INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT

Latin America: The New New World

Is Latin America doomed to be ruled by caudillos? Does political turmoil in Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador mean that Latin America’s democratic revolution has run its course? How important are regional trading blocs? Whatever happened to "Liberation Theology"? Whither Cuba after Fidel Castro?

Edited by Roberto Guareschi who was the managing editor of the newspaper Clarín in Buenos Aires for 13 years. He is currently a writer and university lecturer. These monthly commentaries make Latin American affairs comprehensible to a global public.

RECENT COMMENTARIES

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

Chile Stays the Course

Carlos Gervasoni Series: Latin America

2010-02-08

When Sebastián Piñera – the moderately conservative tycoon who was recently elected president – takes office on March 11, Chile will experience what some political scientists consider a watershed in every successful transition to democracy: the rotation of power among political parties. But, in substantive terms, Piñera represents continuity more than he does change.... read

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Latin America’s Military Factor

Juan Gabriel Tokatlian Series: Latin America

2010-01-12

Although the global economic crisis did not affect Latin America as dramatically as it did other regions, the continent's political and institutional weaknesses and perils worsened. The greatest cause of concern is that the military question – supposedly resolved after the transition to democracy, the end of the Cold War, and efforts to achieve regional integration – has reappeared. ... read

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Swimming With Sharks in Mexico

Denise Dresser Series: Latin America

2009-12-08

As the saying goes: when the tide goes out, you find out who has been swimming naked. Few countries have emerged as naked from the receding waters of the global economic crisis as Mexico.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 2525

Will Success Spoil Brazil?

Arthur Ituassu Series: Latin America

2009-11-09

Brazilian democracy, at long last, is working well, following many years of military government, and its economy seems more robust than ever. But two connected and major challenges lie ahead for Brazil and its government: the need to build a far more equal society and to resist the temptation to use nationalism to mask whatever domestic failures may manifest themselves.... read

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Chile’s Presidential Minuet

Carlos Gervasoni Series: Latin America

2009-10-08

In Chile's upcoming presidential election, continuity will vie with prudent change. Even if the “outsider” candidate wins, Chile will in all likelihood remain a beacon of democratic stability, economic dynamism, and international engagement in a region too often characterized by political and economic turbulence.... read

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Yankee Bases Go Home

Arthur Ituassu Series: Latin America

2009-09-08

A recent military agreement between the US and Colombia may not change much in terms of the presence of US forces in Latin America. But the timing of the agreement was terrible, fueling support for demagogues like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and undermining Brazil's government and other moderate forces.... read

Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 4577

Social Democracy Lives in Latin America

Jorge Lanzaro Series: Latin America

2009-08-10

While leftist governments are ascendant across Latin America, strident populists in Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador seem to get all the attention. But in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, social democracy is proving not only to be popular, but also that it can work.... read

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The Caesar Temptation

Juan Gabriel Tokatlian Series: Latin America

2009-07-01

For most of the nineteenth century and well into the Cold War era, re-election of a sitting president was generally prohibited in most Latin American countries. Nowadays, however, the victory of presidential incumbents across Latin America has become the predominant trend in the region’s elections. ... read

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Failing states in Central America

Simon Whistler Series: Latin America

2009-06-08

When the US Defense Department produced a report in December naming Mexico as one of two countries (along with Pakistan) at risk of rapidly becoming a failed state, its findings were, predictably, rejected in many quarters. In fact, the authors may have gotten their analysis right, but should have looked farther south, to Central America. ... read

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Why Mexico is Sick	Denise Dresser
Mexico’s problems run deeper and are more widespread than swine flu. Over the past ten years, political and economic actors intent on preserving the status quo have blocked further democratic change and economic reform, condemning Mexico to move sideways, even as other emerging markets surge ahead.... read

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The Mugabe of Latin America

Carlos F. Chamorro Series: Latin America

2009-02-10

Daniel Ortega unintentionally inaugurated an era of electoral democracy in Nicaragua when he lost power in 1990. Now, two years into his presidential term, Ortega's Sandinistas stand accused of rigging the country' local elections in order to ensure the adoption of a constitutional amendment that will allow him to run again.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 9266

The Power of Cuba's Powerless

Lydia Chavez Series: Latin America

2003-09-24

A little more than a year ago, poet and journalist Raúl Rivero Castañeda wrote that he refused to let America's embargo against Cuba define the international debate over the fate of the island's 11 million people. "In this country, the real blockade, the one that affects the daily life of the people is the internal governing system," he declared. Since then, Rivero has endured his own private blockade. ... read

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Homophobia in Mexico

Marina Castaneda Series: Latin America

2003-06-16

It never fails. After I've given a lecture or a course on homosexuality, explaining at length why it can no longer be considered an illness, the questions are always the same: "What are the symptoms?" "Can it be cured?" "How can one prevent it in one's children?" Even, occasionally, "Is it contagious?" ... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17620

Latin America at a Crossroads

Raúl Alfonsín Series: Latin America

2006-01-01

Last year witnessed a decisive turn in Latin America. A growing number of countries in the region now seem determined to pursue their interests regardless of what the United States desires.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17272

Latin America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

Denise Dresser Series: Latin America

2005-07-29

In Latin America, many people live with outstretched hands. Throughout the Hemisphere, paternalistic governments accustom people to receiving just enough to survive instead of participating in society. Across the region, politicians that writer Octavio Paz once referred to as “philanthropic ogres” create clients instead of citizens, people who expect instead of demand.... read

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Latin America’s Education Deficit

Sebastián Edwards Series: Latin America

2005-08-17

China’s decision to end its decade-old policy of pegging the Yuan to the dollar has been greeted in Latin America with enthusiasm and optimism. It is argued across the continent that a more flexible exchange rate for the Yuan will reduce China’s unfair advantage in international markets. This, we are told, will make Latin America’s exports of manufactured goods more competitive internationally.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15588

Will the US “Lose” Latin America?

Sebastián Edwards Series: Latin America

2005-11-06

On November 4-5, the fourth Summit of the Americas took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The heads of state of the hemisphere’s democratic countries met to discuss economic, political, and social issues – and to lose another opportunity to create a new and healthier relationship between the United States and its Latin American neighbors. ... read

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The Gangs of Central America

Jose Miguel Cruz Series: Latin America

2005-05-10

Central America’s presidents recently met in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to devise a united policy to deal with the region’s rampaging street gangs. Honduran President Ricardo Maduro, himself elected on a campaign slogan of Zero Tolerance, summed up their collective wisdom: “The gangs have internationalized and we are going to respond with force, with a strong hand.” ... read

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Pinochet’s Trial, Chile’s Dignity

Jorge Arrate Series: Latin America

2005-01-05

The court battle on whether or not to punish former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is now over. After prolonged reflection on medical reports regarding Pinochet’s health, Judge Juan Guzmán found him mentally fit to stand trial on nine counts of kidnapping and one count of homicide. Chile’s Supreme Court has now upheld that indictment. All of those crimes were committed during "Operation Condor," a Latin America-wide program among the continent’s dictators to physically eliminate their opponents on the left.... read

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Latin America’s Forbidden Debates

Dante Caputo Series: Latin America

2005-02-05

Twenty-five years ago, only Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela were reasonably stable Latin American democracies. Today, what might be considered electoral democracies are found throughout the region. Indeed, at no time since independence has there been such a proliferation of democracy in Latin America.... read

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Rescuing the Amazon Forests	Vinod Thomas
Developing countries are blessed with some of the world’s most precious natural resources. But that blessing can also be a curse – and not just for oil-rich countries, with their distorted economies and politics. ... read
Reincarnating Evita	Roberto Guareschi
If myths could come true through sheer willpower, Cristina Kirchner, the wife of Argentine President Néstor Kircher, would already be a 21st-century Evita Perón. But myths are a collective and mysterious construction. Otherwise, they would be for sale. ... read

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