Oil prices threaten Latin America's economic gains

Are exploding oil prices about to burn Latin America?

With the largest petroleum reserves outside the Middle East, the region has been on a roll in recent years. Record exports of crude and grain fueled economic growth not seen since the 1970s. The region's stock markets roared. Easier credit spawned a consumer class that snapped up homes and cars. About 26 million Latin Americans climbed out of poverty between 2002 and 2006, United Nations figures show.

But, writes The Times' Marla Dickerson, the same forces behind that prosperity are now, paradoxically, creating misery in the midst of bounty. Surging fuel prices have ignited inflation throughout the region, driving up the cost of food, the price of which was already on the upswing thanks in part to ravenous global demand for Latin America's farm products.

Read on about oil prices in Latin America.

-- Deborah Bonello in Los Angeles

Photo: Marvin Hernandez, 12, bathes on the site of a former dump that’s home to nearly 2,000 people in San Salvador. At least 500,000 people in El Salvador and Guatemala fell into poverty last year, the United Nations estimates. Photo credit: Roberto Escobar / EPA.