The Organization of American States Shouldn’t Be Run by Regime Change Enthusiasts
Amid crises in Venezuela, migration, and the climate, the Western Hemisphere’s chief regional organization has been hobbled by pro-Trump leadership.
Articles by Laura Carlsen
Central American Women Are Fighting Extractive Industries on their Land—and Winning
The battle to stop the spread of extractive industries pits indigenous and peasant communities against powerful business interests, backed up by politicians who encourage the foreign investments that convert millennial ways of life into cash—for them
Obama Has Nothing to Gain by Propping Up Mexico’s Government
If Washington gives the Mexican president a pat on the back, it will be a stab in the back for the Mexican movement for justice and transparency.
At the UN, a Latin American Rebellion
Latin American leaders are reclaiming a right to differentiate their views from Washington’s—and refusing to render it diplomatic tribute.
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus
Without a doubt, the 68th UN General Assembly will be remembered as a watershed. Nations reached an agreement on control of chemical weapons that could avoid a global war in Syria. The volatile stalemate on the Iran nuclear program came a step closer to diplomacy.
What failed to make the headlines, however, could have the longest-term significance of all: the Latin American rebellion.
Mexico: From the “Perfect Dictatorship” to the Imperfect Democracy
Source: Americas Program
If Mexico’s electoral authorities confirm the preliminary vote, Mexico will have gone from a “perfect dictatorship” to an imperfect democracy,with the return to power of the party that ruled for 71 years almost without rivals.
The numbers reported by the preliminary system show that the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Enrique Peña Nieto, garnered 38.1% of the vote, followed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with 31.6%. The conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderón trailed at a distant third with 25.4%.
Honduras: When Engagement Becomes Complicity
Source: Americas Program
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Honduras on March 6 with a double mission: to quell talk of drug legalization and reinforce the U.S.-sponsored drug war in Central America, and to bolster the presidency of Porfirio Lobo.
The Honduran government issued a statement that during the one-hour closed-door conversation between Biden and Lobo, the vice president “reiterated the U.S. commitment to intensify aid to the government and people of Honduras, and exalted the efforts undertaken and implemented over the past two years by President Lobo.”