The individuals who shaped Latin America in 2013

As the year draws to a close, we have the tendency to want to make lists. It enables us the opportunity to assess our recent past (how did time move so fast, where did it go?), to reflect on how we changed, and to plan ahead. This opinion is my salute to 2013.

In sitting down to write this, I initially drew up a long inventory of important events in Latin America that I planned on narrowing down to 10 - including nationwide protests in Brazil, Cuba allowing its citizens to travel abroad, Uruguay legalizing the sale of marijuana, Mexico passing historic energy reform, and landmark peace talks in Colombia - but as I began ordering, and researching, I realized that this was a year in which Latin America was especially under the global spotlight, that I would inevitably fail at being comprehensive, and that I ran the risk of repeating many of the other lists published so furiously this time of year.

So I decided to limit the list to four names, individuals who impacted the region in 2013, and who will continue to do so, I might argue, for the foreseeable future. They are:

4. Edward Snowden.

Snowden, through journalist Glenn Greenwald, revealed in 2013 what we had all peripherally felt: that nothing we do online is ever fully private. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president, was appalled when it was revealed in September that her personal phone had been hacked by US spy agency NSA, and soon canceled a long-planned diplomatic trip to Washington. But allegations of spying from other nations, including Brazil itself, unearthed that our mistrust of one another ran far deeper than we could have suspected. How does this impact international commerce and goodwill in a globalized world? And does democracy really exist without a citizen's right to privacy?

3. Pope Francis.

Argentina's Jorge Bergoglio became Latin America's first pope in March, and soon showed that he had no intention of being like the 265 pontiffs who came before him. A former Buenos Aires nightclub bouncer, and teacher of literature, he took the name of Francis, after Francis of Assisi, who left a prosperous life to live with the poor. Francis demonstrated in 2013 that as pope he would turn the world's attention away from the criticisms that have plagued the Catholic church, and return it to its purest calling: which is to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized.

2. Hugo Chávez.

Venezuela's Chávez was unlike any leader the world had seen, and easily Latin America's most famous of the recent past. His Caracas funeral, in March, was an international spectacle, abuzz with global media, attended by every regional head of state, and many from outside Latin America as well. His charisma, crackling personality, vitriol and showmanship will not soon be forgotten, but within the region he is likely to be remembered as the man, espousing an erratic, fanciful ideology, who brought Venezuela to its knees.

1. Nelson Mandela. 

Though he had been unwell for many years, Mandela's death silenced the globe. Leaders of all political persuasions flew to South Africa to pay their respects. Brazil sent its current head of state, and the four previous. During Mandela's Johannesburg memorial service, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shook hands. 

Mandela deserves to head this list because to tackle the problems facing Latin America in the 21^st century - which include, but are hardly limited to, providing clean water, sanitation, and electricity to the tens of millions who still lack access, improving education that lags behind the rest of the world, fighting climate change and its impacts, creating the framework for market-led growth that does not leave the poorest behind, bringing the region closer through treaties such as the Pacific Alliance and energy integration, diversifying economies away from natural resource extraction, and fighting the scourge of violence and corruption that for so long have plagued the region - leaders of his unifying, myth-like stature, as opposed to the divisive sort symbolized by Chávez, are required.