A leftward-shifting political landscape will have profound consequences for bilateral relationships and, by extension, U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America. This is especially the case in U.S. policy toward the region’s three undisputed dictatorships—Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. As the hullabaloo over the recent U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas highlighted, the ability to isolate and pressure the region’s brutal dictatorships to induce change will be drastically diminished. Presidents in Mexico, Bolivia, and Honduras, among others, boycotted the summit in protest of the decision to exclude these countries. If one thing is clear, dictators in the aforementioned countries are bullish about their chances of survival and can barely contain their glee at the “new opportunity” that has opened in Colombia, according to Venezuelan socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello.
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