Category Archives: Latin America

The point(lessness) of defining the LA Left (and Right)

By Michael McCarthy | Published: March 16, 2010
What need is there for defining concepts like Left and Right in a region dominated by the ongoing dual transition to markets and liberal democracy—pace the rise of some “socialist” governments? This question has been answered hubristically—there is no need to define them because there is more meaningful ideological debate! (Fukuyama, 1989)—and seriously—we need to [...]
Posted in Latin America | Leave a comment

Broad Regional Integration or a Case-by-Case Basis?

By Eliot Brockner | Published: December 3, 2009
The AQ blog recently published an excellent article analyzing the effectiveness and utility of broad, multinational coalitions in the Americas: This is not to call for unilateralism or a rejection of international norms at the expense of alliances and partners.  What it does point to is a more limited, pragmatic agenda: engaging on specific, discrete issues with [...]
Also posted in Panama, United States | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Violence in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil’s Image Gap

By Eliot Brockner | Published: November 5, 2009
Though we were a bit slow on the uptake, LatAmThought recently published an article on World Politics Review analyzing the impact of the internationally-newsworthy violence in Rio de Janeiro during the weekend of 17 October 2009. The article analyzes the “image gap” between Brazil’s emerging status as a global leader and harsher domestic realities and looks at [...]
Also posted in Brazil | Leave a comment

“Tres Perguntas a…LatAmThought”

By Eliot Brockner | Published: August 23, 2009
The Portuguese Daily Economico recently asked on our open forum to answer a few questions regarding the comments made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the week of 10 August about “winds of war” blowing in the region. Below is the response to those questions:  1. How do you interpret the declarations of president Chávez about [...]
Also posted in Colombia, Venezuela | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Honduras is unique, but not alone

By Eliot Brockner | Published: August 7, 2009
More than a month on, the 28 June coup in which Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly removed by the Honduran military has morphed into an internal power struggle being carefully brokered by international mediators. The situation in Honduras remains precarious for a slew of reasons that have been widely reported and analyzed from all ends [...]
Also posted in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras | Leave a comment

A Silver Lining in the Cloud

By Eliot Brockner | Published: June 29, 2009
Mounting political tensions in Honduras finally spilled over on 28 June 2009, the day the nation was set to vote on the “cuarta urna“, a proposal from back in March that, if successfully passed, would have allowed for Hondurans to vote to change the constitution to allow incumbent President Manuel Zelaya to run for re-election [...]
Also posted in Honduras | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

LASA: Reflections on Blogging on Latin America

By Sebastian Chaskel | Published: June 21, 2009
I very much enjoyed Eliot’s last blog entry on news sources and how they’re suffering from, or at least needing to adapt to, the massive flow of news and analysis that now occurs online. As I read it I could not help but think of the role that blogs like this one and others are [...]
Posted in Latin America | Leave a comment

“If it exists in the microwave, we’ll cook it”

By Eliot Brockner | Published: June 16, 2009
Readers be warned: This is another post that talks about the newspaper industry. Most (if not all) bloggers are inherently news junkies, so this should hardly come as a surprise. Yet I was hesitant to write about this topic given the breadth and depth of quality (and not so quality) arguments happening online and in print about the [...]
Also posted in Brazil | Tagged , | Leave a comment

LASA: Some thoughts on security in Brazil and Central America

By Sebastian Chaskel | Published: June 12, 2009
The Latin America Studies Association (LASA) bi-annual conference is taking place in Rio de Janeiro this year. With over 5,000 participants, it is supposed to be one of the largest LASA conferences ever. However, there have been many no-shows, mostly due to the financial crisis, and the book fair was canceled—apparently because publishers found it [...]
Posted in Latin America | Leave a comment

US-Brazil relations

By Eliot Brockner | Published: May 27, 2009
While much of the media attention in the following days is sure to focus on Obama’s appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina woman to join the Supreme Court, another suspected Obama appointment in the coming days may prove pivotal to the direction of US-Latin American relations. On 26 May Southern Pulse reported that Thomas Shannon, current [...]
Also posted in Brazil, United States | Tagged | Leave a comment