Articles
Has the Obama Administration Finally Discovered Latin America?
President Barack Obama is sending Vice President Joe Biden on a swing through Brazil, Colombia and Trinidad & Tobago later this month. Which means two things:...
In Latin America’s Second Largest Rainforest, an Indigenous Tribe Fights for Its Land
Deep inside the verdant expanse of Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve—the western hemisphere’s second largest rainforest—a group of Mayangna indigenous...
Why Latin America’s Homophobic Leaders Should Stop Their Gay-Bashing
We tend to think of mean-spirited homophobia as the political purview of right-wing conservatives. But Nicolás Maduro showed us that, in Venezuela at least, it...
Why the Election of Pope Francis Is Important for Latin America
From the moment Spain’s first boat arrived on the shores of the Western Hemisphere, the Catholic Church’s influence permeated the region, and its longstanding...
Latin America Would Like a Latin Pope, Odds Slim
(MEXICO CITY) — Latin America is home to the world's largest Roman Catholic population, but hopes that the next pope will come from the region appear faint,...
Santiago Summit: Can Latin America Now Lecture Europe About Economics?
Latin America brings historic confidence to its economic summit with the battered EU in Chile this weekend, but its own precarious problems lie just beneath the...
U.S. Marijuana Laws Ricochet Through Latin America
President Obama has yet to deliver a clear response to the November decision by Colorado and Washington to legalize recreational marijuana use -- asked whether...
Tale of Two Corruptos: Brazil and Mexico On Different Transparency Paths
Mexico complains, often rightly so, about being overshadowed by Brazil, but Transparency International's corruption index is a potential reminder of why one...
How Latin America May Lead the World in Decriminalizing Drug Use
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has never soft on crime. The 30-year military veteran rose to power last year on the wings of his law-and-order platform,...
Impeachment of Paraguay’s President Reveals Underlying Injustice in Latin America
Paraguayans felt unusually hopeful in 2008 when they elected the former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo as President. It ended 61 years of rule by the...
Obama and Romney Finally Court Latinos – and Latin America
It’s a doleful time for Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who leaves office in five months. Thanks to a bloody drug war and a limp economy that only now is...
Beyond the Secret Service Scandal: Why the Americas Summits Matter
In the summit’s wake – after a U.S. Secret Service scandal involving 11 special agents, some Cartagena prostitutes and a reportedly loud disagreement between...
Mexico Takes Deserved Bows (and Some Boos) at the World Economic Forum in Puerto Vallarta
Argentine President Cristina Fernández did Mexican President Felipe Calderón a big favor this week when, on April 16, she expropriated the Argentine holdings of...
Legalizing Marijuana: Why Joe Biden Should Listen to Latin America’s Case
It started last summer, when it seemed that Mexican President Felipe Calderón had understandably reached the end of his rope. After 52 innocent people were...
Ahmadinejad Goes on Tour: What’s Iran’s Agenda in Latin America?
In 2006, the same year Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called then U.S. President George W. Bush “the devil” at the U.N., Chávez and his oil-rich, anti-U.S...
Is Latin America’s Boom Over? A Pall, Personal and Economic, Falls Over a Regional Summit
A pall was cast over the summit of Mercosur nations in Uruguay this week when Iván Heyn, Argentina’s Undersecretary for Foreign Trade, was found dead, hanged...
Not So Apocalypto: What the Mayan Calendar Tells Us About Latin America in 2012
My friends Nancy and David Orr own a gorgeous bed-and-breakfast in San Cristóbal, Mexico, called the Casa Felipe Flores – and you better book early if you want a...
Latin America's CELAC Summit: A Definitive Rejection of the U.S.?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez brands himself the standard bearer of all things revolutionary in Latin America – including the Community of Latin American &...
