Name-calling among Latin America’s leaders has reached the level of schoolyard smears and taunts, but with far more significant implications. It has resulted in recalled ambassadors and crumbling diplomatic relations. And it has made the longstanding dream of regional integration seem more distant than it has been in decades.
South America
Last month, Colombia announced it will apply for BRICS membership, and Argentina formally requested to become one of NATO’s global partners. Ten years ago, both of those statements would have sounded absurd. But while they are a sign of Latin America’s changing diplomatic alliances, it would be a mistake to read too much into them.
The regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will probably remain in power after elections scheduled for late July. But the past few weeks have been unusually positive ones for Venezuela’s opposition. The faintest glimmers of optimism have begun to appear due to events unfolding in ways that have caught the Maduro regime off guard.