The most important cause of vulnerability of Latin-American democracies, according to Rouquié (Latin America : Introduction to the Far West) , is not “the resurgence of populism”, the maras, the guerrillas, “the drug traffickers’ criminal and corrupt offensive”, “the flow of ill-gotten gains”, nor “the inconsequence of some political leaders”, but rather poverty and the increase of social inequalities, which constitute the main challenge to the stability of institutions and the rule of law (Alain Rouquié, Latin America: Introduction to the Far West, Paris, Seuil, 1987 at 329-330). It is within this context of re-democratization of Latin America that we have analysed whether the legal reforms, especially the criminal ones that are practically generalised throughout the entire region, have brought upon an aspect of development or liberty to the citizen affected by them. It seemed timely to deepen our understanding of this context at a time where almost all of Latin America is adopting legal reforms that place the “law” as a solution to problems brought upon by the past. We have thus offered to explore the question as to whether since the implementation of the largest legal reform, since the implementation of the civil codes during the 18th century, Latin America has succeeded in placing the citizen at the centre of the law and development equation.