Endnotes: Getting to Win-Win
Below are the endnotes from Getting to Win Win by Lise Johnson (Summer 2015 AQ). Lydia DePillis, “Everything You Need to Know about the Trans Pacific Partnership,” The Washington Post, December 11, 2013, <www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-trans-pacific-partnership> (accessed May 26, 2015). Term coined by William L. Cary, Federalism and Corporate Law: Reflections Upon Delaware, 83 YALE L.J. 663 … Read more
Bloc That Trade
The old vision of economic integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has failed. Over the past decades, LAC countries have concluded more than 60 bilateral trade agreements, as well as formed a number of powerful trade blocs. But the region’s social, political and economic advances have not produced the productive integration that would … Read more
Ask the Experts: Trade is Back!
Antoni Estevadeordal answers: The June 2015 summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) made clear that countries on both sides of the Atlantic are thinking of ways to revamp their increasingly stagnant political and economic ties. While Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) exports to the EU … Read more
Cuba’s ‘Major Victory’ in the Fight against HIV
Lost in the fanfare surrounding President Obama’s plans to re-open the U.S. embassy in Cuba was an announcement that may prove even more significant for the island’s inhabitants. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that Cuba had become the first country to successfully eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and Syphilis. By the WHO’s … Read more
Paraguay’s Surprisingly Powerful Voice in Climate Negotiations
When Paraguay joined ranks with a group of fellow Latin American countries at the United Nations climate talks this month, the media scarcely noticed. After all, its coverage of the UN’s ongoing negotiations to deal with global warming tend to focus on more “dramatic” developments—spats between major powers and the glacial pace of negotiations. It’s … Read more
Mónica Araya
Mónica Araya is director of Nivela and Costa Rica Limpia. Follow her on Twitter: @MonicaArayaTica.
Business Innovator: Jose Kont
Every entrepreneur aims to reinvent the world, but José Contreras went one step further by reinventing his identity. The 28-year-old Guatemalan, who has brought a social media marketing technique called “neuromarketing” to companies in Central America, not only established a new firm called iLifebelt to promote it; he gave himself a new name. Under the … Read more
Endnotes: Decoding the Digital War
Below are the endnotes from “Decoding the Digital War” by Ellery Roberts Biddle (Spring 2015 AQ.) See data from “Cuba Profile, 2013,” International Telecommunication Union ICT-Eye, <www.itu.int/net4/itu-d/icteye/CountryProfileReport.aspx?countryID=63> (accessed April 10, 2015). “Country Profile: Cuba,” OpenNet Initiative, May 9, 2007, <opennet.net/sites/opennet.net/files/cuba.pdf> (accessed April 10, 2015). Larry Press, “Cuban Computer Networks and their Impact,” in Cuba in … Read more
Transitioning from a Washington Consensus to a Beijing Consensus?
In Latin America, it is difficult for a pledge of $250 billion in direct investment to go unperceived, especially when the money is coming from China. At the China–Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) forum in Beijing in January, Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that his country will continue to literally build its … Read more
Monday Memo: Colombia Peace Talks—Peru-Chile Spying—Citigroup Sale—Puerto Rico VAT—Chilean Corruption
This week’s likely top stories: Colombia and FARC agree to clear landmines; Peru recalls ambassador to Chile; Citigroup to sell Central American entities; Puerto Rico debates possible VAT; Chilean officials charged with corruption. Colombia and FARC to Remove Landmines: The Colombian and the FARC guerrilla group reached an agreement on Saturday to work together to … Read more
Vote to Decriminalize Marijuana Passes in Jamaica
A vote to decriminalize marijuana passed through Jamaica’s parliament Tuesday night and is expected to be signed into law by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen later this week. The law, approved by Jamaica’s Senate in February, will overturn the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1948, which punishes the possession, cultivation, selling, transporting, and smoking of “ganja,” the … Read more
María Fernanda Pérez Arguello
María Fernanda Pérez Arguello, originally from Costa Rica, is an intern at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and a graduate student at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Harsher Prison Sentences Don’t Curb Crime
By most statistical measures, Latin America’s mano dura (iron fist) approach to crime has failed. The tough sentencing policies and draconian prison regimes adopted by most countries in recent decades have had almost no evident impact on crime rates. Even as prison populations in the region have skyrocketed, soaring homicide rates have made Latin America … Read more
From the Think Tanks
Despite record economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2003 and 2010, the region has not yet succeeded in overcoming external constraints. In Regional Integration: Towards an Inclusive Value Chain Strategy, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) details how the rise of geographically defined value chains has made … Read more
Geothermal Energy Potential Unleashed at COP20
Debates about renewable energy rarely focus on geothermal energy, despite its impressive potential. However, this may be changing: on December 8, the Geothermal Development Facility (GDF) was launched during the UN climate change talks in Lima, Peru, mobilizing $1 billion towards geothermal development across Latin America. Geothermal reservoirs are located on tectonic plate boundaries or … Read more
