During the Cold War era, the United States feared the spread of communism and, in some cases, overthrew democratically elected governments perceived at the time as becoming left-wing or unfriendly to U.S. interests. Examples include the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état and the support of the Nicaraguan Contras. The 1980s saw a shift of power towards corporations, and a polarization of the political election systems of many of the Latin American nations. As of late, several left-wing parties have gained power through elections, and Venezuela under the late Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro has been particularly critical of U.S. foreign policy; Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador currently have governments sometimes seen as aligned with Venezuela, while Cuba and the U.S. continue to have non-existent relations. Left-wing governments in nations such as Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay are considerably more centrist and neutral; Argentina is a major non-NATO ally, but it is one of the most anti-U.S. nations in the world, having long since suspended its automatic alignment policy and distanced itself from the U.S., and is still embroiled in the Falkland Islands dispute with the U.K., the U.S.'s closest ally. The right-wing governments in Mexico, Panama, Chile, and Colombia have closer relations with the U.S., with Mexico being the U.S's largest economic partner in Latin America and its third largest overall trade partner after Canada and China. Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed with Canada and Mexico in 1994, the United States enjoys virtual duty-free trade with Mexico. Since 1994, the United States has signed other notable free-trade agreements with Chile in 2004, Peru in 2007, and most recently Colombia and Panama in 2011. Americans of Hispanic or Latin American ancestry comprise more than 15% of the total population of the United States or more than 50 million people, the vast majority of which are of Mexican ancestry. All of Latin America is still part of the Organization of American States, and with the exception of Mexico (who withdrew by 2004), are currently bound by the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Latin_American_relations Tina Rosenberg (born April 14, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American journalist and the author of three books. For one of them, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism (1995), she won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the National Book Award for Nonfiction. As a youth outside Lansing, Michigan, Rosenberg was active in her synagogue and regional Jewish youth groups, including a 1976--1977 term as Songleader for Michigan State Temple Youth. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Northwestern University. In 1987 she won a MacArthur Fellowship, which she used to move to South America. Her experiences there led to her first published book, Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America (1991). Rosenberg's work has appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. She is a fellow at the World Policy Institute and an editorial writer for The New York Times who frequently writes for The New York Times Magazine. Her latest book is Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World (2011). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Rosenberg

• published: 17 Mar 2014
• views: 8043