The reconfiguration of the global security order since the late 1980s has had a heavy impact on regional security in the Caribbean. Having lost strategic importance, the Caribbean states have been attempting to restructure their relationship with the United States. These small states are interested in building a regional security regime that is inclusive, transparent, and accountable. This analysis shows how the principle of subsidiarity may be employed to achieve that end.

Cuba faces a development dilemma: it promotes equity and human capital while failing to deliver economic growth. For the government, the country's equity and human capital achievements are a source of pride, a sign that its priorities are right. This essay argues instead that this “equity without growth” dilemma is a sign of malaise. Theory and evidence suggest that high levels of equity and human capital should produce high levels of economic growth. Because growth is often weak or negative, some onerous barriers to development must be present. These barriers, it is argued, are restrictions on property and political rights. By comparing Cuba and China across two sectors, the bicycle industry and Internet access, this article shows how these restrictions have hindered growth. It also assesses how Cuba's latest economic reforms, the so-called Lineamientos, will address Cuba's development dilemma. The impact may be minimal, but perhaps more lasting than previous reforms.

En el curso de estos últimos años, los países hispanoamericanos han venido celebrando con singular júbilo el sesquicentenario de sus independencias nacionales. El pensamiento de sus más altos valores humanos ha enriquecido la historiografía de nuestra América, y ha venido a confirmar en sentido crociano, que toda nuestra Historia es también hazaña de libertad. Nuestra lucha se agita contemporáneamente, pues cada día conquistamos y reconquistamos nuestra libertad. El hombre de nuestras naciones todavía se debate en servidumbres y esclavitudes, mas su libertad y dignidad son valores permanentes.

En octobre 1954, je fus invité à prendre part, en compagnie d'éminentes personnalités, venues de tous les points de 1'horizon intellectuel, aux manifestations organisées dans la Ville de New-York pour célébrer le bicentenaire de la fondation de Columbia University. Je considérai cette invitation comme un honneur qui s'adressait non à ma personne mais à mon pays tout entier. Et c'est, par conséquent, au nom de la République d'Haiti que j'apportai l'hommage de notre commune admiration à l'illustre Institution qui, au cours de ses deux siècles d'existence, a si puissamment contribué au progrès matériel et spirituel de l'homme moderne par son incessante activité dans tous les domaines de la Connaissance.

A history of the Jews in Mexico from 1521 to the present has never been written in any language. Few have written on any aspect of the life of the Mexican Jews during the colonial period. What little has been written has concentrated upon the life and family of the conquistador and Gobernador, don Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva (1539-1590) and one other Jew, Tomas Treviño de Sobremonte, who was burned alive in the Grand Auto de Fé of April 11, 1649.

The focusing of attention on the Carvajals has obscured the fact that Jews had preceded them into Mexico by 60 years and that Jews have inhabited Mexico uninterruptedly since 1521. Little note has been made of the fact that Jews had been victims of the Inquisition prior to 1590. The historian's task of gleaning information from documents and people usually results in an interpretation colored by his own background, scholarship, economic status, conviction and even religion. We submit the following as a clear example of the foregoing.

El propósito del presente artículo es principalmente el de sugerir, en lineas generales, la naturaleza de algunos de los problemas de mayor vigencia dentro del cuadro actual de la política latinoamericana. Ante la imposibilidad de ofrecer en este espacio una visión completa de la escena política, nos hemos limitado al análisis de cuatro tendencias que, según impresiones recogidas en dos viajes recientes por nuestro continente, constituyen, en nuestra opinión, factores primordiales de la actividad política en estos países.

La primera de estas tendencias, que el extranjero percibe de inmediato, es la ola creciente de sentimiento anti-norteamericano. Aunque este factor no haya alcanzado todavía proporciones desmedidas, debe constituir motivo de seria preocupación a todos los estudiosos de la realidad latinoamericana.

Development planning in Venezuela began in 1959 as a result of the changes in the economic conditions and in the political situation that occurred in 1958. In that year, on January 23, Pérez Jiménez government was deposed after 10 years of military rule. A provisional government was established and elections were held December 7, 1958 with Rómulo Betancourt (Democratic Action Party) winning a near majority (49%) of votes for Presidency. A coalition government of the Democratic Action party (AD), Democratic Republic Union party (URD), and the Christian social party (COPEI) was established according to a pre-election agreement among these parties.

The economic conditions also changed in 1958. Until that year Venezuela was able to achieve a high rate of economic growth (see Table I) and to accumulate considerable foreign exchange that prevented balance of payments crises such as those which interrupted economic development in other countries.

This article explores the role of informal customary institutions (usos y costumbres) in local public goods provision in Mexico. It argues that the presence of informal customary institutions offers submunicipal village communities considerable advantages in local distributive politics. Hamlet communities with dense customary institutions have higher collective action capacity to organize their citizens for small-scale protests in municipal centers, which grants them access to more social infrastructure projects controlled by municipal politicians. This article therefore suggests a novel theoretical mechanism through which customary institutions affect development outcomes: collective contentious action. The study tests the main empirical implications of this theory, drawing on an original survey of submunicipal community presidents in the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala and qualitative interviews.

Legislative allies are widely recognized as key to social movement success, but the emergence of their alliance with activists remains understudied. This article proposes a strategic approach to this phenomenon based on the cases of the environmental, labor, and LGBT+ movements in Chile and their allied legislators. According to this approach, an alliance emerges due to two necessary conditions. Movement organizations must display tactical capacity, which signals their adaptability and competence to participate in Congress. And a socially skilled leadership creates the trust required for movement leaders and legislators to cooperate during the lawmaking process. This approach emphasizes that alliances emerge from activists’ strategic efforts to build a social tie, whose effectiveness is mediated by legislators’ expectations and congressional norms. By specifying the strategic dimension of an alliance, this study highlights the capacity of activists to foster cooperative relations with state actors.

This article studies the influence of the antineoliberal social movements in Peru and Ecuador in the face of the Multiparty Trade Agreement (MTA) between both countries and the European Union (EU). To identify and analyze this influence, a transdisciplinary theoretical framework was created, integrating debates and concepts from social movement theory and critical international political economy. In Peru, the movement used European allies to establish their demands on the EU’s agenda, which resulted in increased pressure on the government to enforce labor rights and environmental standards. In Ecuador, the movement was able to establish food sovereignty and the rejection of free trade in the national constitution. As a result, the negotiations with the EU were delayed and Ecuador achieved certain exceptions in its adhesion protocol. Nevertheless, both movements were unable to maintain their influence, due to political and socioeconomic dynamics on the domestic and global levels.

Democratic institutions, ranging from constitutional provisions and electoral rules to judiciaries, have been important in improving the rights of citizens across the world. If institutions matter for human rights, then it stands to reason that institutions built specifically to protect human rights, like the human rights ombudsman, should matter too. Using a comparative case study approach, this article examines the effect of the human rights ombudsman at the regional level on several human rights measures in Latin America between 1982 and 2011. The results suggest that the presence of an ombudsman, and some of its design features, have had effects on some social and economic rights, in keeping with the broad mandate given to this office.

In their identification with Latin America, major foreign powers-including Japan—have always considered the Central American region-the zone of present-day Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica—of secondary or lesser significance. For more than three centuries Spain attached marginal importance to this area and during the last 150 years, the five states there have played minor, though occasionally dramatic, roles in U.S. relations with Latin America. For Japan, until quite recently, the region has rarely fostered more than the single interest of trade, and that with stuttering results.

Because of its potential as a canal route, Nicaragua first drew Japanese attention to the area, attention that entered the historical record in such roundabout fashion that it raised more questions than it supplied answers.