The unprecedented process of economic reform currently under way will irreversibly change Cuba’s domestic political economy. According to a new report, Reaching Out: Cuba’s New Economy and the International Response, published by the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution, the changes are also providing openings for outside assistance, once thought impossible. This timely monograph recommends that the United States create the possibility for multilateral relations and contacts, concluding, “Now is the time for the international development community to engage in Cuba, to support the incipient economic reform process.”
Transportation subsidies are a serious issue throughout Latin America and are particularly important in Argentina after the tragic train crash earlier this year. A new report by Argentine think tank Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC) titled El ABC de los subsidios al transporte presents a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of transportation subsidies, with a special focus on public transportation in Buenos Aires. It also looks at alternative approaches in Chile and Brazil in an effort to identify some best practices elsewhere in the region, to inform the ongoing debate in Argentina and beyond.
In a new collaborative effort by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Colombian consulting firm Corpovisionarios, former Bogotá Mayor Antanas Mockus leads a team of authors to present the findings of a multiyear study on violence and insecurity in Latin America. The report, Antípodas de la violencia: Desafíos de cultura ciudadana para la crisis de (in)seguridad en América Latina, includes survey results on citizen security in Bogotá, Medellín, La Paz, Belo Horizonte, Mexico City, Monterrey, Caracas, and Quito. It explores security policies, two decades of security reforms in Bogotá, and youth as both victims and perpetrators of violence. The report confirms the dual role of culture as an element of conflict and insecurity, and as a powerful contributor to social harmony, respect for the rule of law and citizen security.
