"While U.S.-Latin America relations are not bad, they have deteriorated. The relative importance of the United States in Latin America has declined. The challenge for the United States is how to revitalize that relationship."
T
hat's CAF President (and IOA Board member) Enrique García’s executive summary of U.S.-Latin American relations. Enrique not only described the challenge for the United States, but the task of the Institute of the Americas.
The IOA Board met in La Jolla on January 16-17. Board members came from Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States. Their time, energy and dedication to the Institute reflect that of Ted Gildred when he founded the Institute 29 years ago. Their guidance has been invaluable for me over the past three months. Welcome and special thanks to new board members Alberto Vollmer, George Liparidis and Javade Chaudhri. And we bid a very special farewell to Darcel Hulse, who has been on our Board for 12 years. His advice and counsel have been extraordinary.
The Board honored my predecessor Jeffery Davidow for his eight years at the helm by donating generously to the Davidow Initiative to provide continuing funding for the programs Jeff initiated, including our community outreach program, our journalism training program and the science camp for Latin American high school science prodigies.
The Board took a break to tour the Calit2 facilities here at UCSD. Calit2 brings together cutting-edge technologies that can enable advances across multiple sectors and industries. It is the marriage of huge bandwidth, linked computers, extraordinary video technology real time linkages to researchers around the world. Calit2 Director Larry Smarr is working to link Mexico into this network.
We also put the Board members to work. Paulo Sotero, Director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in D.C., provided his analysis of President Dilma Rousseff's presidency at a session for students and friends of the Institute. Venezuelan business executive and TED Talk veteran Alberto Vollmer explained "Project Alcatraz" which reaches gang members through restorative justice, employment and rugby. Vollmer also met with the executive director of USA Rugby to share ideas.
2012 will be an exciting one for the hemisphere politically with the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, in mid-April and presidential elections in the Dominican Republic (May 10), Mexico (July 1), Venezuela (October 7), and of course, the United States (November 6).
The next few will also be busy for the Institute. I am writing this note after two excellent programs yesterday: Malin Burnham and James Clark spoke on their vision for the San Diego-Tijuana border. Then University of Havana professor Carlos Alzugaray spoke on the process of economic and political change in Cuba.
We have a seminar here on “Women: From Poverty to Power” on February 6-10 and an Energy Roundtable in Bogota on February 9. Dr. Yuan Peng, the Assistant President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, will speak at the Institute on February 14. Financial analyst Luis Maizel will talk about the impact of the economic crisis on Latin America on February 15. We are finalizing the details for U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Mexico and Canada Matt Rooney on February 23. Jeremy Martin and I head to Calgary at the end of the month to talk to energy companies about the Institute and the May 21-23 La Jolla Energy Conference.
Join the conversation on the Americas. I am on Twitter @ioa_shapiro. The Institute’s Twitter feed is @iamericas.
Finally I wish to welcome aboard our newest Institute staff members Denisse Fernandez and Juan Carlos Posadas in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
