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Lessons for Regionwide Engagement from Obama’s Latin America Trip
President Obama’s trip to Latin America can be broken down as an essentially successful visit to Brazil and an uneventful trip to Chile and El Salvador. Unfortunately, the disappointing visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America has cast a shadow on the accomplishments achieved in Brazil. The main oversight of the trip is that Latin America should … Read more
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Obama’s Moment to Get It Right in Latin America
Amidst nuclear meltdown in Japan, growing pressures to respond to the carnage in Libya and the specter of a possible U.S. government shutdown, flitting rumors have circulated that the visit of President Barack Obama to three Latin American countries may be cancelled or postponed. This would be a major setback in U.S. relations with the … Read more
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Mexico’s Fiscal Conundrum
Mexico’s reliance on deficit spending to fund environmental, social and income redistribution programs is a rising concern for its long-term fiscal situation. This is a challenge compounded by its historic reliance on declining oil tax revenue and the need for a structural fiscal reform. Without it, federal government debt will increase and future generations of … Read more
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New Revelations in Bolivian Terror Case
Nearly two years later, a new video and WikiLeaks cable are again calling into question the circumstances around the death of Eduardo Rózsa. The Bolivian citizen of Hungarian descent, along with four others, was killed during an April 2009 raid by Bolivian counterterrorist forces in Santa Cruz for their alleged involvement in a terrorist group … Read more
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Rebuilding Business after the Chilean Earthquake
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Chile on February 27, 2010, left local micro-enterprises in a dire situation. In the southern coast, where the effects were most severe, entire fishing villages and towns were wiped out. Small entrepreneurs saw their businesses literally crumble to the ground. In the most affected areas, 98 percent … Read more
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Electoral Process Fails Haiti (Again)
Haiti’s presidential and parliamentarian elections on November 28 were anything but predictable. Despite panic over the cholera outbreak and ensuing clashes between protesters and UN soldiers, the elections proceeded on schedule. One million Haitians, or about 10 percent of the population, braved chaotic polling stations to vote—a low turnout by any standard. Another surprise came … Read more
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Immigration Reform Part II: Post-Election Prospects
This article is the second of a two-part series on the politics of immigration reform. (Read part 1.) This has been a bad year for supporters of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). With nativist legislation (Arizona’s SB 1070) and rhetoric dominating the national conversation, pro-CIR advocates have found themselves on the defensive. Without resources or media … Read more
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The Politics of Immigration Reform
In early 2010, with a major national movement behind it and support from President Barack Obama and congressional leadership, comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) looked like it could be the next big bill after health care. But election year politics intervened. Senate Republicans backed away from a potential CIR bill, and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed … Read more
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Affirmative Action in Brazil
Affirmative action programs have spread rapidly across Brazil’s higher education institutions. Afro-Brazilians seeking a university education now have access to opportunities that were unreachable just decades ago. In fact, a recent study by the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro found that 70 percent of Brazil’s public universities—both federal and state—have adopted some form … Read more
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It’s Official: Canada No Longer Counts
Read the original version in French. The withdrawal of Canada’s candidacy to the UN Security Council on October 12 is an earthquake in the history of Canadian diplomacy. Who would have thought this possible? Is Portugal, the country who will take the seat in Canada’s place, really a more influential country? This would not have … Read more
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Brazil’s Presidential Election: On to the Second Round
Brazil’s presidential election shows once again that it’s a country of surprises. Based on numerous opinion polls, it seemed clear that Dilma Rousseff (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) would win easily in the first round. Instead, although winning 46.9 percent of the votes, she now faces the prospect of another tough month of campaigning against … Read more
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U.S. Foreign Policy Should Not be Controlled by the Cuban Government
YES. Should some elements of U.S. policy still be changed irrespective of what the Cuban government does in the short term? After 50 years, the all-or-nothing approach of U.S. policy toward Cuba has undoubtedly yielded nothing. Defenders of maintaining this status quo have suggested that any changes in U.S. policy would represent “concessions” to the … Read more
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Concessions to the Cubans would Embolden the Regime
NO. Should some elements of U.S. policy still be changed irrespective of what the Cuban government does in the short term? We shouldn’t make unilateral concessions to the Castro regime because it will cost lives. Fundamentally fragile, totalitarian dictatorships interpret all policy actions through the narrow lens of regime survival. That means they unfailingly construe … Read more
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Citizen Fear of Terrorism in the Americas
Increased sophistication, scope, and fatalities define modern terrorism and leave few corners of the globe immune from its threat. Terrorism (destructive attacks against non-military targets typically for political purposes) has had a greater presence in some countries in the Americas, such as Colombia and Peru, but terrorist acts have been recorded elsewhere in recent years … Read more
