Checking Out Steamy Funds South of the Border

Going forward, however, Landers is "not too excited about opportunities in Mexico," so he will continue to underweight the country in his fund compared with weightings for Brazil and a burgeoning Chile. Chile, the world's leading copper producer, is currently riding high on a weak dollar, high copper prices and strong Chinese demand.

Lipper's Clark remains hopeful on Chile in 2004 but acknowledges that a lot of Chile's success rides on President Lagos "not trying to be a superstar."

Well, we can't all be like Lula.

Arriba It was sunny down south.
	Ticker	2003 Return
Merrill Lynch Latin America Fund	MALTX	68.71%
Fidelity Latin America	FLATX	65.78
iShares S&P Latin America	ILF	60.78
Morgan Stanley Latin America	MILAX	59.35
T.Rowe Price Latin America	PRLAX	57.92
Scudder Latin America	SLAMX	54.99
MSCI EMF Latin America Index		67.06
Source: Morningstar