International

Six months have passed since Barack Obama was installed in the White House. Not much time, but enough to observe changes and continuities in the United States relationship with Latin America. Prominent analysts have emphasized the changes. In his Le Monde Diplomatique column entitled "Positive Balance", Ignacio Ramonet argues that Obama has not made serious mistakes, maintains a high level of popularity and has fulfilled his main promises, including beginning a new era in relations with Latin America. […]

On June 23 while hosting Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, President Barack Obama was asked by a Chilean journalist whether he would apologize for Washington’s role in that country’s 1973 military coup which overthrew the democratically elected government and replaced it with a dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. […]

The conflict in Honduras has been an ongoing challenge for governments across the political spectrum in Latin America. In the years leading up to this tense and decisive event a number of leaders and social movements have pushed the region to the left. It is this regional shift that is the focus of The New Latin American Left: Utopia Reborn. […]

If the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti remains in power in Honduras, the Central American right may be encouraged to stage further coups against the fragile democracies that have emerged in the region over the last two decades, analysts warn. […]

When Barack Obama attended the Summit of the Americas, leftist Venezuela President Hugo Chavez wanted to shake his hand, the right-wing president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, asked for his autograph and the anti-imperialist book Open Veins of Latin America made an unlikely journey to the White House. What does the April Summit of the Americas say about the past and future of U.S.-Latin American relations? […]

Of all the memorable statements coming out of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad this weekend, the one that stood out the most for me was President Barack Obama’s public expression of how he intended to approach his first major meeting with his hemispheric counterparts.

"I have a lot to learn and I’m very much looking forward to listening," the president said in his opening address. […]

After Bolivia beat the Argentine soccer team led by legendary Diego Maradona by 6 to 1, Maradona told reporters, "Every Bolivia goal was a stab in my heart." Bolivia was expected to lose the April 1 match as Argentina is ranked as the 6th best soccer team in the world, and Maradona enjoys godlike status among soccer fans. This story of David and Goliath in the Andes is just one of various events shaking up the hemisphere. […]

Barack Obama’s rise to the U.S. presidency has left most Latin Americans suspended between skepticism and hope. That’s bound to make the V Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, to be held on April 18 and 19, especially interesting. […]

The new documentary Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas proves that democracy can and should be more than casting a ballot every four years. This empowering film gives hopeful and concrete examples from around the Americas of people taking back the reigns of power and governing their own communities. […]

The ideology that emanates from the international finance organizations maintains that the poor suffer from a "lack" of resources, that poverty is a scourge to be combated, and that the best method of doing so is to "help" the poor. On the other hand, the priests that live among the poor believe that it is more important to learn from them. […]