A Spanish company at the head of an international consortium has won the major part of the contract for the expansion of the Panama Canal. This analysis sums up the history, the present and the future plan of an oceanic corridor of prime importance in world politics and the world economy.
The resignation of the Peruvian Prime Minister, Yehude Simon, and the congressional repeal of two of the main legislative decrees that opened extensive Amazonian zones to commercial exploitation have provided a merely temporary relief to the reigning tension. The situation is similar, to varying degrees, in the other South-American countries that share the Amazon basin.
The visits to Spain of Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have triggered a major domestic controversy as well as intense external debate, as Spain’s government is accused of seeking to move closer to certain populist leaders.
With the great increases in insecurity in Afghanistan and the overwhelming sense that the counter-insurgency in Afghanistan is not being won, analysts and policymakers are looking for analogies to understand the conflict’s dynamics and devise counter-measures.
Over the past three decades, Latin America has undergone a major process of diversification in its international relations, making it easier for the countries of the region to develop foreign policies that are more autonomous and more focused on the challenges posed by an international society that is increasingly interdependent and global.
The Fifth Summit of the Americas has served to put relations between Latin America and the US back on the agenda.
Ecuador’s foreign policy, in the context of the Rafael Correa’s ‘government of the Citizens’ Revolution’, is complemented by the ‘Patria, altiva, digna y soberana’ project. Accordingly, a set of positions and alliances has been adopted. Some of these are very controversial and have a clear ideological bias, which has compromised the country’s international image.
The approval of plans to lift the ban on the indefinite re-election of elected officials paves the way for Chávez to run for office in 2012 and gives him further scope to continue implementing his vague, contradictory and divisive socialist project.
Four presidential summits were held simultaneously in Brazil in December 2008, raising some prospects for change in the region.
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