The now-famous photograph of Barack Obama sharing a handshake and mile-wide smile with happy Hugo Chávez recalled to mind a visit years ago of Philippine strong man Ferdinand Marcos to The Wall Street Journal's offices in lower Manhattan
One measure of the political turmoil that has roiled Ecuador, the Colorado-sized country in the Andes, is its rapid turnover for presidents: eight in the last 13 years. So the recent reelection of Rafael Correa is a notable step toward a more mature democracy
The Summit of the Americas, held last weekend in Trinidad and Tobago, constituted an embarrassment for this hemisphere.
A capable but struggling democratic government needs more support from the United States.
Since Fidel Castro gave up power last year, the long standoff between Cuba and the United States has taken on the measured rhythms of a minuet, delicate steps from Havana met with restrained advances from Washington, each side hiding behind a pose of purpose that may mask their true intentions.
AT THIS weekend's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, President Obama can expect to be importuned by Latin American leaders to go further than he already has to remove U.S. sanctions on Cuba. Leading the chorus -- or trying to -- will be Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, who has been propping up the hemisphere's oldest dictatorship with petrodollars. But Mr. Chávez probably will be joined by some of the moderate leftists the Obama administration is trying to court, such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
THE CONVICTION of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for grave crimes committed by death squads under his authority is a victory for the cause of human rights and the rule of law. When a three-judge panel of Peru's Supreme Court delivered its verdict Tuesday, it told the world that an elected head of state may be extradited, given a fair trial in his own country, and held accountable for human rights abuses traceable to his command.
PRESIDENT OBAMA'S visit to Mexico and then his participation later this month in the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad, will be his first visit to Latin America, not only as president but ever. That he is making the trip during his first 100 days in office is an important statement to the region, especially given the economic crisis that rightly consumes his administration.
Latin America remains poor and backward not despite multilateral "assistance" but, in a large part, because of it. (May need to register)
AMERICA’S distorted views can have costly consequences, especially for us in Latin America. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Mexico this week is a good time to examine the misconception that Mexico is, or is on the point of becoming, a “failed state.”
Justice Department officials are believed to have pulled the plug on the nomination of Thomas Saenz, chief counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to head the department's civil rights division. Why? Apparently because of Saenz's past advocacy on behalf of immigrant rights.
As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares for her trip this week to Mexico, she needs to pack not only goodwill but a consistent U.S. position.
IT'S POSSIBLE to view the outcome of El Salvador's presidential election on Sunday as another lamentable victory for the Latin American leftist populism represented by Hugo Chávez. Mr. Chávez himself was quick to do so, and with some reason: His Venezuelan government has been a financial backer of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, the former guerrilla movement whose candidate, Mauricio Funes, won a narrow victory. But El Salvador's election was also a triumph for a system that Mr. Chávez has disregarded: liberal democracy. Seventeen years after the United Nations brokered a peace accord between the country's left and right -- and after four consecutive election victories by the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) -- democracy produced an inevitable and necessary alternation of power
For anyone who witnessed the horror show of El Salvador's 12-year civil war, the ballot-box victory of former leftist guerrillas there on Sunday was a stunning development. Though it took another 17 years after the war ended, the country now joins Northern Ireland in demonstrating that it is possible for a rebel group to effect political change and assume power through peaceful means. That's a gratifying development. We are especially pleased that the outgoing National Republican Alliance, or Arena party, chose to respect the results.
Those who planned to tear down the Republic of Bolivia to replace it with a utopian community or a confederation of native people had all the support necessary - human resources and the methods to achieve its goals. The starting point was to portray Bolivian society as if it was supported by Bolivia’s indigenous population
After a three-year stint as BBC South America correspondent, Daniel Schweimler reflects on his impressions of the country as he prepares to leave Buenos Aries.
I VISITED El Salvador in 1989, in the month before the infamous tipping-point killings by government forces of six Jesuit professors, their housekeeper, and her daughter. The war was in its ninth year, and the purpose of our delegation was to meet with representatives from both sides. I don't speak Spanish, but I heard the discrepancy between the language of those in power - the president and an Army colonel downgrading the "guerra civil" to "el conflicto" - and the savage stories told by everyone else.
WEEKLY death tolls may be something Americans associate with war zones like Baghdad, yet this is life within miles of the nation's southern border. Mexico has become synonymous with gun violence and drug trafficking, and the power of drug cartels has lately increased, causing a surge in violence. In 2008, 6,000 Mexicans were killed in gang warfare, twice the number of the year before, with another thousand deaths so far this year.
On a recent trip to Mexico, I asked a family friend -- a professor at the National University -- whether she thought the government was collapsing under the weight of the drug war, which has claimed close to 9,000 lives in the past two years, turned border cities into no-go zones and elicited comparisons between Mexico and Pakistan. "Collapsing?" she said. "It's finally picking itself up."
It is no surprise that the new administration of Barack Obama has been getting a lot of advice about how it should approach US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years. There is a sense of enormous opportunity to shape a more productive relationship between Washington and the region.
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