China has increased the sale of sophisticated weapons systems to Latin America and the Caribbean, mostly–though not exclusively–to countries opposed to the United States. With it has come other forms of military cooperation between China and its new customers. Should the U.S. be worried? If so, what can it do about it?
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.
Too often, U.S. and international coverage of the region falls into manic poles when covering the political and economic fortunes of the region. In reality, the developments in Latin America—and U.S. responses to them—are both more granular and more nuanced than the way the region is portrayed, even in respectable media.
