You cannot say that all of Latin America is like this. If you choose Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, and Mexico than yes it can get interesting.
However, if you choose more developed countries like Chile, Uruguay, Panama, and Argentina life can be quite pleasant. Many Europeans and Americans are moving to places like Uruguay because the government leaves you alone. They don't strip search you like in the USA or tax you to kingdom come like in Europe or Canada.
These countries are big and have a few million people. By the way, the countries of the south like the ones I mentioned welcome European and American people. In Uruguay, for example, you only need to show income of $500 U.S. dollars a months and you immigrate.

If you like Spanish, as I do, teach in Latin America

So then you can get kidnapped, murdered, raped, robbed, have drugs planted on you, develop a coke addiction, get bitten by a venomous spider, and perhaps other bad stuff.

You are seriously comparing Spain with Latin America in terms of learning spanish?

If it means that much to you, befriend a native speaker at home and buy a language learning set? why risk your life?

Hi,

I've been working as a teacher at Vaughan for 3 years now and I've always been treated really well.

The teachers here are from all over the globe (so not really racist then?) and I've made some great friends. I actually only intended to come to Vaughan for a gap year, but ended up staying longer. I don't work on the university programme anymore, but on a contract teaching adults at the main premises in Madrid.

There is a 2 week training which is hell and people always get kicked out during the course which probably explains mixed opinions on some sites. You're up until 3-4am doing homework and work isn't offered until you've made it! If you do make it through the two weeks though, they do treat you well, help you with everything and I have always felt valued and supported.

Hi

I worked for Vaughan Systems in Madrid for a year from 1999 to the end of summer 2000.
That was when the peseta was still alive and kicking and pay per hour for teaching english was very good, then around 3000ptas per hour guaranteed, even if the student cancelled.
I received about 2 weeks training at the offices in Madrid which were then based, if I remember correctly, in C/Nuria de Virgin.
We were assigned clients who had contracts with Vaughan Systems and we were given literature and access to learning materials for our classes.
Clients included Ericsson, Pfizer, Caixa and other similar companies. I had to travel around the city from office to office of each client teaching from as many as 1 student to a class of 7 or 8 and from 1 to 2 hour sessions. It was hard work but very rewarding and I made some great friends. There were also opportunities to teach weekend intensive courses which were mostly taught in a hotel in the mountains somewhere. I never did this for Vaughan Systems but for another company. It's very hard work as you are expected to be with the students continuously from breakfast until the evening, but again the pay was worth it.
I left the company after about 10 months (August there is no work) to travel and freelance and then return to the Uk. It was a fun experience and one I would highly recommend. There are lots of similar companies out there like Vaughan systems - but probably more professional in their employee care, especially in terms of taking care of taxation and other legal matters. They did not help us to find places to live which for non Spanish speakers I imagined was quite hard. They were keen to employ native speakers although there was not much way of support for those who needed it.
Hope this is of some help.

Rebecca