Tag Archives: Diplomacy

Colombia on the International Stage

By Sebastian Chaskel | Published: March 7, 2012
Today, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos travels to Havana to meet with Cuban officials and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, currently convalescing in a Havana hospital. This hastily planned visit will last just a few hours,but the main item on the agenda holds broader regional significance. Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have pledged to boycott the [...]
Posted in Colombia, Cuba, Latin America, United States, Venezuela | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Brazil in Latin America: Emerging political risks?

By Eliot Brockner | Published: November 6, 2011
Simon Romero has written a solid article on the front page of yesterday’s NYT about how Brazil’s rise and activity in Latin America is creating diplomatic problems with some its regional neighbors. The article itself is worth reading in its entirety, as it points to an interesting trend in regional politics, but for brevity’s sake, [...]
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Ideas, not money, will make Central America safer

By Eliot Brockner | Published: June 24, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Panama, nicaragua | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reclaiming Brand Mexico

By Eliot Brockner | Published: June 13, 2011
Roberto Newell Garcia of the Woodrow Wilson Center has published a great report titled “Restoring Mexico’s Reputation.” The basic premise of Newell’s argument is that Mexico is facing a number of problems, but that the one that gets far and away the most coverage – organized crime/drug-related violence – is not necessarily the most important. Citing [...]
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US-LatAm Relations

By Eliot Brockner | Published: May 21, 2011
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 [...]
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Iranian Soft Power in Latin America: Yet Another Information Network

By Eliot Brockner | Published: May 17, 2011
Back in 2008, LatAmThought wrote about Iran’s presence in Latin America. The topic has generated significant interest in recent years, as the Islamic Republic has continued to strengthen ties with Latin American countries, particularly Venezuela, and remains a very real thorn in the side of any potential negotiations between the United States and many countries [...]
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The Media’s Role in International Diplomacy

By Eliot Brockner | Published: May 14, 2011
Two recent stories out of Latin America highlight some of the stranger ways the media plays a role in international diplomacy. The first is minor. Living in Peru blog has an article on a recent diplomatic dispute between Bolivia and Peru: “Bolivia’s Minister of Culture Elizabeth Salguero has requested clarification on the “plagiarism” of a Bolivian song [...]
Posted in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru | Also tagged , , | 2 Comments

From Partner by Default to Partner of Choice: Shifting US Policy in Latin America

By Eliot Brockner | Published: April 13, 2010
On March 26, US Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield said the US is close to signing bi-lateral military accords with two unspecified countries in Latin America. In October 2009, following a failed attempt to keep the details secret, the US and Colombia hastily announced a deal allowing US troops and advisors to use seven military bases [...]
Posted in Brazil, Panama, United States | Also tagged , , , | 1 Comment

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

By Dora Beszterczey | Published: March 26, 2010
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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Venezuelan-Colombian Relations at World Politics Review

By Eliot Brockner | Published: March 11, 2010
Diplomatic relations between Colombia and Venezuela have been at the front lines since a Spanish judge accused Venezuela of assisting FARC rebels on March 1, two years to the day after a raid by Colombian soldiers in Ecuador prompted one of the worst regional diplomatic disputes in recent memory. The accusations are hardly new; in fact, [...]
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