South America

This brief explores the impacts of the trade promotion agreement (referred to as the FTA) between the U.S. and Colombia on labor and labor rights in Colombia and offers policy recommendations to Congress and the Administration. The report first provides an overview of the labor situation in Colombia, drawing upon interviews with NGOs, advocacy organizations, academic experts, government officials, and labor representatives in both Colombia and the United States.

On Aug. 7, Juan Manuel Santos will take office as the new president of Colombia. He will do so after eight years of Alvaro Uribe's popular, effective and controversial mandate; the last time someone governed Colombia for so long was during the 1950s when strongman Gustavo Rojas Pinilla remained in power for almost a decade.

Uribe convinced his countrymen four years ago that reelection was a good idea; he tried to persuade them again this year, and failed. Instead, he anointed a successor, who proceeded to obtain an extraordinary mandate of almost 70 percent of the vote.

MEXICO CITY -- The perpetual seesaw in Latin American geo-politics is more vibrant than ever. The so-called "Americas-1" countries -- those that are either neutral in the confrontation between the United States and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (and Cuba), or openly opposed to the so-called "Bolivarian" governments of Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela -- are slowly advancing. The "Americas-2" radical left is receding moderately, yet it can still maintain its positions and defeat any attempts to roll back its influence.

Is the new European initiative process going to change what you eat and invest in? Has Oregon figured out a better way to find errors in ballot measures? Will robots solicit your signature on referendum petitions? Should California's initiative process be expanded, reformed or eliminated? How does Hong Kong conduct direct democracy in the shadow of the People's Republic of China? Why is tiny Uruguay so good at soccer and direct democracy?

Answers to these and other questions were discussed at this international forum.

Every failure presents an opportunity, for someone.

On the heels of the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced on Tuesday that he will convene an alternative climate summit. As he told a press conference in La Paz, "Due to a historical responsibility for the mankind, we decided to summon the First World Conference of the People on Climate Change."

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez finally emerged from his electoral slump. After mediocre results in municipal and state governors' elections late last year, and a scathing defeat in a constitutional referendum in December 2007, in February he convincingly won a virtual plebiscite on his indefinite stay in office by a margin of nearly 10 percent.