35 West

International diplomatic and economic pressure on Maduro will be decisive in determining whether his ongoing attempts to steal the results of Venezuela's July 28 election will prevail, or if there is potential for change ahead of the official inauguration in January 2025. While the United States has condemned the results in Venezuela, regional heavyweights like Brazil have taken a different approa...

In recent years, feminist foreign policy has emerged as a transformative approach to international relations, focusing on the promotion of gender equality, human rights, and inclusive governance on the global stage. One of the key drivers of feminist foreign policy is its ability to reshape the way states interact with one another. Unlike traditional policies that often prioritize military strengt...

Bound together by geography, commerce, and cultural ties, the Caribbean region is often referred to as the United States “third border.” For this reason, the security challenges that impact the Caribbean should also be front-of-mind for the United States, especially as Caribbean countries face rising levels of violence and instability, fueled by the drug trade. Growing criminal violence, endemic c...

China’s economic strategy has evolved significantly over the past decade. Where once the PRC served as “the world’s factory,” today Chinese companies are increasingly looking to internationalize their operations. Latin America has been emblematic of these changes, in particular Chinese investment flows into regional electric vehicle manufacturing have raised eyebrows among economic security analys...

Throughout the Western Hemisphere ports play a critical role in fostering economic growth, and serving as gateways through which the region engages a world that is eager for it to play a greater role in global value chains. At the same time, the region’s ports have made headlines for their role in the burgeoning trans-oceanic trade in illicit narcotics, gold, timber, and wildlife, while port citie...

Space has long been colored by divides between the “haves” who possess the economic and technological wherewithal to make it to orbit and beyond, and the “have-nots” who lack these capabilities. This divide in turn has historically played out between the Global North and the Global South, with the latter grouping feeling as if they have been excluded from sharing in the benefits of space explorati...

Firearms trafficking is fueling violence across the hemisphere by providing criminal groups the arms and means necessary to violently expand their businesses, threaten citizens, and even challenge government forces. While the United States is by far the largest single supplier of firearms to Latin America and the Caribbean, a plethora of other sources, from unsecured military and police stockpiles...

Almost every corner of the Western Hemisphere has been touched by the monumental challenge of irregular migration. However, addressing the multifaceted and context-specific manifestations of irregular migration is no small feat. An effective response to the migratory movements we are observing therefore hinges on cooperation with partners in the region at all levels, on-the-ground knowledge, and c...

The global energy transition will require a simultaneous mining revolution. However, reaching the levels of production needed to achieve net zero goals is no small feat, while China’s dominance in the midstream of critical minerals supply chains presents risks to both the United States and minerals producers in the Western Hemisphere alike. In this episode, Christopher Hernandez-Roy sits down with...

On June 2, nearly 60 million people cast their votes for the next president of Mexico, making it the largest election in Mexico’s history. However, the race was also marred by electoral violence, with more than three dozen candidates or prospective candidates murdered over the electoral season. Intimidation, coercion, and threats to family members further compelled many prospective candidates to w...

This episode of 35 West originally aired on December 20, 2023. Now, just days away from the election, many of topics discussed have only grown in relevance over the course of the official campaign season. Mexico's general election on June 2 of 2024 promises to be a seminal moment for Mexican politics and society on a number of fronts, in particular, the race has made headlines as a contest between...

In 2023, U.S. trade with Mexico grew to nearly $800 billion, leading Mexico to surpass both Canada and China as the United States’ number one trading partner. While U.S.-Mexico trade has long been a pillar of North American economic competitiveness, Washington’s efforts to move trade away from China in favor of nearshoring and friendshoring in the Western Hemisphere, coupled with the advantages of...

On Sunday, May 5, Panamanians will cast their votes to determine the next president, as well as all members of the National Assembly. With a crowded field of candidates vying for the presidency, and only a single round to determine the victor, it promises to be a divided field. The elections are also taking place within a deeply polarized context, as Panama has been rocked by mass protests against...

Looking across the hemisphere today, crime and insecurity appears on the march, with transnational criminal groups ascendant from Mexico to the Caribbean and southern cone. In light of this, it is important to reflect upon the history of U.S.-LAC security cooperation, where we have seen two major, multi-year security initiatives launched and concluded in the past 25 years, Plan Colombia, and the M...

Semiconductors form the building blocks of modern digital life. Chips govern everything from missile guidance systems to the headlights in your car, and the fight for the cutting edge of this technology appears to be entering a new phase. The United States, in partnership with allies like Japan and the Netherlands, has sought to cut off China’s access to advanced chip designs and semiconductor man...

Haiti’s years-long political and security crisis entered a new phase last week when Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Haiti’s acting head of state since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, announced his resignation. Now, Haiti faces a period of profound uncertainty, with a serious power vacuum in government, ascendant criminal groups within striking distance of the halls of state power, and in...

Citizens from LAC countries have also played a more direct role in the conflict as foreign fighters for both sides. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv publish exact data on the number or nationality of LAC fighters who join their ranks, but estimates range from several hundred to more than a thousand fighters total spread across each front.  On February 23, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, sat down with Elizabeth...

On Sunday, February 4, Salvadorans headed to the polls to cast their votes in what virtually all analysts predicted would yield a landslide victory for incumbent President Nayib Bukele. However, official confirmation of Bukele’s victory was interrupted as the president declared the opposition was “pulverized” before the final transmission of the votes had been completed and announced by the Suprem...

Last month, Ecuador was rocked by a series of attacks carried out by members of criminal gangs. Over the course of two days of grueling violence, inmates rioted and took over prisons, gangs detonated car bombs across the country, and armed gunmen even stormed a live television broadcast in the violence-wracked city of Guayaquil. Then a few days later, the prosecutor investigating the attack on the...

In the months since Bernardo Arevalo's upset victory in Guatemala's presidential elections, a small elite often referred as “the pact of the corrupt,” has tried to derail the president-elect from taking office. In response, the United States imposed visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalan congressmen and business leaders, while the Organization of American States, other international organizati...

En esta edición especial en español, Christopher Hernández-Roy, Director Adjunto y Senior Fellow del Programa sobre las Américas, conversa con Yaxys Cires, Director de Estrategia del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos sobre los resultados del último Examen Periódico Universal de Cuba del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de Naciones Unidas. Analizan la dicotomía entre la retórica gubernamental y la...

Mexico's general election on June 2 of 2024 promises to be a seminal moment for Mexican politics and society on a number of fronts, in particular, the race has made headlines as a contest between two women, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum on one hand, and Senator Xóchitl Gálvez on the other, promising to herald Mexico’s first female president. But the race is also a test of the staying power o...

En este episodio especial en español, Laura Delgado López, becaria visitante del programa de las Américas, se sienta a conversar con Victoria Valdivia Cerda, profesora de la Academia Nacional de Estudios Políticos y Estratégicos (ANEPE) y experta en política y derecho espacial. Ellas conversan sobre las distintas formas en que los países latinoamericanos enfocan su actividad espacial, incluyendo e...

On October 29, more than ten thousand elected positions, from local councils to departmental governors, throughout Colombia went up for election. The results confirmed predictions of setbacks for President Gustavo Petro’s governing Pacto Histórico coalition, which lost races in key cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali, in addition to several governorships. In this special episode, Juliana Rub...

On Sunday, October 15, following a race that appeared neck-and-neck at several points, Daniel Noboa emerged victorious as Ecuador’s youngest elected president. Noboa’s victory over opponent Luisa González, the handpicked representative of former president Rafael Correa, signaled a desire for a change among the electorate, not only a departure from the outgoing Lasso government, but also a rejectio...