Dont forget Chile.Argentina
Argentina was "first world" in the early 20th Century.
It declined because it didn't diversify their economy. Argentina became rich by being the British Empire's official beef producer and they did not bother to do anything else. When world trade declined, they were screwed real bad, and it got worse after a military coup.
The solution is to have Argentina use the boom years to diversify and it would probably still be first world today.
Venezuela
When oil is discovered, have Venezuela set up a decent welfare state. It could easily have been as wealthy as Norway, if, again, not for the military coups.
Cuba
No communist revolution. Cuba was the wealthiest Latin American country in OTL under Batista. Obviously, that does not make up for his crimes. Perhaps if Batista was more forward thinking, he could have used his time in office to try to benefit its citizens. This way, he gets replaced by democracy, not communism, and Cuba becomes comparable to South Korea in industrialization.
Latin America
Outside of those three, it is difficult given the lack of stable governments. Brazil had the additional problem of slavery which holds back industrialization.
Argentina
Argentina was "first world" in the early 20th Century.
It declined because it didn't diversify their economy. Argentina became rich by being the British Empire's official beef producer and they did not bother to do anything else. When world trade declined, they were screwed real bad, and it got worse after a military coup.
The real misstep here is the military coup. Plenty of first world nations like the US, UK and France have had economic dislocations over the 20th Century, but they didn't react by removing their democracy.
(Personally I regard any country below South Korea, Portugal and Malta in GDP per captia rankings as emerging, developing or 3rd world economies) so Argentina and Chile would still be emerging, like Brazil.
More successful Alliance for Progress/Alianza para el Progreso?I imagine, in a world where either communists or fascists or some other force is occupying Europe, the US sends a Marshal plan to latin America, or some other massive capital transfer to prop up and build up a new hemispheric alliance. That would bring Latin america into the first world as the term was originally used.
Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana ... The Bahamas
all have better GINI scores than France.
Looking at nominal GDP PPP shows Brazil doing better than even France and Britain, with Argentina just below the Netherlands or Poland.
None of which are Latin American.
Not a very good measure of development [...]
That is a terrible comparison [...]
and Cuba becomes comparable to South Korea in industrialization.