Our go-to person for Latin America was once Mary Anastasia O’Grady of The Wall Street Journal. Her work has been hit-or-miss behind the WSJ paywall so I now turn to Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald. He specializes in the region and his work is high-quality.
Oppenheimer‘s survey of Latin America for 2018 focuses on these six issues:
- Six nations, including Mexico and Brazil will hold presidential elections.
- Trump is likely to announce if the U.S. will withdraw from the North America Free Trade Association (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.
- Cuba’s Raul Castro has promised to retire this year, from at least some of his leadership positions.
- The Summit of the Americas will happen in Lima, Peru, in April; it is suggested Trump may not attend.
- Argentina will host the G-20 meeting in November, perhaps Trump’s first visit to Latin America as President.
- Venezuela will continue to melt-down, and its people will flee to neighboring countries.
