U.S. security policy is not providing security for most of Latin America’s citizens. U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere should be based on the common interests, which today include peace, security, economic prosperity, diplomatic cooperation, and the right of each country to choose its own inclusive political system–along with all the attendant human and political rights.
One of the legacies President Barack Obama will leave to his successor is increased foreign policy leverage in Latin America. Nowhere is this more evident than in U.S. policy toward Cuba and Venezuela—and because of those two countries with the rest of the hemisphere.
Sen. Marco Rubio has blocked an important diplomatic nomination over a dispute involving Cuba, putting a petty grudge over U.S. national interest.
Forget about Sean Penn. The capture of El Chapo demonstrates the competence of the Mexican armed forces and the progress made in years of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico. But at the same time cartels have also started to collaborate and consolidate, raising new challenges for both partners.
Even in Latin America, a region often thought to share the same democratic orientation and values of the U.S. and Europe, there are some striking differences among groups of countries regarding supporting norms and practices on human rights internationally, with some countries lining up more with autocratic countries of the Global South.
Despite legal setbacks in Peru and El Salvador and retrograde rhetoric from the newly-elected President of Guatemala and the Catholic cardinal of the Dominican Republic, overall LGBT civil, human and political rights continued to make gains across the region.
This week’s stats shot measures equal protection of laws and lack of discrimination across the region. Equal treatment does not improve with increasing development.
A week before the Donors’ Summit in San Salvador I was able to catch up with Kathy Hall of the Summit Foundation. In a wide-ranging interview she discusses the failures of governments in Central America to provide for the younger generation, the need for the U.S. to condition its assistance to local governments meeting their own commitments, and the moral obligation of donors to collaborate and ensure greater transparency.
We’ve called this website “Latin America Goes Global,” but just how global is Latin America, really? Here, we back it up with some numbers on how the region and its individual countries have become players on the global stage, politically, economically and culturally.
Should Latin America continue to put all its eggs in the commodity basket hoping for a return of the good times? Of course not. The region must diversify its economic base to focus on manufacturing and services as well. In the meantime, the agricultural sector needs greater unity across the sector to improve productivity, efficiency, and innovation.
