If proof had ever been needed that the United States' Latin America policies had failed, it was provided by the latest Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata. Washington only just managed to get its prestige Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) project onto the meeting's final statement at...

In present-day Latin America 'election activism' is widespread. Elections are held with growing frequency and increasingly serve differing aims. In many cases, however, they do not go along with a strengthening of democracy. A current example is Argentina, where early congressional elections...

The controversial Colombian program of 'democratic security' appears to be working. And because Colombia's population is also giving the government of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez good marks halfway through its term, the president's efforts to win reelection are gaining new momentum. The...

At the end of February 2005, nearly twenty years after their accession to the then European Community, Spain and Portugal have once again given a clear signal of their identification with the European Union (EU): In Spain the first national referendum on the ratification of the Treaty...

Bolivia appears to be over the worst of its current crisis, now that parliament has accepted President Carlos Mesa's resignation and early elections are in prospect. Mesa held the office of president from October 2003 to June 2005 after Gonzalo Sánchez de Losada was toppled and fled to the...