February 2012
Mexico’s Big, Inherited Challenges
by Pamela K. Starr
“The 2011 election…will take place amid popular disappointment with Calderón’s presidency and a widespread perception that it has left the country worse off than it was five years ago.”
Grown in the Cone: South America’s Soybean Boom
by Mariano Turzi
“As climate constraints and demographic imperatives make food security an ever more critical issue, agricultural resources may become the new linchpin in international relations.”
The Shifting Landscape of Latin American Regionalism
by Michael Shifter
“Brazil’s rise, coupled with the diminished influence of the United States and the increasingly salient global role of China, has reshuffled the kaleidoscope of regional organizations. . . .”
Rio Tries Counterinsurgency
by Robert Muggah and Albert Souza Mulli
“There are uncanny similarities between Rio de Janeiro’s pacification strategy and ongoing counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
Can Santos’s Colombia Turn the Page?
by Sebastian Chaskel and Michael J. Bustamante
“Haunted by deep disparities and an unspeakable history of violence, the country may discover that ‘democratic prosperity’ remains an elusive horizon.”
Perspective: Chile's Middle Class Flexes Its Muscles
by Patricio Navia
Large, diverse, and increasingly confident, the country’s middle class is demanding that social policies be redesigned to fit its needs.
Books: Salvation Stories
by William W. Finan Jr.
A new book portrays 12 iconic Latin Americans—politicians, poets, revolutionaries—who sought to set right the wrongs of the past, often with ambiguous results.
The Month in Review
by the editors of Current History
An international chronology of events in December 2011, country by country, day by day.
