South America Archive

Bolivian President Evo Morales’ successful push to clear the way for a potential third term in office has reinforced the fears of many observers who, ever since he was first elected president in December 2005, have lumped Morales in with the wave of populist, anti-democratic leaders in Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Morales joined ALBA, the alliance of leftist countries assembled and underwritten by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; he engaged in the time-honored tradition of leftist “yanqui” bashing; and he has whittled away institutional checks and balances on executive power. But in important economic and political ways, Bolivia was and […]

As President Barack Obama learned during his whirlwind trip to Mexico in early May 2013, President Enrique Pena Nieto, like his predecessors, is eager to lessen his nation’s security, economic and trade dependence on the United States. During the visit, the U.S. chief executive discussed economic cooperation, education, border infrastructure, migration and the drug war. “We’ve done a lot of work with the previous Mexican administration on security issues and on economic issues. But sometimes the relationship gets characterized just as being about borders or just about drug cartels,” Obama told the Spanish-language network Telemundo. Proximity, joint assembly ventures, and […]

Over the past decade, Latin America has generally performed very well. Regional economic growth has been fairly robust, averaging 5.5 percent from 2003-2008 and bouncing back from the global downturn better than most experts anticipated. Politically, several countries have made important democratic strides, with Brazil and Mexico standing out. And in contrast to the wave of market reforms in the 1990s, when the Washington Consensus held sway, governments have sought to complement pragmatic approaches to economic growth with an increased emphasis on the social agenda and the inclusion of marginalized groups. Sound policymaking and deepening concern with social disparities have […]