The deepening political crisis, the open interventionism of the U.S. government and the threat of a civil war scenario in Venezuela have led to a change in the position of the European Union and some Latin American countries.

Facing a recession, the Argentine government is renegotiating its stand-by agreement with the IMF, turning Argentina into a scenario of political crisis and growing social mobilization.

Los esfuerzos de los gobiernos del Mercosur por concluir el TLC con la Unión Europea para dar una señal clara “a los mercados” de que la política económica actual es radicalmente distinta a la de sus antecesores y dejar sentado que el libre mercado es la panacea para lograr el desarrollo económico y social en esta subregión sudamericana, no ha sido suficiente para evitar, una vez más, el fracaso de las negociaciones.

The larger countries have “temporarily” abandoned UNASUR, and initial support for the organization’s functionality and institutionalism, which regional leaders had once been swift to invoke to make clear that UNASUR, not the OAS, would resolve South American political issues – has been lost.

The era of Trump marks a change that replaces the construction of hemispheric agendas with mere demands that other nations back up the U.S. government in its war policies, and an attitude of intolerance and aggression toward political situations that prevail in other countries of the region that contributes nothing to resolving them.

The inevitable resignation of the president of Peru represents a blow to the most genuine personification of economic power in Peru. On Feb. 23, first Vice President Martín Vizcarra assumed the presidency with a mandate to govern until 2021.

Eight years after negotiations began in May 2004, the U.S.Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into force on May 15.  Continue Reading »