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...