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1. Brazil and Mexico: Hope or hype?

Author:
Robert F. Noriega and Felipe Trigos
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Key points in this Outlook: Key Latin American governments, such as Brazil and Mexico, must adopt economic, fiscal, and energy policies that will maximize job creation, sustainable growth, and energy self-sufficiency. The performance of Latin American economies has a disproportionate effect on US prosperity, heightening the costs of the Obama administration’s indifference toward the region. The American economy will benefit from more vigor and vision as US policy encourages economic partnerships with Latin America that cultivate a healthy private sector, energy interdependence, and greater competitiveness in a global market.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Bilateral Relations, Global Markets, Economic Growth, and Economic Policy
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Mexico

2. Latin American energy monopolies: Boom or bust?

Author:
Robert F. Noriega and Felipe Trigos
Publication Date:
07-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
At a time when several Latin American economies should be “firing on all cylinders” to sustain growth and development, their critical petroleum sectors are underperforming. Despite hopeful projections, the biggest energy companies in Latin America are controlled by the state and are hampered by government interference and short-term political agendas. Although these companies should be the engines of growth for their national economies, resource nationalism and popular gasoline subsidies limit these companies’ abilities to evolve into more efficient, competitive, and profitable enterprises. Brazil’s Petrobras, Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) are energy giants that are being consumed by mismanagement, corruption, and political agendas. For these companies to maximize their productivity and competitiveness and thereby deliver greater benefits to their countries, they should pursue professional management, transparency, and free competition with private companies and should open themselves to foreign capital and technology.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Oil, Natural Resources, Business, and Monopoly
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

3. Honduras under siege

Author:
Roger F. Noriega and José Javier Lanza
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
As stepped-up counternarcotics policies in Colombia and Mexico have increased pressure on regional drug trafficking networks, organized crime syndicates have relocated operations to Central America, where law enforcement agencies and institutions are ill-equipped to withstand the onslaught. These multibillion-dollar gangs are making common cause with some local politicians who are following a playbook honed by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. The result in Venezuela was the birth of a narcostate, and similar dramas are playing out in Central America. Like Chávez, caudillos are using the democratic process to seek power, weaken institutions, and undermine the rule of law—generating turmoil that accommodates narcotrafficking. Making matters worse for Honduras is that left-wing activists abroad, in support of ousted president and Chávez acolyte Manuel Zelaya, are waging a very public campaign of outlandish claims seeking to block any US assistance to help the Honduran government resist the drug cartels. It is imperative that US policymakers vigorously support democracy, the rule of law, and antidrug programs in Honduras.
Topic:
Corruption, Crime, Democratization, War on Drugs, Narcotics Trafficking, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
America, Latin America, and Mexico

4. Mexico at an Impasse

Author:
Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
ecent events elsewhere in Latin America–specifically, an acute political crisis in Venezuela and a groundbreaking election in Brazil–have pushed Mexico off the front pages of American newspapers. Nonetheless, it is worth remembering that Mexico, our closest and most important Latin neighbor, is a major customer for our products and the source of many essential imports, most notably oil and gas. It is also a country with which we have intense cultural and human relations, far more indeed than most Americans realize. Its progress toward becoming an open and more modern society therefore deserves far more attention. President Vicente Fox is nearing the midpoint of a six-year presidential term. The next major marker will be elections in July concerning all the seats in the lower national legislative chamber, all the governorships, and the legislative assemblies in eleven of Mexico’s thirty-two states.[i] These elections inevitably will be interpreted in part as a referendum on Fox’s administration–the first drawn from an opposition party in more than seven decades. At the same time, they will tell us to what degree the ousted Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has managed to reinvent itself and become nationally competitive in a more pluralistic and open environment.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Economics, Immigration, and Political Crisis
Political Geography:
South America, Latin America, and Mexico

5. A New Era in Mexico?

Author:
Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Last July, Mexico underwent a medium-sized political earthquake—it elected Vicente Fox, candidate of an opposition alliance, to a six-year presidential term. In so doing, it ended seventy-one years of hegemonic rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and unleashed a host of possibilities for the nation’s future. What are those possibilities, and what do they mean—for Mexico and the United States? The truth is that nobody—not even veteran Mexico-watchers—is quite sure. Fox himself is a man of paradox: His relationship with his own party is ambiguous, to say the least, and the platform on which he ran points both left and right, as do his cabinet appointments. Moreover, Mexico itself, long in the thrall of a kind of benevolent authoritarianism, is new to the art of divided government. While there may be some changes in the relationship with the United States, tensions and conflicts based on history, geography, and the vast asymmetries of wealth are bound to persist.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Politics, Authoritarianism, and Elections
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico

6. Mexico’s Midterm Elections: A Major Turning Point?

Author:
Mark Falcoff
Publication Date:
07-1997
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On July 6, Mexicans will go to the polls to elect a new Chamber of Deputies, renew a quarter of the Senate, and choose governors and legislators in six states. They will also have the opportunity to elect–for the first time–the governor of Mexico City, a position that, until now, has been appointive rather than elected. These races amount to both a midterm referendum on the stewardship of President Ernesto Zedillo and a crucial test of his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Politics, Reform, Elections, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Latin America and Mexico