South America

BelizeBoliviaBrazilChileCubaDominican RepublicGuyanaHaitiHondurasMexicoNicaraguaPeruPress ReleasesVenezuela

Pluralism Bursts into the Western Hemisphere

* While Russia, Europe and China are wooing Latin America and the Caribbean the Monroe Doctrine now becomes the "Putin, Zapatero and ChineseCorollary"

*Iran's increased presence in the region may lead to bad press, but for now only shows increased investments

* The "Great Game" of political and economic influence is set to be played in the southern hemisphere

No one is arguing that Latin America and the Caribbean have become a priority matter for international diplomacy, save for the U.S., which has witnessed a massive retreat of Washington's vigilance for what it once insisted were its longtime national interests and influence in the hemisphere. Concentrating on its "War on Terror" has resulted in a detour of the U.S. military and diplomatic corps to a series of sorties, like Afghanistan, Iraq, and now, likely enough, to Iran. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine is no longer relevant as nations like Russia, the People's Republic of China as well as the European Union (and its individual members) increase their influence in the Western Hemisphere. This penetration is due to the fact that numerous hemispheric countries are themselves looking to diversify their pool of allies and trading partners by contracting ties to other nations besides the U.S., with Venezuela being at the core of this movement.

Read More
BoliviaEcuadorPress ReleasesVenezuela

Bush’s Blast against Latin America’s “False Populism” May Be Getting It All Wrong

Politicians find it exceedingly difficult to explain free trade's virtues without drowning the listener in a torrent of common coinage. For a recent example of this, take President Bush's speech in Miami, designed to shore up flagging congressional support for pending free-trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia and Panama. Echoing those all-too-familiar Bush bromides, he insisted that approving these FTAs would fortify "freedom," strengthen "democracy," and increase "prosperity" in Latin America.

Read More
BrazilPress ReleasesVenezuela

Building a Global Southern Coalition: the competing approaches of Brazil’s Lula and Venezuela’s Chávez

To Our Readers

The following article, “Building a Global Southern Coalition: the competing approaches of Brazil’s Lula and Venezuela’s Chávez,” by COHA Senior Research Fellow Sean W. Burges, originally appeared in the Third World Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 7, 2007, pp. 1343-1358. From time to time, COHA issues to its extensive mailing list scholarly articles by members of its intellectual community. Their viewpoints and interpretations we feel are of importance and deserve to be presented to fellow Latin Americanists–even though they may on occasion be at variance on certain points with the viewpoint of COHA’s editorial board. We welcome submissions on regional issues, such as addressed here by Dr. Burges, or on other inter-American subjects of concern to other scholars and activists.

ABSTRACT. This paper will set out the two very different regional leadership strategies being pursued by Brazil and Venezuela, concluding that it is the Brazilian neo-structuralist vision that will have more success than the Venezuelan overseas development aid approach. The two different approaches to Latin American leadership point to substantive difference in how the regional system should operate in geopolitical and geo-economic terms, with the Brazilians favouring market-oriented system in opposition to Venezuela’s statist option. Contestation for regional leadership as set out in the article emerges as an early indicator of chilling of relations between Brazil and Venezuela and points to future scenario where other regional states may be able to play off contending would-be leaders.

Read More
ArgentinaBrazilPress ReleasesVenezuela

Lula Wants His Yellow Submarine

Nuclear-R-Us:
Is Brazil's proposed construction of a nuclear submarine the result of imperial ambitions
or a matter of diving to the depths of pandering politics on Lula's part?

  • Lula reignites the dream of the military junta: a Brazilian nuclear submarine.
  • Washington derides Iran's and North Korea's nuclear plans but mums the word when it comes to Brazil.
  • Is the Brazilian navy expecting to be attacked on the high seas by some far off land, or, is a new militarized geopolitical strategy being evolved by Brasilia, or, is Lula merely being pressured by his military to acquire this trophy weapons system which could cost the nation upwards of a billion dollars, yet do little to augment Brazilian security?
  • If Brazil goes ahead with its nuclear project, it may violate the spirit of the Treaty of Tlatelolco and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
  • Who is going to provide Brazil with the necessary technology and advice it needs in order to successfully develop a nuclear submarine? Russia or China? Or will it be Brasilia's new sister pact members India and South Africa, or perhaps Iran with which it has had a decade-long nuclear relationship. What will be the roles of the UN, IAEA and OPANAL?

On July 10, Brazilian President Inácio Lula da Silva announced his intention to fulfill one of the Brazilian Navy's ultimate dreams: to launch a nuclear-powered submarine.

Read More
ArgentinaBrazilPress ReleasesVenezuela

Argentina’s President Cristina

  • An important moment in Argentine History
  • Correct but cool relations with the Bush administration, but ties with a Hillarized Washington could be interesting
  • Cristina renowned as Argentina's Hillary, but without the edge
  • Argentine-Brazilian and Argentine-Venezuelan relations will be closely watched, but ties to Caracas are likely to be closer

Her relatively weak competition is beginning to sputter as Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner heads for an inevitable victory in Sunday's presidential election. Although her husband, current President Néstor Kirchner, has become somewhat derisively famous for his dour personality and harmless eccentricities, he repeatedly has proven himself to be a man of courage when circumstances demand it, like in standing up and being prepared to confront the military high command over the death-squad amnesty issue, financial elites and the notorious Peronist bureaucracy.

Read More