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Category Archives: Latin America
Stealing the Revolution from the Revolutionaries? Henrique Capriles Radonski’s Challenge to Chávez in Venezuela
To win an election against an incumbent who plays fast and loose with the rules but who also commands significant popular support, is it better to campaign through confrontation or mirroring?
In Venezuela, this is a key dilemma facing the opposition to President Chávez. The victory of Henrique Capriles Radonski, the 39 year-old governor of the [...]
New oil discovery reignites dispute over Falkland Islands, reins in U.S.
A recently-discovered offshore oil deposit that could contain more than 500 million barrels has reignited the dispute over the Falkland Islands’ sovereignty. Las Malvinas, as they are known in Argentina, lie 300 miles off the Argentine coast and were the scene of the Argentina-Britain Falklands War in early 1982.
With the approach of the 30th anniversary [...]
Why is Guatemala’s Ex-President Worried about his Genocide Trial? Ríos Montt’s Visit to the Attorney General’s Office
Note: This post originally appeared on The Council on Foreign Relations Latin America’s Moment blog. Read the original here.
Last Thursday, former de facto President of Guatemala during military rule, General (ret) Efraín Ríos Montt walked into the Attorney General’s office to ask whether they planned on trying him on ten-year-old war crime charges anytime soon. He [...]
Posted in Latin America Leave a comment
Carlos the Jackal: Thoughts on the Original Terrorist
Mentioning Ilich Ramirez Sanchez’ famous nickname brings up memories of the original terrorist’s most impressive feats, like the 1975 raid of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria. After the takeover of the meeting, in which three people died, he and his commandos flew their hostages to Algiers, and, eventually, an ex-Royal Navy pilot called Neville [...]
US households becoming more Latin American?
A major narrative in the US media (CNN, NYT, MSNBC, WaPo, just to name a few) these days is that of the ‘Lost Generation’, i.e. those recent college graduates who, unable to find jobs and saddled with debt, are returning to live at home after graduating college. A whole slew of articles has been written [...]
Ideas, not money, will make Central America safer
Boz has a great point about the fresh funding headed to Central America:
I think a lesson is that there is no amount of money that the US could put on the table and no amount of attention the US could give that would guarantee Central America’s success in fighting organized crime.
The US is not [...]
Also posted in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, nicaragua Tagged border issues, Diplomacy, drug war, Juan Manuel Santos, United States Leave a comment
Patagonian hydroelectric dams approved
The multibillion-dollar HidroAysén project has been given the final green light to build five hydroelectric dams in an untouched area of Chilean Patagonia. HidroAysén proposes to dam up two rivers at five locations, inundating 14,000 acres of wilderness to produce 2,750 megawatts of energy by 2020. The argument is a familiar one coming from a [...]
US-LatAm Relations
My apologies in advance: the last thing the world needs is another blog post on US-Latin American relations. With that out of the way, there really are some interesting developments going on that warrant mention.
The NYTimes reports on a recent private dinner between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and six former Latin American presidents. The [...]
Central America, crime, and what the Americas are doing about it
On 3 March 2009, The Wall Street Journal published an Op-Ed titled “In Praise of Mexico’s War on Drugs”. Although it was written nearly two years ago, it is still a highly relevant and recommended read.
A day later, LatAmThought wrote the following in response to the article
Bret Stephens’ commentary “In Priase of Mexico’s War on [...]
Also posted in Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, nicaragua Tagged Cartels, democracy, drug war, Organized crime Leave a comment
Colombia on the International Stage