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Financiera para el Bienestar / Gobierno de México

This briefing offers an update on remittance growth in Mexico for 2024 by looking past trends as well as key issues. Additionally, the memo shows how government policy has sought to intervene at the point of sending or receiving in certain ways, and that the overall upward trend is sustained by migration and remittance frequency. Lastly, the memo signals a slowdown in principal sent that is partly associated with microeconomic inflationary trends.Read more +

jon_chica / Adobe Stock / Extended License

The Andean migrant population in the US is remitting 50% of all flows to their homelands in the Andes, over US$10 billion in 2022 from the US and US$11 billion in 2023. Within this context, the following briefing offers a characterization of migration from the Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.Read more +

The following note by Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development program at the Inter-American Dialogue, offers some observations pertaining to a migration and remittance outlook in 2024.Read more +

Jorge Mejía Peralta / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 DEED

Nicaragua's political changes in 2024 will depend on both the internal and external responses to the dictatorial radicalization, as well as to how the international community redefines its policy toward and relationship with the Ortega-Murillo regime.Read more +

EFE / Lenin Nolly via Infobae

In Latin America, the rise of so-called “outsiders” with anti-system or anti-establishment agendas has had significant consequences for the rule of law.Read more +

Servicio Nacional de Migración de Panamá / Twitter

This piece offers a look at the current migration trends and points to large differences that characterize this situation as a crisis: the scale, composition, nature, and management of migration is outside conventional or historical patterns. Aspects of this unprecedented migration pattern are not within the control of government authorities and policy makers. The recent migration wave to the US border has been referred to as a crisis. Media references point to the drama of people arriving and passing through the Darien, Central America, and Mexico to characterize the problem. Others have pointed out the increasing arrivals into US cities in numbers that are hard to manage by local communities.Read more +

Lisa Ferdinando

Given the huge demands on Washington  – domestic and international  – and today’s ravaged, fragmented, and leaderless region, this is probably not the right time for bold, ambitious initiatives. But the Biden administration should move quickly to renew partnerships with select countries, emphasizing recovery from Covid-19 and restoring economic and political stability.Read more +

European Union / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0

Making climate change a central theme of a renewed US focus on the root causes of migration from the Northern Triangle presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to address its border dilemma while simultaneously advancing its climate-related foreign policy goals. Read more +

Christopher Dilts / Gage Skidmore

The country is perhaps more profoundly and bitterly polarized than ever, with a high level of mutual distrust. Trumpism proved not to be a fleeting phenomenon, but a movement that is likely to persist and be part of the US political landscape for some time.Read more +

Cherie Cullen / Wikimedia / Public Domain

Brent Scowcroft was truly one of the giants of the US foreign policy establishment. We admire his wisdom, prowess as a strategist, and humility as a person. Like few others, he understood the importance of building and sustaining US alliances and respectful relations. At the Dialogue, we are inspired by Scowcroft’s rich legacy.Read more +

Credit: Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela

Perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives—inside Venezuela and across its borders—now depend on whether our leaders can put aside their battle for control, engage politically in good faith, and momentarily put the wellbeing of citizens first by taking the urgent steps needed to combat the virus crisis and its consequences.Read more +

Armando Simonin / Flickr / CC By-NC 2.0

The actions, or lack thereof, of the presidents of the region’s two biggest countries, Mexico and Brazil, have drawn particular scrutiny, casting a fresh spotlight on populism in Latin America and its particular vulnerabilities in the face of a global pandemic.Read more +

Palácio do Planalto / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

It is hard to imagine exactly what kind of deal Bolsonaro and Trump, both anomalous, unconventional leaders, drawn to one another mainly by temperament and ideology, could strike with another. Could they really end up accomplishing what previous governments in both countries had failed to achieve? Could they forge an alliance between two countries that have long maintained a rather distant and often distrustful relationship?Read more +

Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0

What the Bush administration showed is how crucial “style” is in diplomacy. Genuine and regular consultations are key to building trust and a sense of community. This is true generally, but especially so in Latin America, where the asymmetry with the United States is so pronounced and has strongly shaped inter-American relations, often with unhappy results.Read more +

Presidencia de la República Mexicana / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

After little more than a year of tension-filled talks, US and Mexican negotiators have reached a preliminary agreement that would largely preserve, in both concept and content, the original NAFTA. But for both Mexico and Canada, the uncertain and painful renegotiation of NAFTA comes with high costs beyond the expected economic losses. Resolving the NAFTA dispute will not repair the damage Trump has inflicted on US relations with both Mexico and Canada. Read more +