The new OAS Secretary General’s swearing-in speech should give us hope, not just because he talked about the OAS’s role in defending human rights and electoral transparency and inclusiveness, but also because of who he is and Uruguay’s principled position in the hemisphere. His first test will be the Venezuelan legislative elections.
Can the new Secretary General of the Organization of American States save the region’s only pan-regional multilateral institution? The editor of LatinAmericaGoesGlobal.org, Chris Sabatini, discusses with @JuanCarlosLopez of CNN-E the new Secretary General Luis Almagro’s challenges and possibilities for staking out a new role for the OAS in a divided region where there are a lot more competitors for regional cooperation.
Given Latin America’s woefully inadequate infrastructure, China’s plans to invest in roads and rails is a welcome opportunity. The question becomes, though, under what conditions for bidding and procurement and the protections for community land rights.
Even if you don’t agree with the Venezuelan opposition’s call for “la salida” of President Maduro, leaders like Leopoldo Lopez, now in prison almost 15 months, still have the right to demand the resignation of a president–a right Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff rightly supported in her country. Here’s his parents’ story.
The negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership should force a serious discussion of the goals of U.S. bilateral development assistance in the region. As U.S. policy invests more to promote trade integration and link it to global geo-strategic goals, it’s time to think about how to recast development assistance to help countries participate and compete in these new trade agreements.
When Alberto Nisman announced that he had evidence that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Alfredo Timmerman had conducted secret negotiations with the Iranian government to absolve key Iranian officials in the AMIA bombing it wasn’t difficult to believe. Granted, the evidence wasn’t that strong, but the plan announced in 2013 to create a Truth Commission with Iran to investigate the bombing always seemed a little suspicious.
The effectiveness and fate of President Barack Obama’s December 17, 2014, executive actions to alter elements of the U.S. embargo on Cuba will ultimately depend on how the regulations are written and interpreted in the Treasury and Commerce departments. Let’s hope the regulators in those departments follow the spirit of the President’s actions.
There’s still a long way to go before Cuba and the U.S. establish full diplomatic relations.
In the midst of an economic crisis , can Chavismo in Venezuela survive without Chavez?
At the Turn of the 21st Century, Latin American Nations Made Commitments to Defend Democracy. Those Days Are Gone.
