Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Peru today for the meetings of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which will be held in Lima. Her trip will also include stops in Ecuador, Colombia and Barbados, and she’ll already be back in the States on June 10 (Thursday). The trip has nothing to […]
According to the law of comparative advantage in economics, each country has production advantages in comparison to other states. Venezuela too, has its strengths. It produces more Major League baseball players per capita than most other countries. Along with Puerto Rico, it has won the most Miss Universe crowns over the past two decades. Venezuela […]
By Sean Goforth (co-author of the FPA Latin America blog) An editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post takes a swipe at American agricultural subsidies. The Obama administration recently agreed to pay Brazilian producers $147.3 million a year to resolve a trade dispute with the Brazilian government, after Brazil threatened WTO-authorized retaliatory tariffs because of unlawful cotton […]
Cuba moves political prisoners ‘closer to home’ (AFP) As projected by officials of the Catholic Church last week, today the Cuban government began moving dissident prisoners to facilities closer to their homes in a gesture of humanitarian regard for the connection of families. The Archbishop of Havana announced that six prisoners have been transferred thus […]
Cuba continues to wait for the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf to reach its shores—to foul the pristine clear waters that attract tourists and scientists to the island and are the pride of locals. The island, which remains largely untouched by the environmental ills of modernity, has such clean waters that […]
There are currently 340 US soldiers helping to secure the United States’ southern border. To that, President Obama has ordered an additional 1,200 national guardsmen to support border patrol agents. They will not be directly confronting undocumented immigrants, but they will be performing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, freeing up border agents. It is a […]
At this point, it is unlikely that anyone has missed word of Arizona’s new immigration law. SB 1070 was signed by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23 and is the nation’s toughest law on unauthorized immigration. For the month since its passing, the country and the hemisphere have been abuzz debating the controversial nature of […]
At the beginning of the month we discussed the opportunity that Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, would have in his May 20 speech before the Cuban American National Foundation—the opportunity to deliver the Obama administration’s first major statement on Cuba, and to say something new. May 20th has come and gone and […]
President Calderón was unusually bold in his visit to Washington last week. He pointedly criticized the Arizona immigration law as an affront to the “core values” of both countries. Speaking in English as his addressed Congress he said: “It is a law that not only ignores a reality that cannot be erased by decree but […]
Over the past year, the Obama administration has repeatedly answered criticism of its lack of progress on Cuba with the excuse that Havana has not responded in kind to any overtures Washington has tried to make (it has the distinct feel of the classic “he started it” argument). In fact, recent statements by top officials […]
Two days ago an investigative NPR report proposed that the war on drugs favors the Siñaloa drug gang, headed by the infamous ‘Chapo’ Guzmán. Arrests of suspected Siñaloa members account for about 12% of all gang-related arrests since 2006, on par with other major syndicates. (The Gulf Cartel has suffered the brunt of arrests, 44%. However, when […]
By Rich Basas (originally posted on FPA’s Latin America blog, here) The last summer created a great shift in the discussion on security and the nuclear issue worldwide. Protesters in Iran took to the street after a perceived action by President Ahmadinejad in fixing the elections in Iran to maintain himself in power with the […]
Early Saturday morning the empty truck of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was found at the gate of his ranch. There were no signs of a shootout, just a smattering of blood that matches Cevallos’ type on a pair of scissors that he was known to use to trim his beard. A logical suspicion is kidnapping. […]
Raúl Isaías Baduel, who once served as Venezuela’s defense minister, now faces an 8-year prison sentence after being found guilty on corruption charges. He has already been in prison for more than a year, pending the trial’s outcome. Baduel had resigned his position in the government three years ago over concerns about the regime’s direction, […]
By Sean Goforth (from a piece originally published by World Politics Review) Last week, Lula was informally tapped to mediate negotiations between Iran and the West over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly told his “brother,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, that Iran was prepared to accept Brazilian mediation “in principle.” […]