Latin America
February 1998

February Article Abstracts

Title: United States-Latin American Relations: Shunted to the Slow Track
Author: Michael Shifter
The United States must show that it "is prepared to develop a serious and coherent hemispheric strategy that transcends often parochial, narrow interests. . . Presidential visits are welcome, but they are no substitute for a willingness to spend political capital and exercise leadership to build a hemispheric partnership."

Title: Mexico after the July 6 Election: Neither Heaven nor Hell
Author: Denise Dresser
"Foreign media coverage of Mexico routinely places it either in heaven or in hell-as a country bordering on democracy or on chaos. . . The July 6 election, however, offers one key lesson: Mexico has become more difficult to understand. . . On the morning of July 7 Mexicans did not wake up in heaven. But they didn't wake up in hell. Instead they woke up to something that 68 years of pri purgatory had denied them: a political outcome of their own making."

Title: Colombia: Chronicle of a Crisis Foretold
Author: Arlene B. Tickner
"Historically, Colombians have been known for their tremendous capacity for resistance in the face of the recurrent patterns of violence, corruption, inequality, and injustice that have characterized the country's development. Today, ungovernability, widespread corruption among the political class, and intolerable levels of violence and human rights abuses have transformed resistance into resignation."

Title: Chile's Lingering Authoritarian Legacy
Author: Felipe Agüero
"The enduring power of the military and strengthened opposition from the right has had a humbling effect" on the government, which "recently admitted that the transition to democracy is far from over."

Title: Argentina: Questioning Menem's Way
Author: Mark P. Jones
"Since 1989, Argentina has undergone a transformation that has dramatically enhanced the country's economic and political stability. Nevertheless, the functioning of Argentina's political system continues to be troubled by several factors-factors that can be linked to the recent defeat handed to the ruling [Peronist Party] in the 1997 congressional election."

Title: Assessing Brazil's Political Modernization
Author: Lincoln Gordon
For Brazil, "the foundations of consolidated democracy are in place." But weaknesses remain and political reform, especially of the party system, is required as "an essential counterpart to the macroeconomic policy reforms of recent years."

Title: The Puerto Rico Question Revisited
Author: Juan M. García Passalacqua
"After 100 years of the American century in Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican nation is stronger than ever. . . [That century] has gone through three stages: tutelage, self-government, and self-determination. None has solved the issue of a nation within a nation. Cogress is left with one last option: to exercise its constitutional power to 'dispose of the territory' and grant it sovereignty in 1998."

Title: Beyond Coffee and Bananas: Asian Investment in the New Central America
Author: Steve C. Ropp
Central America's political economy is "being reshaped by Asian growth processes. . . [W]e have traditionally viewed political, economic, and social life in the various Central American states as reflecting their status as 'coffee' or 'banana republics,' " but something new may be in the offing.