For United States citizens, policy developments in the Americas were always tied to the belief that the United States saw the region as their own geographical backyard. The ascent of the United States as a world power following the Spanish-American Wars and their relative economic stability compared to Europe following the First and Second World […]
Many pundits argue that the Summit of the Americas held in Cartagena, Colombia produced little worth celebrating. But for Afro-Colombians in the town of San Basilio de Palenque, the celebration hasn’t stopped, and rightfully so. During the summit, Palenque officially received a collective land title to more than 3,000 hectares of rural land, land they […]
“We must improve our cooperation with Haiti,” pleaded Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to his 32 American homologous partners attending the Sixth Summit of the Americas the weekend of April 14-15. Intervening on behalf of the earthquake stricken nation, Santos said rather than helping individually, countries should collaborate to maximize their impact on Haiti’s recovery. Haiti’s […]
While democracy struggles to take hold in Myanmar and the Maldives, last weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia raised some interesting questions about development and democracy in the Western Hemisphere. Events at the conference itself have been addressed elsewhere in FPA blogs (and here); I’d like to examine what the conference indicates about the […]
Often criticized for ignoring our Latin American neighbors, President Obama had been looking forward to the Summit of the Americas as an opportunity to engage in diplomacy and talk up trade deals. Instead, the summit was all but hijacked by what the media is calling the greatest scandal to ever rock the Secret Service. By […]
This weekend’s Summit of the Americas may not include representation from Cuba, but Cuba is by no means absent from the Summit. In fact, general policy toward the island appeared to be the most significant issue dividing the Hemisphere in advance of this weekend’s meetings: Latin American nations saw Cuba’s continued exclusion from the Summit as […]
Havana is not alone in its judgment that the Obama administration has not done enough in its first year to achieve rapprochement. Analysts have been voicing their dissatisfaction in connection with the end of year one: the Center for International Policy’s critique sums up the main complaints that have been circulating. Over-arching thesis: “Obama is […]
President Hugo Chávez is a fan of some books, and an opponent of others. In April of last year he made a very public presentation of Eduardo Galleano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, gifting it to President Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas. On the […]