FPD

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When Public Development Efforts Meet Private in the Americas

DEVELOPMENTS U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently told a gathering of Western Hemispheric leaders at the fortieth Washington Conference on the Americas that partnerships between the private and public sectors are important for the region and need to be stronger, and among other things spoke of an important aspect of development: using public sector funds to procure private sector investments.

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Tax Evasion Paradise No More: The U.S. and Caribbean Nations Crack Down on Hidden Offshore Accounts

DEVELOPMENTSFor decades, Americans have hidden their assets in a number of offshore accounts with the goal of avoiding paying more taxes. When President Obama signed into law the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act in March of this year, these Americans - who have for years hidden their taxable incomes in foreign banks and other investment schemes in the Caribbean and elsewhere - will now have this money potentially taxed by the U.S. government. Besides banks, the new law also addresses securities houses, derivatives dealers, hedge funds, private equity firms and commodity traders.

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Chile’s Marginalized Small Fishermen: The Secret Weapons of a Disaster-Struck Nation

DEVELOPMENTS On February 27, Chile suffered a more powerful earthquake than the far more famous one that struck Haiti just weeks before, and which was followed soon after by a large tsunami that devastated entire coastal communities. While the Haitian earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and decimated that nation’s already weak infrastructure, by all accounts Chile fared much better thanks to more stringent building standards and a history of stronger earthquake preparedness measures. However, certain segments of the Chilean population and economy have suffered far more than others. Chile faces the daunting task of rebuilding its severely wounded world-renown commercial fishing industry, estimated to account for 25% of the country's total work force, which sustained major damage from both the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Moreover, the suffering from this destruction has fallen disproportionately on the large numbers of small-scale fishermen who were already operating at or near subsistence levels prior to the recent disasters. Small-scale fishing fleets, already dominated by larger corporations in competition for rapidly dwindling marine stocks, experienced a disproportionate level of damage from the disasters. It will take a concerted effort on the part of the incoming Chilean government to ensure that Chile’s small-scale fishermen emerge from the rebuilding process in a stronger and more prosperous position. The best way to do this is to engage in sustainable fishing practices that will ultimately help the country as a whole.

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FPD World Views: Interview on Haiti with Monika Kalra Varma

Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to present the following interview with Monika Kalra Varma, the Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Ms. Varma sat down with Adam Benz, Foreign Policy Digest's Editor-in-Chief, to discuss ways in which the U.S. and international community can best assist Haiti with the country's current humanitarian crisis and in its longterm goals of building a better future for the Haitian people.

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Human Rights and Aid Transparency in Haiti’s Roadmap to Recovery

DEVELOPMENTS Overwhelmed by sadness, empathy and disbelief, the world’s eyes and hearts have been focused for weeks on the rescue and relief efforts resulting from January’s earthquake in Haiti. However, many who have worked in Haiti fear that a preventable and long term disaster lies on the horizon if international interventions do not break with past patterns. In recent years, U.S and international aid efforts that could be characterized, at best, as unsustainable and, at worst, deliberately harmful. As international aid begins to pour into Haiti, the global community has a brief moment to break with past mistakes and bring real change to Haiti.

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Channeling Hope in Haiti

Haiti's recent unexpected catastrophic 7.0 earthquake has brought global attention to the long-ignored impoverished island nation. As images of Haiti started populating the international media outlets, writing about hope became quite difficult. The media's attention on Haiti generally focuses only when tumultuous events occur: hurricanes, political turmoil, protests.

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Colombia: U.S. Base Sparks Suspicions

The United States and Colombia have finalized a deal that will allow U.S. military access to seven Colombian bases for the next ten years. Both parties have insisted that the agreement reinforces an existing partnership fighting regional narco-trafficking; however, very few of the terms have been released, garnering policy-makers’ suspicions and regional accusations. At stake may be U.S. aid standards founded on humanitarian and legal bases, as well as U.S. legitimacy in a pocket of the world growing increasingly resentful of historical U.S. hemispheric hegemony. After the announcement of the deal’s conclusion, Latin American leaders and policy-makers officially condemned the move; and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dramatically declared at a meeting of the Union of South American nations that “winds of warfare” were blowing across the continent.

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30,000 More U.S. Troops Being Sent to Afghanistan

President Obama’s address to the nation at the West Point Military Academy on Tuesday December 1st was well received in as much for its subject matter as for the fact that Mr. Obama has decided upon a course of action. This action will consist of sending roughly 30,000 thousand U.S. troops to Afghanistan on top of the thousands that are already on the ground. The speech and Mr. Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan does have it detractors as well as its supporters.

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Blood, Land and Sovereignty: The Status of Indigenous Rights in the Americas

The indigenous rights movements of the Americas are experiencing a renaissance. Indigenous peoples of the Americas are increasingly reasserting their claims to sovereign rights of self determination and resource governance.

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Oil, Courts, and Death: Interview with "Crude" Director Joe Berlinger

In 1993, thirty thousand indigenous and non-indigenous rain-forest dwellers sued the U.S. oil giant Texaco alleging decades of systemic pollution of water, land and air. Texaco subsequently merged with the oil company Chevron in 2001. The case was initially brought to court in the United States but was dismissed and relocated to an Ecuadorean court.

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Slavery in the New Century

Many people in the U.S. have still not heard of human trafficking, despite it being the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. Those who are aware of it often still see it as a problem that happens only in far away Southeast Asian countries. The reality is that human trafficking occurs in virtually every country in the world, including in the U.S. In the Americas, like other parts of the world, the rich countries in the north (like the U.S.) act as “destination” countries that provide the demand for services provided by trafficking victims, while poorer countries to the south serve as “source” countries, which provide the victims. Within the U.S., human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the majority of trafficking victims who are brought into the U.S. coming from Mexico.

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Energy Policy in Latin America: A Cross Roads of Environmentalism, Indigenous Rights and Development

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War Within Families: How Child Custody Battles Impact Foreign Affairs

Cases of international parental child abduction have recently garnered significant media and Congressional attention. A particular case with Brazil has received wide press coverage, from CNN to Oprah, detailing the long, painful journey for the young boy’s father and his supporters. Secretary Clinton raised the case with the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the matter has been the subject of numerous high-level meetings between U.S. officials and the Brazilian government. Sadly, this incident is not alone. In a recent joint press conference involving Secretary Clinton and Egypt's foreign minister, a reporter asked about a longstanding parental abduction of an American girl to Egypt. Cases with Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, and with South Korea have also drawn international attention lately. In fact, records kept by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues show more than 1,600 children wrongfully taken or kept abroad by a parent during 2008 – a sharp increase from previous years. Additionally, records indicate nearly 500 children abducted to the United States from other countries during the last year.

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Who Will Stand for Rule of Law in Honduras?

Ever since the Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was arrested in the middle of the night and flown out of his country by military officers less than a month ago, the small country of Honduras has received enormous international attention for been widely reported as the first Central American coup in almost two decades. There has been a strong stated desire by all the major outside players to this crisis not to allow for a repeat of Latin America’s plagued history of military coups being used to respond to constitutional crises. The international response has offered a rare opportunity for a united common front between the Obama administration, Latin American states across the political spectrum, and international institutions such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS).

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Europe is Out, the Americas Are In: Surprising New Trends in U.S. Study Abroad Data

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Chile’s Secular Triumph Challenges Catholicism

Chile’s cultural and political history have shaped a nation that has long been considered one of South America’s most socially conservative and religiously homogeneous, in which the Catholic Church´s stronghold over Chilean law and society was unquestioned for decades. Yet the role of religion in Chile is evolving. Chile has entered an era of secularization, which is driving changes both in social norms and in government policies.

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A Healthy Debate: Does the Brazilian Healthcare Model Offer a Guide to the U.S.?

Recently, the Brazilian Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporão, defended his country’s unified healthcare system, Sistema Único de Saúde (S.U.S.), and recommended that U.S. President Barack Obama adopt a similar system for universal health care, stating that S.U.S. has been well-recognized for its successes in combating the health care problems facing Brazil.

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This BRIC Stands Out: Brazil's Outsized Role in the Fight Against Global Warming

In 2009, Brazil experienced two major milestones, which, while seemingly unrelated, have significant implications for the future of global climate change. First, U.S. car purchases in 2009 are predicted to be eclipsed for the first time by purchases by BRIC nations, an informal grouping of the four major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with Brazil alone experiencing a rise by nearly a third in auto sales two years in a row. Given the fact that cars were responsible for 6.3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions measured in 2000, as reported by 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change, the rapid growth of auto purchases by BRIC countries is likely not only to profoundly impact the pace of climate change, but also the strategies utilized to combat global warming. In recent decades, Brazil has adopted one such strategy through its embrace of biofuels.

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A New Chance to Shine: Latin America’s Challenges and Opportunities for the Obama White House

One region that may prove surprisingly significant during President Barack Obama’s administration, despite eight years of relative neglect, is Latin America, which provides 30% of U.S. imports and is a nexus of critical allies. Obama stated his intention to increase the presence of the Foreign Service and Peace Corps, combat drugs via economic and social aid, and to meet face to face with Latin American leaders regarded as 'hard-line leftists.'

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The Sound and The Fury: Why Opponents of the US-Colombia FTA Miss the Point

During a time of immense economic uncertainty, the free trade agreement (FTA) between the U.S. and Colombia, one of America’s staunchest Latin American political allies, may prove the most contentious trade vote put to Congress this year.The worldwide pursuit of regional trade agreements, which knock down trade barriers faster than their complicated multilateral cousins, has been a high priority for the United States Trade Representative (USTR) during the Bush Administration. In light of this agenda, the US-Colombia FTA was ‘fast-tracked’ in 2003 as part of regional Andean negotiations including Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The bilateral agreement is considered to be particularly attractive to the US given Colombia’s roughly $463 billion GDP.

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Can Latin America Weather a Global Recession?

Latin America has a long history of disastrous financial meltdowns, which over the past twenty years include its largest economies, such as Mexico in 1994, Argentina in 2001, and Brazil in 1999. Those crises devastated financial institutions and created tremendous social instability, pushing many members of the middle class into poverty. Much like the current U.S. financial crisis, many of Latin America’s previous crises were the product of risky growth-centric economic policies and inadequate fiscal protections. As a result, many Latin American nations have enacted a wide range of important economic reforms over the past few decades, sometimes reluctantly in the face of pressure from international financial institutions. Moreover, in recent years several important countries have willingly pursued prudent financial policies that emphasize stable sustainable growth and include a number of protections from future crises...

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What the U.S. Can Learn from Brazil’s Energy Successes

With U.S. gas prices rising to record levels over the past year and contributing to fears about the national economy, both Democrat and Republican Presidential candidates alike are focusing on the need to change U.S. energy policy. A major cornerstone of Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama’s energy policy has been the need to promote alternate energy sources, particularly biofuels. Republican candidate Senator John McCain, on the other hand, has particularly emphasized the need to expand domestic drilling, especially offshore drilling. Both candidates agree, however, on the need to develop energy independence from foreign oil suppliers.

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Colombia: Will FARC Rise Again From the Ashes?

FARC Rebels On Sunday July 20th, 2008, former hostage and Colombian Senator Ingrid Betancourt led a demonstration to end the longstanding conflict between Colombia and the guerrilla group that captured her, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Global demonstrations in France, Colombia, and elsewhere joined Ms. Betancourt’s efforts to end FARC violence,and have resulted in thousands of calls for peace in Colombia and an end to kidnapping, a common practice of the guerrillas...

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Tough Times Ahead for Argentina

Argentina has experienced three farmer strikes in the past four months, as well as increasing food rationing in the capital city of Buenos Aires and food shortages in its provinces. The source of the strikes is a sliding export tax instituted by President Cristina Fernandez, which has resulted in a tax increase of 27 to 40% on soybeans. The price of food has increased recently in large part because of ongoing farmers' strikes. However, the continuing troubles have done more than exacerbate food security in this South American republic, as it has ostensibly resulted in a vicious cycle of inflation that could have a significant ripple effect in the region.

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Wall Street: The New Front of the War on Terror

As the human, financial and diplomatic costs of the War in Iraq continue to mount - five years later - America's geopolitical equity spirals downward in inverse proportion. In this time, world leaders, influence peddlers and scholars have explored new ways to meet the threat posed by terrorism in an effective, yet sensible manner...

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Change in Cuba?

On February 19, Fidel Castro, 81, announced his permanent retirement as Cuba's president. At the time of his announcement, Fidel had served as head of state for 49 years, making him the second longest ruling head of state in the world behind Queen Elizabeth...

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'Enhanced Interrogation:' Just a Clever Euphemism?

After being informed of a detainee's unwillingness to talk, Rendition star Meryl Streep takes a deep, suspenseful breath, looks at the hooded man, and scowls to her agent, "Put him on the plane!" Subsequent scenes depict an Egyptian-American man tortured in a non-descript basement in what Hollywood assumes is a realistic depiction of American-sanctioned torture. But is this film on the War on Terror an example of art imitating reality? Perhaps...

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What Do They Think About Us?

Last month's Foreign Policy Digest looked ahead to the Annapolis Conference to explain the stakes and participants. The conference took place in Annapolis on November 27, and was followed by White House visits from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Abbas and Olmert issued a joint statement in which they pledged to work towards a two-state solution, form a steering committee, and continue bi-weekly meetings...

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The Bank of the South

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making headlines once again. Only months after he proposed scrapping presidential term limits, his new plan to create the Bank of the South is moving forward. The Bank will finance regional development projects and would enhance, and perhaps ultimately replace, Washington-based and U.S. controlled institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as the main source of external funding for Latin American development projects.