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.
The United Nations Human Rights Council opened this week, and on its agenda are the heated topics of Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Syria. The region has historically split in votes on these issues, with a majority, led by Argentina and Brazil, supporting the protection of human rights. On the other side, Cuba and Venezuela have helped to lead the movement to prioritize national sovereignty over the human rights.
Those who stoke fear every time an extra-hemispheric rival to the U.S. gains influence in the Western Hemisphere are missing the real challenges. While these “BackYardistas” exercise their Cold War reflexes over growing Chinese, Russian and Iranian influence in Latin America, the broader challenge is how those powers are remaking the global liberal order.
Across the hemisphere a majority of citizens support a greater role for the armed forces in domestic security—with over 80 percent of citizens in El Salvador, Honduras and Ecuador supporting the militarization of police duties. The policy, though, comes with huge risks. It also has not worked.
Latin American and the Caribbean have made incredible strides in electing women heads of state and in implementing gender quota laws for national legislative elections. But how well represented are women in current national congresses and parliaments? Not as well as you may think.
Beyond the economics of the 30 million Latin Americans living abroad, out-migraton from the region has also created a looming a political problem. Countries and societies are losing political and civic talent and leadership, precisely at a time when Latin America confronts complex, technical policy and economic reforms.
In defending the 2013 Constitutional Court decision that denied citizenship to undocumented Haitian immigrants and their children and now its documentation and deportation program, the government of the Dominican Republic has thumbed its nose at the international community, the regional human rights system and transnational activists. But now’s not the time to let up.
Since October, eleven journalists across six countries—two in Colombia, two in Honduras, three in Mexico, two in Brazil, one in Paraguay, and one in Peru—have been murdered, according to the Inter-American Press Association.
Using the data provided by the Human Rights Watch Votes Count website, we took a look at how Latin American and a few other countries on the United Nations Human Rights Council voted on issues relating to Syria.
When we started this website, the idea was to begin a broad discussion of Latin America’s emerging foreign policy and its implications for inter-American relations, economic development and democracy and human rights. Here is the outline for a book chapter I’m working on on the topic of Latin America foreign policy—part of a larger book project by New York University and, later, my own book. Here I post the precis for comments. Any and all are welcome—in the spirit of the website and public debate. (Please forgive any typos.) The goal is to provoke discussion. Your comments will help.
