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Hillary Clinton’s Quito Address: Now Comes the Hard Part
Hillary Clinton responded to the drumbeat of demands for a major administration policy speech on Latin America this week during her stopover in Quito, Ecuador. The U.S. secretary of state was working her way back home—due to also visit Colombia and Barbados—after attending the annual Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in Lima, Peru. … Read more
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Escaping Juarez: A Photographic Essay
Once the crown jewel of the maquila miracle that was going to be the cornerstone of Mexico’s development, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua is being abandoned these days by those who were lured there with promises of decent, well-paid jobs. The city’s fate is now in the hands of rival drug gangs who operate with absolute impunity … Read more
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Lobo Reverses Stance on Honduran Coup
Last week, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa publicly acknowledged that the expulsion of President Manuel Zelaya from the country on June 28, 2009, constituted a coup. This was a startling admission from a man who won last year’s presidential election in a climate rife with fear, repression and censorship. Lobo’s belated recognition of the coup … Read more
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Superfluous Workers in Cuba’s Workers’ Paradise?
Last Saturday, on May 1, General Raúl Castro reviewed the International Labor Day parade at Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. In his speech, the general-president-and-brother of Fidel, said that the big turnout demonstrated the workers support for the regime and the vitality of Cuban labor unions. These are the same labor unions that for … Read more
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Bolivia’s Regional Elections: A Setback for Evo Morales
Evo Morales suffered a significant setback. That’s the simplest way to interpret the results from Bolivia’s regional and municipal elections on April 4. Nonetheless, he was quick to emphasize that his party had achieved significant gains. But this came on the heels of a press conference by Juan Del Granado, the outgoing mayor of La … Read more
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Recovering in Haiti: A Photographic Testimonial
Most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed but the spirit of its residents is not. This is what award-winning photojournalist Roberto Guerra finds upon traveling to Haiti after the initial media frenzy subsided. Prior to January’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake, most Haitians were used to struggling to survive. Now they are brushing the dust off and getting to work … Read more
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Latin American Gays: The Post-Left Leftists
When most straight people are forced to think about gay people, they usually think of one thing first, sex. A political scientist might focus instead on a different question: how do gays perform in politics? Judged from their political achievements this past decade, the answer is, at least for Latin American gays: they’re pretty good. … Read more
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The Challenge of Sustainable Business Development in Argentina
The year 2010 marks Argentina’s bicentennial. The moment provides an opportunity to reflect on certain aspects of our history as well as our future challenges. One of the most important is the role of entrepreneurship, or more specifically, new entrepreneurship and young entrepreneurs. Social and economic factors in Argentina, such as territory, climate diversity, natural … Read more
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Why Banco del Sur Is a Bad Idea
Regional or multilateral banks help developing nations through different means. They are instrumental in redistributing funds from richer to poorer nations. They provide liquidity in periods of stress in world capital markets. And they provide financing for long-term projects that require financing at maturities that exceed what the country may obtain in the markets at … Read more
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Mauricio Funes: His Way
The March 2009 election of Mauricio Funes and the broad coalition of social and political forces that supported his candidacy inspired the Salvadoran people and heralded a new era in the history of the smallest country in Latin America. The election of Funes, a Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) party candidate, for … Read more
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Costa Ricans Choose Chinchilla and Continuity
Laura Chinchilla was elected Costa Rica’s first female president in a colorful election on February 7 that delivered a high vote of confidence to outgoing President Óscar Arias. The 50-year-old moderate Chinchilla, who resigned as Arias’ vice president last year to campaign for the country’s top office, won with more than 46 percent of the … Read more
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The Renovators
Two political cultures coexist in Argentina. On the one hand, there is the culture based on confrontation, exclusion and antiquated ideology that has reigned for decades. This culture has led to a history of conflict and upheaval that has led to our country’s decline. On the other is a new political culture, conscious of the … Read more
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How to Protect Haiti’s “Orphans”
Within 18 days of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that ravaged southern Haiti, news agencies reported that members of a U.S. Baptist Church group were arrested in the Dominican Republic for trafficking Haitian children. “This is no real surprise given history” said Kathleen Bergquist, associate professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Inevitably, … Read more
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Social Change Depends on Personal Change
Academic studies and professional experience have taught me that I should concern myself with what lies beyond my own personal success. Many like me are working to create nationwide projects that aim to reach more people, reduce divisions, combat poverty, and diminish the social anomie in which many people live. We strive to create a … Read more
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The Educator
Democracies cannot flourish with a stagnant citizenry. They require an electorate which from an early age is responsibly engaged, educated in political theory and instilled with the values from which republicanism is constructed. The lessons of democratic citizenship prepare young people to become more than observers of a regime, but actors in an equal and free community. … Read more
