2007 Program Report

We are pleased to present this summary of the Inter-American Dialogue’s work in 2007.

This year, we welcomed Enrique Iglesias as the Latin America co-chair of the Dialogue’s Board of Directors, and Enrique García, Jim Kolbe, and Tom Mackell joined the Board. In May, Enrique Iglesias, secretary general of the Ibero-American General Secretariat, hosted the Dialogue’s Board in Madrid for its spring meeting, which was followed by a conference with European and other Latin American and U.S. leaders.

In 2007, Dialogue staff published a dozen articles and interviews in leading policy journals—Great Decisions, Current History, The New Republic, Foreign Affairs Online, and National Journal—which analyzed the policy choices facing the next U.S. president, what needs to be done to repair strained relations among the countries of the hemisphere, the rise of authoritarian tendencies in the region, and the lack of accountability in Latin American schools. They also published over 60 articles in newspapers, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, El Tiempo, Cambio, and O Estado de São Paulo—on topics ranging from the prospects of a ColombiaU.S. FTA, social turbulence in Peru, threats to press freedom, U.S. Cuba policy, China and Taiwan’s struggle for influence in the region, and the social and economic impact of remittances. Dialogue staff are regularly quoted by U.S., Latin American, and European newspapers and interviewed on television and radio.

The Dialogue’s social policy program released the report, Fair Growth: Economic Policies for Latin America’s Poor and Middle Income Majority, which presents a dozen “tools” meant to make life in Latin America more equitable for a majority of its people.

Other highlights of the year’s activities include the 11th annual Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) conference, which reviewed hemispheric political and economic trends, and evolving U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. This was widely agreed to be the best CAF conference overall—with more than 300 participants and featuring such speakers as Guatemala vice president Eduardo Stein, seven U.S. Congress members, a number of current and former cabinet officials from Latin America, IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno, and our co-sponsors, CAF president Enrique García and OAS secretary general José Miguel Insulza.

In 2007, the Andean Working Group met twice—once in Washington and again in Bogotá, Colombia. The Dialogue’s work on the Andean region analyzes the policy issues and choices confronting the region. Publications include a monograph on Hugo Chávez: A Test for U.S. Policy and an analysis of Latin America’s drug problem in Current History, both by Michael Shifter, as well as Working Papers by Colombian governor Antonio Navarro Wolf on Ending the Conflict with the FARC: Time for a New Course and by Chilean political leader and analyst Genaro Arriagada on Petropolitics in Latin America: A Review of Energy Policy and Regional Relations.

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