enterprises were the ones that obtained aid. © 2023 by the authors.

Salón de belleza versus ‘dispositivo de la persona': cuerpo, enfermedad y sexualidad

En Viajes virales (2012), la escritora Lina Meruane elabora una lectura crítica acerca del corpus literario sobre el SIDA producido en el auge de la epidemia en Latinoamérica. En este libro, Meruane destaca como una de las obras fundamentales sobre este tema la novela Salón de belleza (1994), de Mario Bellatin, que —al poner la enfermedad en discurso— delata el exterminio de la comunidad homosexual latinoamericana, que comprendería el gay pobre afeminado. Narrada en primera persona por el protagonista, un peluquero travesti, la novela gira en torno de este personaje que, en la ausencia de políticas de Estado, convierte a su salón de belleza en un ‘moridero' para acoger a los cuerpos de hombres enfermos y abandonados que, acometidos por una enfermedad contagiosa asociada de forma latente a la homosexualidad y al SIDA, ya no se adecuan a la categoría de persona humana, digna de derechos básicos. Suponiendo un "sujeto de la consciencia” apartado de su cuerpo, conforme ha teorizado Esposito (2009, 2011), la categoría de la persona es valorada en discursos jurídicos, filosóficos y políticos y —sobre todo— sustenta las reivindicaciones de los derechos humanos, contradictoriamente, tan en boga en la contemporaneidad. A la luz de esas ideas, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar cómo la novela Salón de belleza, al enfocar el cuerpo enfermo y sexualmente disidente, problematiza la eficacia de la categoría de la persona como garantía de derechos, así se revela un dispositivo de exclusión de los cuerpos a servicio de la biopolítica que regula la muerte y separa biológicamente —a partir de la enfermedad, del género y de la sexualidad— a los que merecen vivir de los que merecen morir.Alternate : In Viajes virales (2012), Lina Meruane provides a critical reading of the literary corpus on AIDS, produced at the height of the epidemic in Latin America. In this book, the author highlights the novel Salón de belleza (1994), by Mario Bellatin, as one of the fundamental works on this theme, in which the writing of the disease denounces the extermination of the Latin American homosexual community, which would include the poor effeminate gay. The novel revolves around a cross-dresser hairdresser who, in the absence of public policies, converts his beauty salon into a ‘moridero' to shelter the abandoned bodies of sick men who, affected by a contagious disease indirectly associated with homosexuality and AIDS, no longer fit into the category of human person, worthy of basic rights. In turn, assuming a "universal” and "disembodied” individual, the dispositif of the person, as theorized by Roberto Esposito (2009, 2011), has become the key concept that sustains human rights claims, contradictorily, so popular in contemporaneity. In light of these ideas, the aim of this paper is to analyze how Salón de belleza, by focusing on the sick and sexually dissident body, problematizes the effectiveness of the dispositif of the person to guarantee rights, revealing itself, in reality, as a biopolitical apparatus of exclusion and control of bodies: separating biologically-based on health condition, gender and sexuality- who deserves to live and who must die.Alternate : Em Viajes virales (2012), Lina Meruane elabora uma leitura crítica acerca do corpus literário sobre a Aids produzido no auge da epidemia na América Latina. Neste livro, a autora destaca a novela Salón de belleza (1994), de Mario Bellatin, como uma das obras fundamentais sobre este tema, na qual a doença posta em discurso delata o extermínio da comunidade homossexual latino-americana, que compreenderia o gay pobre afeminado. A novela gira em torno de um cabeleireiro travesti que, na ausência de políticas públicas, converte o seu salão de beleza em um ‘moridero' para acolher os corpos abandonados de homens doentes que, acometidos por uma doença contagiosa associada indiretamente à homossexualidade e à aids, não mais se adequam à categoria de pessoa humana, digna de direitos básicos. Por seu turno, p essupondo um indivíduo "universal” e "descorporificado”, a categoria de pessoa, conforme teorizou Roberto Esposito (2009, 2011), tornou-se o conceito-chave que sustenta as reivindicações dos direitos humanos, contraditoriamente, tão em voga na contemporaneidade. À luz dessas ideias, o objetivo deste trabalho é analisar de que modo Salón de belleza, ao pôr em foco o corpo doente e sexualmente dissidente, problematiza a eficácia da categoria de pessoa como garantidora de direitos, revelando-se, em realidade, um dispositivo biopolítico de exclusão e controle dos corpos: separando biologicamente -a partir da doença, do gênero e da sexualidade- quem merece viver e quem deve morrer.

The Boys Who Cried Wolf Warrior: China's Diplomatic Strategy in Latin America

Objective/Context: This article examines the evolution of China's diplomatic strategy in Latin America in terms of how effectively Chinese diplomats have adapted to the demands of their country's multi-dimensional engagement with the region over the past three decades. This strategy underpins China's investments in the region and relates to regional integration and cultural cooperation issues. Methodology: The study draws on a database compiled by the author, tracking the careers of all senior Chinese diplomats in Latin America from 1990 to 2020. It is a qualitative study with quantitative data aggregation, comprising representative case studies. Conclusions: The author observes changes in how China's diplomats of the twenty-first century have embraced network diplomacy and enhanced their abilities to engage with foreign publics and governments. The competence of diplomats to get locally involved and demonstrate positive results has been tested, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the excesses of the so-called Wolf Warrior diplomacy appear to have been reined in. The study demonstrates a continuous evolution in the centrally crafted yet often competing efforts of the organizations involved in China's overseas operations, including ministries, Communist Party organizations, and educational institutions. Originality: By focusing on diplomats as key agents the study offers new insights into China's diplomatic and economic engagement with the region of Latin America. It also uses a novel database that will be publicly accessible following the publication of this study. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR]