Georgetown Americas Institute

In recent decades, the importance of extractives industries in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased, with countries seeking to provide a stable investment climate, diminishing legal and regulatory frameworks, and limiting taxes on private companies. This has accelerated rates of economic growth but it has also been accompanied by significant levels of corruption, social conflict and environmental damage, in some cases undermining democracy and the human rights of many people in the region.

GULATAM 2017 (Georgetown University Latin American Student Conference), organized by the different Latin American students’ organizations at Georgetown University and sponsored by Georgetown University’s Latin American Initiative and the Center for Latin American Studies, brought together researchers, practitioners and community leaders from throughout the region to help think through this difficult yet poignant questions.