The Latin American Program and its institutes on Mexico and Brazil serve as a bridge between the United States and Latin America, providing a nonpartisan forum for experts from throughout the region and the world to discuss the most critical issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program sponsors research, conferences, and publications aimed at deepening the understanding of Latin American and Caribbean politics, history, economics, culture, and U.S.-Latin American relations. By bringing pressing regional concerns to the attention of opinion leaders and policymakers, the Program contributes to more informed policy choices in Washington, D.C., and throughout the Hemisphere.

Our major projects focus on:

• Democratic Governance
  
• Citizen Security
  
• Trade
  
• Foreign Policy and International Relations
  
• Brazil
  
• Mexico

Resource Pages
Seguridad ciudadana en las Américas The blog, created and maintained by the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, serves to bring attention to the work of researchers, security specialists, journalists, civil society organizations and politicians throughout the region.

Publications

Conference Reports The Outlook for Energy Reform in Latin America 2009 Author: Duncan Wood In July of 2009, the Latin American Program and its institutes on Brazil and Mexico, along with the Global Energy Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. convened four experts from the region to talk about their perspectives on the potential for reform in four leading oil producing nations: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. This paper provides a summary of the event, and in doing so evaluates the current climate for significant reform in these four Latin American nations. Download File (pdf) The Political Economy of Uruguayan International Insertion Author: Edited by José Raúl Perales This report explores the policy choices and constraints Uruguay’s policy makers confront as they adapt to the challenges of the current global crisis. Policy options such as a free trade agreement with the United States, reforms to the MERCOSUR customs union, and other trade policy alternatives are debated. In addition, experts analyze the distributional consequences of Uruguayan trade policy choices, and thus the political feasibility of these various options. Download File (pdf)

Update on the Americas - Democratic Governance and the 'New Left' Poverty, Inequality and the New Left in Latin America Author: Nora Lustig This is a research paper, in English, commissioned for the conference, by Argentine economist Nora Lustig, who provides an overview of trends in poverty and inequality throughout Latin America, comparing left and non-left governments, as well as left governments and their non-leftist predecessors in their own countries. Download File (pdf)

Wilson Center Reports on the Americas Iran in Latin America: Threat or 'Axis of Annoyance'? Author: Edited by Cynthia Arnson, Haleh Esfandiari, and Adam Stubits The essays in this report reflect an effort to provide background and context for understanding Iran's relations with Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; the articles emphasize the foreign policy objectives and strategies of Latin American nations as well as the strategic objectives of the Iranian government. Originally presented at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center in July 2008, the papers have since been revised, translated, and updated. Download File (pdf)

Latin American Program
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
Email: lap@wilsoncenter.org
Tel: 202/691-4030