Related Papers
The Chávez Effect
Thomas Legler
Latin America and the Caribbean: U.S. Policy and Key Issues for Congress in 2012
2012 •
June Beittel
This report provides an overview of U.S. policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Obama Administration's priorities for U.S. policy and a brief comparison of policies under the Obama and Bush Administrations. It then examines congressional interest in Latin America, first providing an overview, and then looking at selected countries and regional issues and identifying key policy issues facing Congress in 2012. The final section of the report analyzes several upcoming events in the region in 2012 that could have an impact on developments in several countries or on U.S. relations with the region.
Latin America
Alan McPherson
Chapter 7 of Understanding the Global Community, edited by Suzette Grillot and Zachary Messitte
UNISA Latin American Report
Geo-economic Competition in Latin America: Brazil, Venezuela, and Regional Integration in the 21st century
2017 •
Guilherme Casarões
The institutional framework of Latin American integration saw a period of intense transformation in the 2000s, with the death of the ambitious project of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), spearheaded by the United States, and the birth of two new institutions, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). This article offers a historical reconstruction of regional integration structures in the 2000s, with emphasis on the fault lines between Brazil, Venezuela and the US, and how they have shaped the institutional order across the hemisphere. I argue that the shaping of UNASUR and CELAC, launched respectively in 2007 and 2010, is the outcome of three complex processes: (1) Brazil's struggle to strengthen Mercosur by acting more decisively as a regional paymaster; (2) Washington's selective engagement with some key regional players, notably Colombia, and (3) Venezuela's construction of an alternative integration model through the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA) and oil diplomacy. If UNASUR corresponded to Brazil's strategy to neutralize the growing role of Caracas in South America and to break apart the emerging alliance between Venezuela, Argentina, and Bolivia, CELAC was at the same time a means to keep the US away from regional decisions, and to weaken the Caracas-Havana axis that sustained ALBA.
Bulletin of Latin American Research
Canada and the Honduran Coup
2011 •
Todd Gordon
Bulletin of Latin American Research
Canada and the Honduran Coup of June 2009
2011 •
Jeffery R Webber
The purpose of this article is to expose the part played by Canadian imperialism in Honduras before and after the military overthrow of democratically elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, on 28 June 2009. It draws attention to the neglected role of the Canadian state’s efforts to protect the interests of Canadian capital in Honduras and Latin America more generally through the constant undermining of Zelaya’s attempts to return to his legitimate office, and in the ultimate consolidation of the coup under Porfirio ‘Pepe’ Lobo in early 2010. The article simultaneously develops a critique of what has become the standard account of the Honduran coup of 2009. We show how Zelaya was neither a puppet of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, nor an autocrat seeking to entrench his power indefinitely.
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The Inter-American Democratic Charter and Governmental Legitimacy in the International Relations of the Western Hemisphere
2009 •
Mikulas Fabry
ALBA and UNASUR – The Emergence of Counter-hegemonic Regional Associations in Latin America and the Caribbean
Paul Kellogg
Latin America and the Caribbean have been victims of more than 500-years of colonialism and imperialism. A key component of both colonialism and imperialism has been the denial of and/or distortion of sovereignty throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Neoliberalism has been but the most recent frame within which to continue this project. The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) was to have consolidated neoliberalism across the hemisphere, under U.S. hegemony. But the rise of massive social movements throughout the region, prevented the launch of the FTAA in 2005. This has not stopped the attempt to institutionalize neoliberalism. Both the U.S. and Canada have turned to bilateral deals as an alternative to the FTAA. However, we have also seen the creation of regional trade and investment associations independent of the United States and Canada. This paper will examine two of these – ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas) and UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) – and assess their impact as counter-hegemonic projects. The paper builds on earlier research published in New Political Science and forthcoming in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization.
Demise of the Inter-American Democracy Promotion Regime?
Thomas Legler
During the 1990s, the member states of the OAS constructed a new regime to protect democracy from threats of authoritarian reversals. The foundation of the regime was a set of international legal pillars, including the Protocolo de Cartagena de Indias (1985), Resolution 1080, the Washington Protocol (1992/1997) and the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC, 2001). It was put to the test on numerous occasions with varying results: Bolivia (2003, 2005, 2008), Ecuador (1997, 2000, 2005), Guatemala (1993), Haiti (1991–4, 2000–5), Nicaragua (2005), Paraguay (1996, 1999), Peru (1992, 2000), and, Venezuela (1992, 2002).
UNASUR
Stuti Banerjee, Dr Aparaajita Pandey
Regions have gained centrality in the post-September 11 international system. As a result, the role of emerging regional powers, such as Russia, China, India, and Brazil, in the face of the alleged decline in American power, has grown. Nonetheless, there remains speculation on the role of these regional powers and emerging global players in the construction and maintenance of international and regional orders and to what extent and in what ways will they change international politics. It is with this view in mind that this paper attempts to study the Union of South American Nations or UNASUR. The aim of the paper is to examine the accomplishments and challenges that are faced by the organisation.
