"For eight years as vice president, Joe Biden served as the United States’ principal emissary to Latin America and the Caribbean. He took a total of 16 trips to the region, the last of which—to the Colombian city of Cartagena in December 2016—was a victory lap of sorts: Biden congratulated Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on his government’s hard-won peace deal with the Marxist-Leninist insurgency known as the FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia..." Read the full article here: [...]

"When Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, he will bring to the White House a deeper knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean than any of his recent predecessors. Biden traveled to the region a record 16 times while serving as Barack Obama’s vice president, and many more times before and since. In Biden, Latin Americans will have a partner in Washington who views our shared hemisphere not as the United States’ backyard but [...]

"Another analyst, Michael Camilleri of the Inter-American Dialogue, said, 'Biden's policy toward Venezuela will be grounded in reality rather than the wishful thinking that we've seen under the Trump administration.' "The reality, he said, is that Maduro presides over a dictatorship that systematically violates people's human rights, and the country is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis..." Read the full article here: Full Article

"'Joe Biden brings to the White House a deeper level of knowledge about Latin America and the Caribbean than any other president since the Cold War,' said Michael Camilleri, director of the Peter D. Bell Rule of Law Program of the Inter-American Dialogue, with headquarters in Washington. "'Concerns about democracy, human rights, and corruption will extend beyond Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba,' he added..." Read the full article here: Full Article

"'People have floated this idea in very general terms but we looked around and nobody has done the deep thinking on this to delineate what some of the concrete options might be for making this happen,' said Michael Camilleri, an international lawyer and former diplomat, who served in the Obama administration. 'There are workable ways to take this money which is in the process of being recovered and employ it for the benefit of the Venezuelan people,' he added...'" Read the [...]

"While regional experiences vary and it is still early to draw definitive conclusions, it is already clear that the pandemic is exposing and exacerbating many of Latin America’s preexisting challenges. Income inequality, labor informality, and weak social safety nets obligated millions of citizens to choose between protecting their health and feeding their families. Strained public finances and regressive tax systems limited the steps governments could take to stimulate their economies and support those most in need. Weak public services and discrimination [...]

"'In the best case, it leads to paralysis and marginalization, and that’s already sidelining the most important institution at the most critical moment,' Michael Camilleri, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue policy center, said of Mr. Claver-Carone’s candidacy. 'In the worst case, the bank becomes a vehicle for a fairly radical right-wing agenda that further divides the hemisphere...'" Read the full article here: Full Article

"President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, traveled to Bogota this week, ostensibly to announce up to $5 billion in financing under the White House’s new United States-Colombia Growth Initiative. The money had been pledged months ago by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, and it is contingent on investment-worthy projects, in any case. But the timing of the visit was hardly a coincidence. One of the officials traveling with O’Brien was Mauricio Claver-Carone, the White House’s point man on Latin [...]

“‘There is a moral imperative to look closely at this issue. The need in Venezuela is growing and the scale of the corruption is industrial,' said Michael Camilleri, who is writing a report on the forfeiture funds for the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes democracy in Latin America. "He estimated that more than $1 billion in looted money is currently held in the United States, either in frozen banks accounts or being held by in government forfeiture funds. [...]