MEXICO CITY: The Summit of the Americas, which takes place roughly every three years, could be viewed as the sort of Latin American boondoggle that convenes heads of state for a few days, either south or north of the Rio Grande, to make endless (...)
MEXICO CITY: For Latin America, 2011 was, in Frank Sinatra's terms, a very good year — and 2012 doesn't look like being so bad either. For a region not always accustomed to things going well, this is a somewhat strange state of affairs.
Three (...)
MEXICO CITY: The role of the politically committed intellectual has a long and ubiquitous history. The Spanish-French novelist and screenwriter Jorge Semprún, who died recently, was for many years a member of the Spanish Communist Party's Central (...)
MEXICO CITY: US President Barack Obama's current swing through Latin America will probably be short on substance, long on rhetorical flourishes and symbolism, and may include a few announcements affecting American business in the region. More (...)
MEXICO CITY: Everyone these days, it seems, has their own favorite American diplomatic cable — or will soon — given that the 250,000 documents obtained by WikiLeaks include references to almost every country in the world. For Latin America, (...)
MEXICO CITY: The first round in Brazil's upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for Oct. 3, may turn out to be the only round. For outgoing President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva's hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, is very close to winning an (...)
MEXICO CITY: Three years ago this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderón donned military fatigues and declared a full-scale war on drugs, ordering the Army into Mexico's streets, highways, and villages. Back then, Calderón received broad support, (...)
MEXICO CITY: In early September, Colombia's biggest businesses surprised everyone by declaring their wholehearted support for the country's president, Alvaro Uribe, in his deepening conflict with Venezuela. If they lost the huge export market next (...)
MEXICO CITY: In El Salvador, for the first time ever in Latin America, a former political-military organization that tried to gain power through the barrel of a gun has achieved its aims through the ballot box. Although the Sandinista Front in (...)
MEXICO CITY: This month, Mexico's Felipe Calderón celebrates his second anniversary as president. Calderón took office in December 2006 under adverse circumstances. Elected with 35 percent of the vote, he lacked a majority in Congress, and the (...)
MEXICO CITY: Although many Americans believe immigration is a domestic issue that should be excluded from talks with other governments, this is not a view held by other nations - or by the United States. Indeed, the US negotiated its first (...)
MEXICO CITY: Not long after I took office as Mexico's foreign minister in 2001, a novel problem came across my desk. An Argentine naval officer who had resettled in Mexico under an assumed name was wanted by Spain on charges of genocide, torture, (...)
"The FARC are finished, no matter how many men and weapons they may still have.
Former Salvadoran guerrilla leader Joaquín Villalobos' lapidary conclusion about the Colombian narco-guerrilla movement is worthy of consideration, given his (...)
Fidel Castro's resignation from two of his three leadership posts, together with the appointment of his younger brother, Raúl, as his successor, marks the end of an era . sort of. Raúl replaced Fidel as President of the Councils of Ministers and of (...)
Among the many surprises during the Republican Party presidential candidates' debates a couple of weeks ago was the rekindled importance of immigration. After the failure of President George W. Bush's and Senator Edward Kennedy's comprehensive (...)