From Santiago, Latin America should shape the new order, not react to it

Summary

Santiago-based ECLAC presented its position paper, Managing Transformations in an Age of Disruption, at its 41st session, held in the Dominican Republic on 7–9 October 2026. Executive Secretary José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs introduced the document on 7 October. Its central claim is that the region's assets will not turn into development on their own in the new geopolitical and geo-economic setting. Those assets include natural resources, productive capacity and a market of more than 600 million people. ECLAC argues that most countries are caught in 3 traps: low growth and weak capacity to transform, high inequality with low social mobility, and weak institutions with ineffective governance.

The paper proposes 11 vital transformations and singles out 3 of them. The first is digital transformation and artificial intelligence to break out of low growth. The second is a new phase of regional integration, and the third a sound fiscal framework that serves development. According to ECLAC's statement of 6 October, this calls for new institutional capacities such as geopolitical foresight, economic diplomacy and coordination between the public and private sectors. A separate geopolitical report from the commission identifies 8 global disruptions that are reshaping the region's markets, value chains and assets.

More than 35 delegations attended, and on 9 October the session adopted the proposals as a package of resolutions. The 42nd session will take place in Panama in 2028. Salazar-Xirinachs closed with 5 messages. The first was that the region must not merely react to change but help write the rules of the new order. In his view, a new phase of integration should open, spanning infrastructure, trade, finance and climate. Landlocked and small states, he suggested, can overcome their problem of scale on this agenda to 2028 only through integration.