Latin America | RCP Story Stream

The Quid Pro Quo for Peace in Ukraine March 22, 2025

President Trump promises a rapprochement with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Before we dismiss this as a pipedream, we should understand the options that Trump has in dealing with President Putin. What will be the quid pro quo for peace in Ukraine...

Russia

Trump’s Latin American Sticks Could End up Stuck in His Spokes March 22, 2025

He appears to be racking up wins through pure aggression, but history shows that these tactics lose juice over time. ...

Latin America

Cuba and the Vatican Deal in the Face of U.S. Elections March 07, 2025

During the last week of Biden’s presidency, the Vatican negotiated the removal of Cuba from the terrorism sponsors list in yet another example of its long-standing relationship with the Cuban dictatorship. It’s time for the Church to stop whitewashin...

Cuba

Vatican

religious freedom

The Hells Angels Have Arrived in Latin America With a Low Profile March 05, 2025

In Brazil, walking through majority-black Salvador da Bahia’s working-class neighborhoods, one can now spot garages with the Hells Angels’ painted insignia, in Portuguese and English. Their compounds are confined, far from commercial areas, though a ...

Brazil

Hells Angels

Politics

Marco Rubio’s America-First Foreign Policy February 12, 2025

Throughout his career, Marco Rubio has been a harsh critic of left-wing governments in Latin America, and has supported US-backed regime change attempts against some of them. But as Donald Trump’s newly appointed secretary of state, he has shown some...

Why the Trump Administration Is Fixated on Latin America February 12, 2025

For decades, experts have accused American presidents of neglecting the Western Hemisphere in favor of faraway conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Both Republicans and Democrats have carried out a policy of either “benign” or “malign” neg...

Latin America

Rubio’s Good Start Blunting Chinese Influence in Panama February 07, 2025

The selection of former Sen. Marco Rubio to become the nation’s secretary of state sent the message that shoring up Latin America will be a top priority for the new administration. ...

Panama

U.S. Oil Refiners Look To Latin America, Iraq After Trump Tariffs February 06, 2025

Americas

Strong-Arming Latin America Will Work Until It Doesn’t January 30, 2025

For a moment on Sunday, the government of Colombia’s Gustavo Petro looked like it might be the first in Latin America to take a meaningful stand against President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plans. Instead, Petro gave Trump the perfect opportunit...

Latin America

How To Drive Latin America Into the Arms of China January 30, 2025

“It has always surprised me,” wrote the 20th-century Mexican poet and diplomat Octavio Paz, “that in a world of relations as hard as that of the United States, cordiality constantly springs out like water from an unstanchable fountain.” ...

china

Latin America

Marco Rubio's Cuban Opportunity January 29, 2025

Marco Rubio has numerous challenges vying for his attention as he begins his tenure as U.S. secretary of State. In Latin America alone, he faces a migrant crisis in Mexico, a corrupt dictatorship in Venezuela, and China's rising influence across the ...

Marco Rubio

Cuba

Securing Minerals Supply Chains in the Western Hemisphere January 28, 2025

economics

Latin America

Latin America Rejects Trump’s Monroe Doctrine January 28, 2025

On Sunday, tensions escalated between President Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro after the latter refused to accept deportation flights on U.S. military planes....

Donald Trump

The Impact of Trump’s Re-Election for Latin America January 20, 2025

Trump’s “America First” rhetoric could significantly impact the region, potentially creating an opening for Europeans to strengthen their ties and influence there...

Trump Tops Risk Factors for Latin America in 2025 January 16, 2025

Americas

Mano Dura Policies in Latin America January 15, 2025

Latin America has witnessed some of the highest homicide rates in the world, largely driven by gang violence and transnational criminal groups. ...

Latin America Is About To Become a Priority for U.S. December 10, 2024

While traveling throughout Latin America in recent years, visitors heard the same refrain: Washington isn’t paying enough attention to the region. ...

Latin America

The Price of Neglecting Latin America December 05, 2024

To the extent that foreign crises helped shape the outcome of November’s U.S. presidential election, it wasn’t the ones in Gaza and Ukraine that had the strongest effect. ...

Latin America

A U.S. Strategy for China in Latin America December 04, 2024

The alarm bells are ringing in Latin America. Chinese president Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Latin America caps off a decade of remarkable advances for China in the United States’ shared neighborhood. Both Xi and President Biden attended the Asia-Pac...

A Harder Line on Latin America Looms November 22, 2024

Mexico stands on the front line but some of the president-elect's nominees are looking further south ...

Latin America

China’s Maritime Moves in South America November 19, 2024

Latin America merits attention in its own right, but it also represents a southerly vector in the U.S. strategic competition against China. ...

china

A Monroe Doctrine for the 21st Century November 18, 2024

The 2018 National Defense Strategy reorientated U.S. policy toward great power competition, but challenges to American influence in Latin America have intensified over the past three decades as our stated adversaries have quietly built their influenc...

Latin America

China’s Xi Heads to Peru To Boost Latin America Ties November 13, 2024

Americas

Algeria: From Anti-Colonial Beacon to Modern Success November 01, 2024

On November 1, 1954, Algeria ignited a revolution that became a defining moment in the global fight against colonialism. The revolution, spearheaded by the National Liberation Front (FLN), was not only a struggle for national independence from French...