The Washington Post & the OAS Secretary General
The OAS needs to be reformed, but the changes need to emerge from accurate analysis of the problems confronting both Latin America and the OAS.
On May 11, Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, participated in the event "Electoral Trends in Latin America: Democratic Renewal or Political Instability?" organized by WorldDenver and moderated by Anna Alejo.
During the event, Shifter discussed Latin America's packed electoral calendar in 2021 and 2022. Presidential elections this year in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and next year in Colombia and Brazil – together with critical legislative elections, recently in El Salvador, and upcoming in Mexico and Argentina – are expected to reveal political trends in a region facing economic, social and health crises of historic proportions. During the event, Shifter also discussed US-Brazil relations, the role of China in the region, and the outlook of the Biden administration towards Latin America.
The OAS needs to be reformed, but the changes need to emerge from accurate analysis of the problems confronting both Latin America and the OAS.
By all accounts, Spain wants to bring change to the European Union’s Cuba policy. In so doing, it is tackling a foreign policy challenge that often sheds more heat than light.
Although politics has cyclical features, and ideology is sometimes a factor in choices made by Latin American voters, the left-right labels obscure more than they illuminate.