Speak fraternally but carry a stick. Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
Even as its leaders talk, Latin America is re-arming—or rather some South American countries are. In the broader region, including Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, total defence spending shot up to $38 billion in 2007 from $25 billion [...]

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Yet, even though it has an economy comparable with America’s, it stands as a political dwarf in responding to the rapidly changing geopolitical environment. The combination of slavishly following the US lead (with the possible exception of the invasion of Iraq), its reluctance to contemplate badly needed strategic initiatives (as in the Middle East) or [...]

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 62, talks to SPIEGEL about why Brazil wants to join OPEC, his country’s biofuels program and Europe’s fear of Latin America’s shift to the left. more…

Photo Gallery: Brazil’s Popular President
A New Energy Leader: Brazil Wants to Join OPEC
Brazil’s Rainforests: Is Cheap Meat Bigger Threat to Amazon than Biofuels?
From [...]

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The Pentagon is going to resuscitate its Fourth Fleet, with the mission of patrolling Latin American and Caribbean waters.
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The plan to install a military base in Paraguay, close to Bolivian gas fields, was denounced by Brazil and Argentina. Ecuador has made it known that the American military base installed in Manta until 2009 will not [...]

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China’s growing wealth is good for the world, and there will come a time when the influence of the United States shrinks to the level of its share of the world population, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Friday.
Asked at a meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in Miami whether he regarded China’s growing influence [...]

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As anti-Americanism grows, China is learning the value of good PR and beating the United States at its own game.
Putin’s bear hug was no anomaly, and though done for good strategic reasons, also reflects Russian public opinion. Even as relations between Moscow and Washington continue to sour, China is growing more popular than ever; a [...]

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“Moscow’s developing bilateral security relations with Latin American governments have become a matter of some concern for Washington,” the study says. It contains both official reports and information leaks about Russia’s contacts with Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico on past and future deliveries of Russian weapons, including fighter and transport planes, helicopters, [...]

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FSM Contributing Editor Slater Bakhtavar warns that the United States needs to take a bold, aggressive step before the entire Latin American region is engulfed by the radical left. It is not just the negative sentiment these countries harbor towards the United States that is alarming, but also the alliances they are forging with terror-sponsoring [...]

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About ten thousand protestors rallied in Sao Paolo on Thursday against President Bush’s arrival in Brazil, chanting “Bush Go Home” and prompting police to fire tear gas (BBC). As the protests demonstrate, anti-Americanism runs deep in Latin America, and many are skeptical (LAT) of this new attention from the United States.
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A U.S. Navy medical ship, The Comfort, will make port calls in twelve countries in Central and South America this June offering medical care to an expected eighty-five thousand patients. Its deployment—which bears a striking similarity to the medical diplomacy practiced by longtime U.S. foe Cuba—is part of a modest package of aid to Latin [...]

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Iran’s plans to open a series of embassies in Latin America is a sign of Washington’s weakened position in the region and underscores the likelihood that the US has lost out to its geopolitical rivals.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi said on 27 February that his country would re-open embassies in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and [...]

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