Since the last third of the nineteenth Century, Latin American countries have only rarely taken up arms against each other—an astounding record of peace experienced by few other regions of the world. Despite all their tanks and epaulets, the continent’s militaries are generally reluctant or unable to fight each other, or are prohibited by treaty from doing so.
VIolent and aggressive bands of young criminals, tattooed from head to toe, have become the symbols of a new, supposed national security threat in the hemisphere. Grouped together as maras, the Central American slang term for “gangs,” they have been the subject of countless profiles in influential media outlets, from The New York Times and … Read more
The tractor-trailer pulled up beside a warehouse in Mexico City in the early-morning darkness. Fourteen men armed with machine guns stepped out and burst through the warehouse doors, surprising a staff of 20 construction workers who were nearing the end of a months-long job building a movie theater complex nearby. The raiders forced the workers … Read more
“Hey tío, do you have any change for some food?” The two teenagers—they couldn’t have been more than 15 or 16 years old—seemed polite as they stopped me one evening, two blocks from my São Paulo apartment, on my way to the neighborhood supermarket. Before I could respond, they flashed a weapon and ordered me into a nearby car. Stunned and scared, I followed without another word. All they wanted, they told me calmly, was my money. A few moments later, we pulled up in front of a nearby bank.
In 2004 the Mexico City newspaper, El Universal, sparked a shake-up like no other at Los Pinos, Mexico’s White House. It reported that then-Mexican President Vicente Fox’s wife, Marta Sahagún, plunked down up to $1,000 on dresses during a one-day shopping spree, and that Fox himself spent the same amount on suits.
A business executive in new york wakes up on a hotel bed made by Artefama (Brazil), takes a shower in a bathroom outfitted by the Grupo Industrial Saltillo (Mexico), dons a designer suit made by Confecciones Colombia (Colombia), drives to the airport in a car full of Nemak (Mexico) auto parts, and boards an Embraer regional jet (Brazil) for Washington. Our busy New York-Washington traveler would in all likelihood be surprised to learn how many manufactured Latin American products support an ordinary business trip in the U.S.
Headline writers called it the “Battle for Latin America’s Soul.” With a record 12 presidential elections and nine congressional contests scheduled in Latin America for late November 2005 to December 2006, the phrase captured the widespread perception that double-digit unemployment and a rising wave of dissatisfaction would propel nationalist, anti-establishment candidates into office, and effectively … Read more
Elections invariably offer an opportunity to assess the health and quality of the democratic process in the countries where they are held. When they occur in neighboring states over roughly the same time period, however, observers are given a rare chance to move beyond isolated snapshots and assess the state of democracy in an entire region. Such an opportunity occurred from 2005 to 2006, when Latin America experienced 12 presidential elections, many of them closely fought, over a 14-month period.
Fifteen years after its passage by a closely divided Congress, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provides an important lens through which to consider United States trade policy, U.S. politics and some of the effects of globalization. With a new president taking office next year, it is vitally important to draw the right lessons … Read more
It is time to change the focus of the U.S. debate over immigration. Competing interests and ideologies have narrowed the issue to the question of how to deal with undocumented workers. While reform of the U.S. immigration system is certainly important, there is a greater challenge. How will the growing population of Hispanics be integrated … Read more
The U.S. Government’s War on Terror has transgressed into a War on Immigrants. Since September 11, 2001, Washington’s attempt to secure the nation’s borders has not only sent waves of fear through the immigrant community but has undermined the nation’s long-standing principles of providing shelter and refuge to those fleeing tyranny, intolerance and hunger.1
Politicians who argue for restricting immigration cast newcomers as an invasion of foreign settlers. Their rhetoric misses a simple fact. Many of the people who cross the border to work in U.S. farms and factories aren’t looking for a new home. Many just want to work. Most new immigrants are deeply attached to their families, … Read more
California, America’s most populous state—with the dimensions, economy, power, and international ties, if not the sovereignty, of a nation—can and should play a leading role in attempting to break the U.S. legislative impasse on immigration policy and in forging policies to integrate immigrants more successfully into twenty-first century America.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created an intentionally unequal system for the entry of Canadian and Mexican professionals to the U.S. while flatly rejecting calls by some for including broader migration in the pact. Taking such migration off the table was in deference to U.S. Congressional opposition and that body’s jealously guarded plenary power over immigration—as well as to the expectation of popular furor over its inclusion.
Extreme climate events are presenting a new and unexpected challenge to the private sector in Latin America. While attention understandably focuses on the ordinary citizens caught up in catastrophes such as the floods in Tabasco, Mexico and Hurricane Noel in the Dominican Republic, the painful economic effects on the hemisphere’s business community are often lost in the news coverage.
