The Americas Archive

Colombian security forces are in demand internationally, with the United Arab Emirates seeking to hire 3,000 Colombian soldiers and Mexico and Honduras turning to Colombian security officials for advice on fighting crime. In an email interview, Elyssa Pachico, a researcher, writer and senior editor for InSight Crime, discussed Colombia’s status as a security exporter. WPR: How has the international profile of Colombia’s security forces changed over the past decade or so? Elyssa Pachico: In the 1990s, Colombia’s security forces were seen at best as unprofessional and at worst as totally corrupt. Right up until the implementation in 2000 of Plan […]

High levels of crime and violence have given Central America the inauspicious title of having the world’s highest homicide rate — about 10 times the world average. Reversing this trend will require collective, crossborder action and regional partnerships that include the private sector. Unfortunately, for this to be possible, the mechanisms needed to do so must be strengthened significantly. Statistics paint a grim picture of what lies ahead if meaningful cooperation is not taken soon. Honduras, the most violent country, registered 91.6 homicides per 100,000 people in 2011 — nearly triple the rate observed in 2004, according to the U.N. […]

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto ran on an agenda alien to many in his once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party: change. More specifically, Peña Nieto emphasized the need for structural reforms that many in the PRI have showed little enthusiasm for approving in recent years. But Peña Nieto says times have changed, and he has promised that an ambitious agenda of structural reforms will mark his presidency. He also insists there’s no going back to the past, when the PRI earned a checkered reputation for corruption and crony capitalism prior to losing power in 2000 after 71 straight years […]

In El Salvador, a dispute between the Constitutional Court and the National Assembly has led to two separate groups of judges claiming to be the country’s lawful Supreme Court. In an email interview, Linda Garrett, a senior policy analyst for El Salvador at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, discussed El Salvador’s constitutional crisis. WPR: What is the immediate background to El Salvador’s constitutional crisis? Linda Garrett: The confrontation between the Constitutional Court and a majority coalition in the legislature is as political as it is institutional, a reflection of the deep polarization that still divides El Salvador 20 […]

Though largely overlooked amid the coverage of Mexico’s deteriorating security situation over the past six years, outgoing President Felipe Calderón made noteworthy gains in Mexican foreign policy during his tenure. With the victory in Sunday’s presidential election of Enrique Peña Nieto marking the return to power of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 12 years, some might expect a shift in the country’s foreign policy agenda. In considering what Mexico and the world might expect from the incoming Peña Nieto administration, however, it helps to look first at the important developments under Calderón. Calderón’s first foreign policy challenge was repairing […]

In the past few decades, Latin America has emerged as the world’s unlikely laboratory for democracy. No other region has produced the sheer diversity of democratic configurations and permutations, including some that at times appear to undermine the very essence of democratic principles. The region that for so many years made news due to violence and authoritarianism is now an active workshop, tinkering with and sometimes transforming the shape of democracy. Latin America became the stage for the rise of iconic figures such as former Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to name just […]

More than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with most of the world’s attention having shifted to the threat of international terrorism, the Philippines and Peru are still struggling to pacify their countries’ communist insurgencies. Rather than fading into history, the Philippines’ New People’s Army (NPA) and Peru’s Shining Path have updated their rhetoric to reflect contemporary concerns in an effort to make their ideologies relevant to the “masses” in the post-Cold War era. The NPA and Shining Path, which were founded in 1969 and 1982, respectively, have not abandoned their discourse on Marxism and land reform, […]

The presidential election win by Mexico’s former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, has given birth to a vibrant youth movement opposing the new government. World News Videos by NewsLook

In Colombia and Nicaragua, officials are considering building transport links between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that are being framed as alternatives to the Panama Canal. In an email interview, Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a professor in the department of global studies and geography at Hofstra University, discussed the viability of alternatives to the Panama Canal. WPR: What are the feasible alternatives to the Panama Canal, and how do they compare in terms of cost to build and transit advantages? Jean-Paul Rodrigue: First, it is important to underline that there are no complete alternatives to the Panama Canal — that is, none […]

When the U.S. approached eight countries with the idea to expand the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it did not invite its North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, along. The exclusion of the two countries from what is being touted as potentially the most important economic bloc in the Pacific Rim was deliberate. The TPP seeks to liberalize trade by completely removing tariffs and other trade barriers, while also strengthening measures to protect intellectual property, two moves that Canada particularly had resisted within NAFTA. However, when the U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam join founding members Brunei, Chile, […]