Last Thursday, I joined the Global Insights panel on Latin American politics under the Biden administration and in the midst of the pandemic. It’s a challenging period for the region, which continues to have some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the world. There are also major challenges for Biden, including negotiating with challenging counterparts in regional powers Brazil and Mexico, growing migration pressures in Central America, fires in the Amazon, the continued crisis in Venezuela, and so on. In addition to the public health crisis, the pandemic has caused massive social and economic damage in Latin America: increasing poverty and inequality, erasing decades of gains in education, and worsening reliance on informal employment in many countries. The panel, including Julia Buxton, Luis Schenoni, Matthew Taylor, and Juliano Cortinhas discussed all that and more.
Tom Long, PhD 
isn’t a major consideration…how Countries can be in such a good state, economy, freedom, etc that people have no need to migrate?
Hi Jim! I think that independently of migration, US citizens and Central Americans should want better economic, political, and social conditions in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Millions of people there are affected by high rates of poverty and crime and violence, as well as venal elites, entrenched corruption, and abusive security forces. But those problems have long histories (in which the US is also involved), and there are no quick fixes. On the other hand, human mobility is a longstanding feature of the region, pre-dating current borders. This has been a reality of agriculture and later industry and later services in the Southwest United States for a century. So, certainly the policy aim should be to improve conditions in northern Central America to better the lives of people there, but migration won’t disappear–and I think it would be bad for the US if it did. How to regulate that migration…well, that’s a huge and important question.
Just finished listening to the panel discussion. I really enjoyed the varied topics. Of course it is great to hear and see you but the whole discussion was fascinating to me. I am going to forward it to several people who I think will enjoy it. Love,Mom
On Wed, Feb 3, 2021 at 9:30 AM Tom Long, University of Warwick wrote:
> tsl2m5 posted: ” Last Thursday, I joined the Global Insights panel on > Latin American politics under the Biden administration and in the midst of > the pandemic. It’s a challenging period for the region, which continues to > have some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the wo” >