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Candidate Obama was upfront about his positions on Latin America. He said pointblank that he would maintain the embargo on

Candidate Obama was upfront about his positions on Latin America. He said pointblank that he would maintain the embargo on

Gun violence has plagued Latin America since the early days of the colonial era. In June, archaeologists excavating an old Inca cemetery near Lima found a skull marred by a pair of small, round holes—evidence of the oldest gunshot victim in the Americas yet discovered. The musket, in this case likely fired during the final battle for the Incan empire in 1536, was brought over by the Spaniards, and in a sense, the invasion of gun technology continues.

Since 1901, when the first duties between puerto Rico and the United States were abolished, the island's economy has served as a kind of experiment in what we today call neoliberalism. Puerto Rico has long been notable for its deep integration into the North American system, the maximal fluidity of labor and capital flows between it and the U.S. mainland, and its dependence on U.S. imports. This century-old brand of colonial capitalism has been adjusted and readjusted over the years, often in response to system-wide shocks—most recently and dramatically in 2006, when the insular government ran out of money and temporarily laid off about 80,000 public employees.

"There will be violence, there will be clashes." So said Bolivian opposition lawmaker Fernando Messmer in November, as six of the country's departments staged a general strike to protest the rewriting of the national constitution. As we go to print, at least three people have been killed in riots on the streets of Sucre, where the Constituent Assembly meets, after right-wing demonstrations turned into riots. The assembly has been meeting for the past year with little to show for its efforts, largely because the party right has managed to gum up the process with dilatory maneuvers and outright obstruction, while its supporters have taken to the streets, often resorting to violence and harassment.

The social struggles of Brazil's landless agricultural workers and small producers over the past two decades have developed in the

In July 1997, the paramilitary group known as the United Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC) went on a grisly killing

In many parts of Latin America, rural social movements have taken center stage in their nations' politics. In Brazil, the

Though the victory of Alfonso Portillo in Guatemala's December presidential runoff was fully expected, his resounding victory—and that of the

In Peru the word "petroleum" is part of the political lexicon. It was the most widely used term during the

Two international human rights bodies—the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the Inter-American Human Rights Court—are examining charges that the Dominican

A revised version of NACLAts first research paper, "The Violence of Domination: U.S. Power and the Dominican Republic," by Fred