Monday Memo: Colombian Peace Negotiations – Venezuela’s Audit – Alabama Immigration Law – Honduran Police – Maracanã
Top stories this week are likely to include: Colombian civil society holds forum on political participation; Venezuela’s election audit begins on May 6; the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a lower court’s immigration ruling; Honduran police officials resign in the midst of a police crisis; and Brazil’s Maracanã stadium reopens after three years. Colombian Civil Society … Read more
Monday Memo: Venezuela Elections – Immigration Reform – Guantánamo – Mexican Education Reform – Michelle Bachelet
Top stories this week are likely to include: Maduro narrowly wins Venezuela elections; U.S. Senators to release immigration legislation; Guantánamo prison standoff escalates; Mexican teachers plan more protests this week; Chile’s Michelle Bachelet begins her campaign. Venezuela elections: Venezuelan voters narrowly elected Nicolás Maduro as president on Sunday in a highly contested election in which … Read more
A Chance to Reform Punitive Immigration Enforcement
As the U.S. Senate “Gang of Eight” prepares to unveil their comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill, tens of thousands of immigrants and their allies marched on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to demand a pathway to citizenship. The same day, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) held a closed-door meeting with his Republican colleagues in the senate to … Read more
Monday Memo: U.S. Immigration – Mensalão Scandal – Pablo Neruda – Venezuelan Elections – Colombia Peace Talks
Top stories this week are likely to include: U.S. Senators hope to introduce immigration reform bill this week; the Brazilian Federal Police will investigate whether Lula had a role in the mensalão scandal; Pablo Neruda’s body will be examined for signs of poisoning; Venezuela’s opposition rallies in Caracas; and the FARC bring extra peace negotiators … Read more
Innovators
Some of our hemisphere’s emerging leaders in politics, business, civil society, and the arts.
Monday Memo: Venezuela’s Elections – U.S. Immigration – Argentina’s Debt – 2016 Olympics – Venezuelan Currency
Top stories this week are likely to include: Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles kick off their campagins; U.S. business and labor leaders reach an agreement on immigration; Argentina faces a court ruling on its debt; Brazil faces more stadium-related woes; and Venezuela auctions $200 million in foreign currency. Maduro and Capriles Face Off: Venezuela’s interim … Read more
Monday Memo: IACHR Reforms—Lima Mayor—Immigration—Ríos Montt—Brazilian Oil Royalties
Top stories this week are likely to include: Lima Mayor Susana Villarán survives recall election; the OAS votes on IACHR reforms in an extraordinary session; the “gang of eight” considers providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt will stand trial for genocide; Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo … Read more
Searching for Justice Beyond Immigration Reform
Some version of immigration reform is almost certain to pass within the next year. President Obama, Republicans and Democrats alike are all strongly supportive of the idea and have each offered formidable, bipartisan proposals. If successful, this will be the first major change in U.S. immigration law since President Reagan’s signing of the Immigration Reform … Read more
Immigration in the State of the Union
In 2009, in his first State of the Union speech, President Obama did not even mention immigration. Last year, the president was bold in his call for action for the DREAMers. On Tuesday night, he dedicated five paragraphs to immigration reform and called for not only comprehensive immigration reform but also for “establishing a responsible … Read more
Monday Memo: Obama’s State of the Union Speech – Ecuadorian Elections – Venezuelan Currency Devaluation – and more
Top stories this week are likely to include: President Obama discusses immigration reform in the State of the Union; Ecuador prepares for presidential and congressional elections; Colombia and FARC make progress in peace negotiations, Venezuela’s currency devaluation goes into effect; and Mexican farmers begin to release suspected criminals in negotiations with Guerrero state. President Obama … Read more
Monday Memo: Immigration Reform Plans Announced – CELAC Summit Concludes – Argentina and Iran Plan Truth Commission – and more
Top stories this week are likely to include: Cuba takes over the chairmanship of CELAC on Monday as the summit wraps up in Santiago; a bipartisan group of U.S. senators release a plan for comprehensive immigration reform a day before Obama lays out his proposals; violence in Colombia increases following the end to the FARC’s … Read more
Immigration Gets Spotlight at Inauguration
White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod said yesterday that immigration reform legislation is coming “early” in President Obama’s second-term agenda. Axelrod’s comments followed shortly after Obama’s inauguration address in Washington DC in which he only briefly touched on immigration. Axelrod went on to say that the president could push for reform as soon as the … Read more
Migration: Spain’s Reverse Flows
Latin America has historically played an important role in Spain’s migratory cycles—both as a sender and as a recipient. Spanish political immigration to the hemisphere surged following the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and again after World War II, when Spaniards flocked to Latin America for economic reasons. The flow reversed with the late-1980s economic crises … Read more
The United States: Good Neighbors, Finally, toward Latin America
Every presidential candidate pledges, as Mitt Romney recently did, to do more to “focus on Latin America” and “take advantage” of the “huge opportunities” there. It’s been a long time since one followed through. Even by the standards of campaign promises, this one has become so empty that it hardly registers. It’s not that candidates … Read more
