Eric Farnsworth

The pope's visit to Mexico and Cuba beginning Friday will kick off a period of intensive focus on the Western Hemisphere, Facebooking for U.S. policymakers, and the public the dramatic changes underway in Latin America for the past decade. If both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue take a strategic approach to...

Democracy is not a fragile flower, as Ronald Reagan told the British Parliament 30 years ago, but it does require tending. What was true in Eastern Europe in the 1980s and also the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring is equally true in the Americas, where democracy...

In his just-concluded travel to Asia, President Obama and his senior aides made one thing crystal clear: henceforth the United States will pivot from previous foreign policy priorities to focus more attention, time, and weight on the Asia Pacific. The president's declaration of a renewed strategic focus on Asia is...

The recent elections in Guatemala and Nicaragua were notable for their relative lack of controversy, despite the conclusion of virtually all independent analysts that the former risks a return to the violence of the past and the latter was contrary to Nicaragua's own constitution.

In Guatemala, former military...

Central America is at a dangerous crossroads. So says a report that has just been issued by the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. A region that many Americans have given little thought to since the 1980's is being overwhelmed by the illegal drugs trade. Situated between...

The administration's announcement June 13 that Colombia has met the commitments necessary to enact the trade agreement signed in 2006 could potentially pave the way for much-needed job creation here in the United States. Instead, budget politics continue to overwhelm the Colombia agreement as well as pending agreements with Panama...

Now that the inevitable has occurred -- IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned -- the push for a new leader begins in earnest. Since the IMF was established, the head has traditionally been reserved for a European, given the ownership structure of the bank and the immediate needs of...

In the midst of crisis in Libya and the Middle East, the confused aftermath of the earthquake in Japan, and a budget battle in Washington, President Barack Obama arrives in Brazil Saturday for a short trip to Latin America that will also take him to Chile and El Salvador. Is...

The pending holidays always bring reflections on the previous year and this time will be no different. Herewith some of the highs (and lows) of the rapidly-concluding year, and issues to consider for 2011:

• Chile, often overlooked in the shadow of larger neighbors, was the star of the South...

Those seeking to divine the future of hemispheric relations should keep three upcoming dates firmly in mind: September 26, October 3, and November 2. Over a five week span, voters in Venezuela, Brazil, and the United States, respectively, will make choices that will reconfirm or redirect the Bolivarian revolution, support...

When the knock-out round of the World Cup begins Saturday morning, the Western Hemisphere will have almost half of the final 16 teams in contention, and at least two teams (the winners of Argentina vs. Mexico on Sunday and also Brazil vs. Chile) guaranteed in the final eight. Even more...

Each World Cup brings a new storyline, and this year is no different. The rise of African football, the year that Spain finally met expectations, the return of England to World Cup prominence-- all of these and others have been mooted as possibilities for 2010. But to this point, all...

Both on the field, and off, Brazil has proven that it is a nation on the move and is the team to beat.

What if global soccer competitiveness were determined by global economic competitiveness? According to the World Economic Forum, Switzerland, which ranks first, and the United States,...

Brazil's president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva travels to Iran this weekend to continue his quixotic quest to mediate peace in the Middle East. He is positioning himself and his nation as a go-between with a nuclear-minded Iran on one side, and on the other, much of the rest of...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Venezuela raised some eyebrows. He promised additional weapons sales, which could reach billions of dollars on top of the $4.4 billion already sold to Venezuela since 2005, and, even as a number of world leaders are in Washington this week to discuss...

The international community must come together to help Haiti rise above its tragedy.

If ever there was a nation in need of a break, Haiti is it. The Western Hemisphere's poorest nation has been buffeted for years by disasters, both natural and man-made. This nation with such a proud history,...

Barely a year into the Obama Administration, we've already heard the usual grousing from Latin America analysts and others about the "lack of attention" given to Latin America, and expressions of deep disappointment from those who believed that the new U.S. president would simply abandon fundamental U.S. interests in the...

Yesterday's special election in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat had little to do with Latin America, but the implications of Scott Brown's victory over Martha Coakley will nonetheless resonate across the region. That's because the victory of the Republican candidate breaks the Democrats' super majority of 60...

Of all the developments in Latin America over the past decade the consolidation of power in Venezuela by Hugo Chavez who was first elected in 1998 and the advancement of the "Bolivarian Revolution" is clearly among the most significant. A hemisphere that could rally around a common agenda...