• Major disappointment over U.S. president’s and secretary of state’s meager perception on the importance of the region On March 19, President Barack Obama will embark on his first tour of selected Latin American nations since taking office two years ago. Stops on his trip will include Brazil, an emerging world power, Chile, a stable U.S. ally, and El Salvador, a Central American nation mired in an ongoing drug and anti-crime war. By strengthening...
As strife heated up in Libya by the end of February, rumors surfaced that long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela. While this development later proved to be inaccurate, it is worth mentioning that one of Gaddafi’s former cabinet ministers (now part of the opposition) suggested that the Libyan head of state should leave the country for Caracas in search of asylum. As the situation in Libya deteriorates and the opposition’s military deployment...
On February 21, 2011, Peru surprised the international community by formally suspending its diplomatic ties with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, insisting that they would not be restored until the violence against the civilian population was halted. While other Latin American nations responded in various ways to Gaddafi’s flagrant and erratic behavior, Peru is the lone hemispheric nation that has officially cut off relations with Libya. Peruvian President Alan García declared diplomatic links “suspended” as a...
News on the expiration of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) was surprisingly absent from the national media in recent weeks. The trade agreement, which was first enacted in December 1991, offered preferential duty treatment to goods and commodities exported from Andean region countries. The purpose of the ATPA was to encourage economic growth in the participating countries and divert dependence on the illegal drug trade which had been prevalent in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador,...
Stagnation, violence, corruption, arch-sectarianism, and unfettered crime—this is the heritage that President Bharrat Jagdeo will bequeath to his country. Now that Jagdeo has announced that he will not seek a third term in the upcoming August election, he may well ask, as a New York mayor once did, “How did I do?” The answer, in this instance, must be: “terribly.” Chosen by former President Janet Jagan to succeed her in office, and supposedly held...
