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One of the questions that is natural for a person from an affluent background, when visiting a poor country, is "why are the people here poor"?

Latin America has even worse disparity of wealth than the U.S.  The rich are almost as rich as in the U.S. but the poor are much poorer.  Is wealth disparity the reason?  

Which Latin American countries have the worst cultural problems (theft, lack of education, alcoholism, ?), and which have the least? Are cultural problems the root of the poverty?

Whatever the answers might be that seem natural, a westerner then might think, "Well, if we could fix the problems..."

It's worth a try.

However, there are 500 years of people visiting and living in Latin America thinking, "If we could fix the problems..." - maybe your answer is better than the Catholic Church's or William Walkers.  Or maybe there is something systemic about the poverty and also something systemic about the lack of progress even with so many people coming through with good intentions.

To answer your question, in Nicaragua, China, the U.S., and everywhere there are communal experiments, that sometimes for a brief period of a few months provide alternate realities - usually they are less productive economically, however, due to the lack of incentive for individuals to work.  Of course, there are all manners of excuses blaming the "outside forces" but communal experiments when seen from the outside are not magic solutions.  The diseases are within, not due to a specific external context, and those diseases ultimately continue to fester.

There are of course wonderful aspects of Nicaraguan and Latin cultures, as well, but if a visitor/resident isn't careful to guard his property, he'll only be able to appreciate those wonderful aspects for a few weeks until all his things are gone and he goes back home.