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192. Growing Pains in Latin America: An Economic Growth Framework as Applied to Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru
- Author:
- Liliana Rojas-Suarez
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Before the global economic crisis began in 2008, all countries in Latin America, long known as the world's most economically and financially volatile region, had experienced five consecutive years of economic growth, a feat that had not been achieved since the 1970s. Yet despite this growth, Latin America's incomeper-capita gap relative to high-income countries and other emerging-market economies widened, and poverty remained stubbornly high. Latin America, in short, suffered from growing pains even when things were going reasonably well.
- Topic:
- Economics and Emerging Markets
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru
193. Colombia's Crossroads: The FARC and the Future of the Hostages
- Author:
- Virginia M. Bouvier
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- This USIPeace Briefing discusses the condition of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), their hostages and the potential direction of this situation. The briefing stresses insights that key figures in the issue raised in recent visits to Washington, DC.
- Topic:
- Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States, Colombia, South America, Latin America, and Central America
194. Democracy, Parties and Political Finance in Latin America
- Author:
- Eduardo Posada-Carbó
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper tries to link the topic of political finance to the wider question of democracy and political parties in Latin America. By doing so, it aims at providing a conceptual framework within which the subject of political finance could acquire some centrality, hitherto missing in both the academic literature and current debates. The first section examines the extent to which, in spite of renewed democratic developments in Latin America during the last two decades, dominant views of democracy in the region continue to neglect and even undermine the significance of political parties and elections in the workings of democracy. This is followed by a discussion of how prevalent concepts of democracy can impinge on the course of political reform. Admittedly any attempt at establishing such a link is fraught with difficulties, and I only venture a few suggestions by looking at the debate among opinion makers and legislators regarding the prospects for political reform in a single country: Colombia. In the last section, I discuss how public funding—a trend visible in most Latin American countries, apparently adopted to fight corruption and to guarantee equality—may be affecting political parties and party systems in the region. A central, underlying assumption of this paper is that ideas are paramount in shaping the course of policy making, thus conditioning any process of political reform.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Colombia and Latin America
195. Colombia: Making Military Progress Pay Off
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Almost six years of intense security operations against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by the administration of President Álvaro Uribe are beginning to produce tangible results. Government forces killed several important rebel field commanders in 2007 and two members of the central command in March 2008, including second-in-command Raúl Reyes, and have severely disrupted insurgent communications, prompting a loss of internal cohesion and decreasing illegal revenues. However, this progress has come at the cost of severely deteriorating relations with Ecuador and Venezuela and increased risk of political isolation after the controversial bombing raid on Reyes's camp inside Ecuador. Military gains can pay off only if combined with a political strategy that consistently pursues a swap of imprisoned insurgents for hostages in FARC captivity, reestablishes much needed working relations with neighbours along borders and strongly advances integrated rural development to consolidate security and broaden Colombia's international support.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Politics, Regional Cooperation, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Colombia, Latin America, Central America, and Venezuela
196. Las autodefensas y el paramilitarismo en Colombia (1964-2006)
- Author:
- Pedro Rivas Nieto and Pablo Rey García
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- This paper studies the phenomenon of the Colombian paramilitarism from its formal emergence, in the sixties, up to its formal disappearance, in 2006. This analysis comprises the evolution and the relations with diverse social groups that constituted the paramilitary movements, specially ranchers, drugs traffickers and the Armed Forces. Special emphasis is given to the change produced among the “self-defence groups” -legitimate defence supported by the State- and the paramilitary groups, whose purpose in the beginning was to finish with the insurgency, but at the end both of them were dedicated to criminal activities.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Colombia, Central America, and Spain
197. Twenty-Five Years of Latin American Judicial Reforms: Achievements, Disappointments, and Emerging Issues
- Author:
- Linn Hammergren
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
- Abstract:
- In the democratic opening of the early 1980s, judicial reform appeared on the policy agenda throughout Latin America. Although such efforts were not new to the region, their virtually universal and nearly simultaneous adoption into policy was novel, extending even to the few countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela) without recent de facto regimes. The movement eventually incorporated the entire justice sector (“sector”) rather than the courts alone.
- Topic:
- Reform
- Political Geography:
- Colombia, Latin America, Venezuela, and Costa Rica
198. Trade Liberalization: Cordell Hull and the Case for Optimism
- Author:
- Douglas A. Irwin
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The news from Geneva of the breakdown of the Doha Round after seven years of effort has generated a great deal of pessimism about the future of multilateral trade agreements. America's troubles with the World Trade Organization (WTO) are of course only the beginning. There are also domestic problems when it comes to trade policy, an issue that ties together America's economic prosperity and its global political influence. Recent public opinion polls in the United States reveal increased skepticism about the benefits of globalization and diminished support for free trade policies. The post–World War II bipartisan consensus in favor of open trade has broken up, leading to gr eater resistance to new trade agreements in Congress, as reflected in the House's recent decision to postpone consideration of the Colombia free trade agreement (FTA). Despite efforts in the Doha Round to limit agricultural subsidies, Congress recently showered domestic farmers with more cash in the recently passed Farm Bill, even at a time when commodity prices are soaring.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- Geneva, United States, America, and Colombia
199. What Freedom Means
- Author:
- Carolina Barco
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free." This important and enduring quote of President John F. Kennedy represents the will and commitment to individual freedom by the Government of Colombia.
- Political Geography:
- Colombia
200. Uribe to the Rescue
- Author:
- Otto Reich
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- Council of American Ambassadors
- Abstract:
- When Álvaro Uribe was sworn in as President of Colombia in August 2002, the question in the minds of US policymakers was when, not whether, the Colombian government would fall into the hands of Marxist terrorists or right-wing paramilitaries. Some wondered if a military coup would come first. Terrorists operated with so little constraint that Uribe took the oath of office with bombs and rockets detonating outside the building he stood in, killing 19 civilians and injuring 60 more.
- Political Geography:
- United States and Colombia