A strong, stable Mexican economy, led by a government committed to working with the US, is clearly in America’s interests. Trump would be well advised to work quickly to ensure that the NAFTA renegotiations he has demanded generate this outcome.
Three decades after this tiny Central American nation became the prize in a Cold War battle with Washington, Russia is once again planting its flag in Nicaragua. Over the past two years, the Russian government has added muscle to its security partnership here, selling tanks and weapons, sending troops, and building facilities intended to train Central American forces to fight drug trafficking.
A remarkable project is underway in Colombia. The signing of the contracts for the Colombia Workforce Social Impact Bond (SIB) will target skills training and employment support to vulnerable, unemployed individuals in Bogotá, Cali, and Pereira.
Enrique Krauze, one of Mexico’s leading intellectuals, reflects on the impact of the US-Mexican war of 1846: “The United States invasion of Mexico in 1846 inflicted a painful wound that, in the 170 years that followed, turned into a scar. Donald Trump has torn it open again…But the best and most just reparation would be American immigration reform that could open the road to citizenship for the descendants of those Mexicans who suffered the unjust loss of half their territory.”
