Deng Xiaoping once said that everyone believed the 21st century would belong to the Pacific but he believed “it could also be the century of Latin America”. In the region, talk has been of a more modest “Latin American decade”. Either way, it is time to check on how the region is doing. The answer is: rather well. With Europe and the United States mired in economic stagnation, Latin American leaders can survey the world with a certain smugness.

For the first time in living memory, the words “Latin America” and “financial crisis” are not routinely linked. Economic growth is robust and banks are sound. In-equality has fallen, even as it rose elsewhere. Poverty is down from an estimated 50 per cent of the region’s 580m people in 1990 to 30 per cent. China’s rise has fuelled much of this new prosperity. Even so, Brazil is now as likely to criticise Beijing for its undervalued currency as to praise it as a huge market for commodities.

The firebrand ideology once attached to the “new Latin American left” is also in retreat. Most Latin American leaders are instead marked by a centrist pragmatism that focuses as much on macroeconomic stability as on poverty alleviation. This is as true of centre-right governments, as it is of centre-left. Even communist Cuba is quietly seeking informal advice from the World Bank and IMF. Times are changing fast indeed.