The Center for Latin America collaborates with partners that understand how individual rights, limited government under the rule of law, and free markets tend to create prosperity and improve the prospects for peace. The Center calls for an end to cronyism, corruption, and political privileges of all kinds, and looks forward to working with all people of goodwill who share this vision. In this way, the Center adheres to a set of principles, but not to a narrowly-defined ideology or political orientation.
The Center for Latin America does not engage in partisan politics. Our focus is on building a long-term consensus around the principles that foster peace and prosperity, with the sincere hope that such a future will see ‘less at stake’ in individual elections, because all parties will be respectful of fundamental freedoms.
The Center is not endowed and does not accept funding from any government. It relies entirely on the generosity of individuals and institutional donors that share its desire to create greater freedom and opportunity for the people of Latin America.
Building on nearly four-decades of investment by Atlas Network in the region, the Center for Latin America provides its partners with world-class training and mentoring; with grant competitions for project funding; and with networking opportunities that foster peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
Launched in November 2018, the Center is directed by Dr. Roberto Salinas León, who also heads the Mexico Business Forum and the Alamos Alliance, while also serving as Senior Policy Advisor to TV Azteca and Grupo Salinas, in Mexico.
Under the leadership of Dr. Roberto Salinas León, and with the full support of all Atlas Network staff, the Center for Latin America team includes:
- Staff: Roberto Salinas, Antonella Marty, Gonzalo Schwarz
- Senior Fellows: Juan JOSÉ Daboub, Axel Kaiser
- Advisory Council:
- Juan José Daboub
- Martín Aguirre
- Marcel Granier
- Guillermo Cabieses
- Manuel Hinds
Dr. Roberto Salinas León
Executive Director
Roberto Salinas is the Executive Director of the Atlas Network Center for Latin America, he is currently President of the Mexico Business Forum, as well as the President of Alamos Alliance, which was described glowingly in Forbes in 2013 as “one of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s favorite retreats,” with Roberto Salinas León noted as “a major driving force of efforts for free markets.”
He has been an Adjunct Professor and Visiting Professor of Political Economy at the Escuela Libre de Derecho (1989-2002), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (1989-1992) and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, in Mexico City (since 2004). He was also a Visiting Professor of Universidad Francisco Marroquín, in Guatemala (1997).
He is currently Senior Debate Fellow and Debate Lecturer at the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, and an Adjunct Scholar of the Cato Institute. He has organized a number of the most important policy and academic forums in the past 25 years in Mexico, including the annual Mexico roundtable of The Economist Group, which he directed from 1997 until 2009.
He has published more than 2,000 editorials (English and Spanish) on public policy topics, including op-ed pieces in The Wall Street Journal, The Journal of Commerce, Investor’s Business Daily, Barrons, and others. He was a weekly editorial columnist in El Economista, from 1993 to 2011 and now published occasional op-ed’s in different media outlets. He is an occasional commentator for CNN, CNN Latinamerica, CNCB, BBC, and others; and is a weekly commentator on economics and global finance in AND 40, in Mexico City.
He has delivered over 900 lectures in Mexico and the U.S., Canada, several countries in Central and South America, and throughout Europe and Asia. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on three occasions – on NAFTA and free trade, structural reform in Mexico, and monetary and exchange rate policy.
Roberto Salinas León holds a B.A. in political economy, history and philosophy from Hillsdale College, Michigan; and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Purdue University, Indiana.
Gonzalo Schwarz
General Manager
Growing up around the world in Uruguay, Israel, Ecuador, and Bolivia, Gonzalo saw poverty firsthand and wondered how to get individuals on the path to prosperity. After earning his bachelor’s degree in economics at the Catholic University of Bolivia and his master’s in economics from George Mason University, he began his life’s work of reducing poverty. This led Gonzalo to found the Archbridge Institute, an organization dedicated to removing the barriers that prevent individuals across the globe from bettering their lives.
While forming the idea to start the Archbridge Institute, Gonzalo Schwarz was working as the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Atlas Network. During his six years at Atlas, he managed key projects including the Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise Reform program, the Templeton Freedom Award, the Latin American program, and the Sound Money Project. He also participated as an instructor in various Atlas Network training programs such as the Think Tank MBA and the Think Tank Leadership Training, focusing on outcome measurement and best practices.
Antonella Marty
Associate Director
Ms. Marty is the Associate Director at the Center for Latin American at Atlas Network. She is also the Director at the Center for Latin American Studies at Fundación Libertad (Argentina) and Senior Fellow at Fundación Internacional para la Libertad (Spain), think tank led by the Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
Antonella received her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Universidad Abierta Interamericana (Argentina) and she is finishing her master’s degree in Public Policies from the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina).
She worked at the Argentinian Parliament as a public policy advisor from 2015 to 2017. She has also worked as an intern at the Cato Institute, The IFEF, Fundación para el Progreso and Cedice Libertad. Antonella became the first Regional Director for Argentina and also for countries like Chile when Students for Liberty was in its beginnings. She also became a member of the first Executive Board for Estudiantes por la Libertad. Antonella published her first book The Intellectual Populist Dictatorship (2015) with Unión Editorial, her second book What Every Revolutionary of The 21st Century Should Know (2018) and her third book Capitalism: Antidote to Poverty (2019).
Senior Fellows
Juan José Daboub PhD
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Dr. Juan José Daboub is the Chairman and CEO of The Daboub Partnership, an initiative of ARCIS, LLC, dedicated to delivering results for public and private organizations around the world. He is also the Founding Chief Executive Officer of the Global Adaptation Institute (www.gain.org). He has taught at Princeton University and is a member of several Board of Directors, including in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.
As Managing Director of the World Bank from 2006 to 2010, Dr. Daboub oversaw operations in 110 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, East Asia and Latin America. He was also responsible for the oversight of the Human Development and Sustainable Development Networks, the Information Systems Group, the World Bank Institute, and the Department of Institutional Integrity.
Internationally recognized as a thought leader, Dr. Daboub has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and many other international publications. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, EWTN, TCS, and many other broadcast media outlets.
He has spoken extensively at high-level international conferences on economic freedom, prosperity and development issues, including the World Economic Forum, the Union for the Mediterranean, the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, OECD, Transparency International, the BOAO Forum, and the Atlantic Basin Initiative.Prior to the World Bank, Dr. Daboub lead the expansion of his family owned businesses and worked for non-for-profits on public policies to promote liberty, stability and growth throughout Latin America.
From 1999 to 2004, Dr. Daboub served concurrently as El Salvador’s Minister of Finance and as Chief of Staff to the President. In these high-profile, dual roles, Dr. Daboub helped to navigate his native country through several regional economic challenges including securing and sustaining El Salvador’s investment grade rating, “dollarizing” the economy, and completing a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. During this period, he also oversaw the emergency reconstruction of El Salvador after two major earthquakes in 2001.
Dr. Daboub’s leadership began in the private sector, where he led his family-owned businesses for nearly a decade before joining the Board of CEL, El Salvador’s electric utility, and presiding over El Salvador’s electric distribution companies.
Subsequently, he was named President of ANTEL, the state-owned telecommunications company, which he re-structured and privatized through a competitive and transparent process that also de-monopolized that strategic sector. He held high Government positions in El Salvador for 12 years (1992-2004), working for three different Administrations without belonging to any political party. Dr. Daboub holds a Bachelor’s of Science, Master’s of Science and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Axel Kaiser
Senior Fellow
Axel Kaiser Barents von Hohenhagen is a Chilean-German lawyer, Master in Investments, Commerce and Arbitration, Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He is Director of the FA Hayek Chair at the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago de Chile, he has been Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and co-founder and president of the Foundation for Progress, Chile, one of the classical liberal think tanks with the greatest impact in Latin America.
His writings have won various national and international awards such as the Hayek Essay Contest of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Caminos de la Libertad contest of the Salinas Groups in Mexico and the book prize of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, among others. In 2011, the Network of leaders of the El Sábado de El Mercurio magazine and the Adolfo Ibáñez University elected him as one of the 100 young leaders in Chile. He has been highlighted as one of the ten most admired intellectuals in Chile by the newspaper La Segunda and described as one of the most influential classical liberal intellectuals in Latin America. He is a columnist for the newspapers Financiero and El Mercurio and his opinions have been published in international media such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Quillette, Forbes.com, La Nación de Argentina, El País de Uruguay and El Mundo, among others. He is an international lecturer and author of several best-selling books including El Engaño Populista (Deusto, 2016), The Pope and Capitalism (2018), The Tyranny of Equality (El Mercurio, 2015), La fatal ignorancia (2009), and The Neo inquisition (Deusto 2020).
Dr. Juan José Daboub is the Chairman and CEO of The Daboub Partnership, an initiative of ARCIS, LLC, dedicated to delivering results for public and private organizations around the world. He is also the Founding Chief Executive Officer of the Global Adaptation Institute (www.gain.org). He has taught at Princeton University and is a member of several Board of Directors, including in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.
Axel Kaiser Barents von Hohenhagen is a Chilean-German lawyer, Master in Investments, Commerce and Arbitration, Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He is Director of the FA Hayek Chair at the Adolfo Ibáñez University in Santiago de Chile, he has been Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and co-founder and president of the Foundation for Progress, Chile, one of the classical liberal think tanks with the greatest impact in Latin America.
