Militarizing the Police Undermines Democratic Governance

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.

Read More »

How does the region stack up in women in political power?

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.

Read More »

Should I stay or should I go? Latin America’s familiar story

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.

Read More »

The deportation of Haitian-Dominicans

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.

Read More »

A continent in silence

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.

Read More »

The new and not-so-new foreign policies in the Americas

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.

Read More »
Scroll to Top