Tag Archives: democracy

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 [...]
Posted in Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Panama, nicaragua | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Merida 2.0: A New Phase in U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation

Responding to a growing sense that an exclusive focus on a military-led fight against drug trafficking organizations is failing to curb violence on the other side of our southern border, the United States and Mexico formally announced a shift in their counternarcotics strategy that had been in the works since the fall of 2009. The “new stage” in bilateral cooperation will aim to strengthen civilian law enforcement institutions and rebuild communities crippled by poverty and crime.
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Honduras should open our eyes to discontent with democracy in the region

Within 48 hours of the coup in Honduras, much has been written about what this means for Latin America, with the best analysis acknowledging that the coup breaks with the democratic constitutional order, but also that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya threatened democracy in his campaign to perpetuate himself in power. Chris Sabatini from the Council [...]
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A Silver Lining in the Cloud

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 [...]
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Do Colombians Care About Democratic Values and Human Rights?

Recently released Gallup opinion data on Colombia received media attention because it is the first to show that if President Uribe were not to run again for the presidency and the elections were to take place tomorrow, Sergio Fajardo and Juan Manuel Santos would be toe to toe for the presidency. However, the data has [...]
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