From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

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Previewing Obama’s Latin America Trip

A March 15 White House press gaggle with U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Mike Froman offered a preview of President Barack Obama’s trip to Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador from March 19 to 23. Froman focused on Latin America’s economic strides, saying: “[T]his trip fundamentally is about the U.S. recovery, U.S. exports, and the critical relationship that Latin America plays in our economic future and jobs here in the United States.” He also indicated that energy, infrastructure, and trade would serve as focus areas during the tour and that a CEO Forum will be held in Brasilia during Obama’s stop there. Several U.S. secretaries will join Obama for the Brazil portion of the trip, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

In a follow-up White House press conference on March 16, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes confirmed that Obama will deliver a speech spelling out the administration’s “approach on Latin America” while in Santiago on Monday. According to the Associated Press, Rhodes suggested “Obama will highlight the democratic transitions that swept through Latin America as a model for Middle Eastern countries that are facing challenges to their autocratic regimes.”

In preparation for the trip, the Obama administration also released two fact sheets, one on U.S. relations with Central and South America and the second focused on economic ties with Brazil. 

Visit AS/COA Online ahead of and during the president’s trip to Latin America for ongoing coverage. AmericasQuarterly.org carries an “Issues in Depth” page on the Obama tour. Also follow AS/COA on Twitter (@ascoa) and Facebook.

Brazil’s Ex-ForeignMin Makes Case for UN Security Council Seat

Celso Amorim, who served as Brazil’s foreign minister during the Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva administration, called upon President Obama to support Brazil’s inclusion in a reformed U.N. Security Council. “It would be a disappointment if Obama does not endorse our drive for a permanent seat on the world’s premier international security body,” Amorim writes for Foreign Policy. “Not just because Brazil deserves a seat but because the council’s very legitimacy depends on the inclusion of emerging powers.”

Funes’ Agenda for Obama’s Visit

Diana Villers Negroponte, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, outlines what to expect when U.S. President Barack Obama stops in San Salvador next week during his Latin American tour. She writes that Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes will seek Washington’s partnership on recognizing poverty-eradication efforts, combating organized crime, providing equipment and training for an El Salvador-based security plan, supporting an IMF plan to offset effects of the economic crisis, and increasing U.S. private investment in the energy sector. “By his visit, Obama is signaling assurance in the Funes government’s capacity to rebuild the economy, distribute wealth, and contain the violence,” says Negroponte. “We must hope that foreign investors will build upon this assurance to develop manufacturing plants, alternative energy production and agro-industrial businesses.”

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

Top U.S. Envoy Announces U.S.-Brazil Security Negotiations

During a stop in Ecuador as part of his tour of the Andes this week, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela confirmed that negotiations were taking place between the United States and Brazil on their first major bilateral security agreement since 1977. According to Brazilian press, the agreement would establish a joint anti-narcotics facility in Rio de Janeiro to monitor drug-trafficking and smuggling, and would be under Brazilian command.

Floods Claim over 100 Lives in Rio de Janeiro

Mudslides and flooding caused by heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro this week claimed at least 102 lives, according to Brazilian authorities. On April 6, 11 inches of rain flooded the streets of Rio and left nearly 1,200 people homeless and stranded. According to Rio’s Mayor Eduardo Paes, the rainfall was the heaviest in Rio in such a short period and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said it was “the greatest flooding in the history of Rio de Janeiro.” Experts say that a mixture of geographic and structural factors, including poor drainage, is responsible for the destruction. View an MSNBC slideshow of the flood.

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online's news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup.

Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email.

UN Hosts Donors Conference for Haiti

The United Nations plays host to an international donors conference at its headquarters in New York on March 31. UN Dispatch reports that reconstruction will cost the international community $11.5 billion and that the Oval office has requested $2.8 billion from U.S. Congress to support Haiti’s rebuilding efforts. More than a dozen countries are participating in the summit and are expected to raise $4.8 billion. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the UN’s envoy to Haiti, will co-chair a rebuilding commission along with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is announcing a $1.15 billion pledge to Haiti to be disbursed over the next two years.

A new report by the International Crisis Group makes a series of recommendations with the goal of assuring Haiti’s political stability, particularly given that legislative elections were postponed in light of the January 12 disaster.

COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth writes in the March 2010 issue of Poder: “There is a significant opportunity in the wake of the earthquake to build Haiti into a modern, economically stable, environmentally sound nation.”