At the end of July 2008, Ecuador formally notified the United States that it will not renew the United States' ten-year agreement to use the Manta air base as a "Forward Operating Location" when it expires in November 2009. The United States has therefore "officially" known of the need to find a new location for the air base for six months and "unofficially" has been aware of its potential closing since Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's election in 2006. Yet no final decision has been made about where to...
On the first full day of President Barack Obama's administration, newspapers throughout Latin America reported on the fanfare of the inauguration, the historical significance of the swearing in of the United States' first African-American president and the challenges that he must immediately confront. A few articles used the occasion to look at the future of U.S. policy toward the region and/or specific countries. Entire Region:...
Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held its hearing to confirm Senator Hillary Clinton's nomination as the Obama administration's Secretary of State. During the hearing, Clinton focused on such topics as the conflicts in the Middle East, energy independence, and more mundane issues like potential conflicts of interest with Bill Clinton's international foundation. The United States' relationship with Latin America got significantly less attention, but did manage to find a place in Clinton's opening...
Here is another contribution from CIP Intern Matthew McClellan on Monday's meeting between Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
On January 12, Barack Obama and Felipe Calderón met in Washington DC’s Mexican Cultural Institute. The Office of the President-Elect, in a January 8 press release on the change.gov website, noted that “There is a long-standing tradition…of U.S. Presidents...
At 1:00 p.m. today, President Bush will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, along with two former prime ministers: Tony Blair of the UK and John Howard of Australia. Many NGOs, including the Center for International Policy, Latin America Working Group, and the Washington Office on Latin America, have taken the opportunity to criticize Bush's decision to grant this award to President Uribe, describing it as "a disturbing example of the Bush administration's disregard...
During the past few weeks, we noticed a significant increase in discussion of defense budgets throughout the hemisphere. In most countries, defense spending is on the increase. Here is an overview of recent media coverage from CIP Intern Matthew Mcclellan. The combined defense budgets of South American states increased from US$39 billion in 2007 to US$50 billion in 2008. Most countries have become buyers in...