Over the last 5-10 years, Latin America has been the theater for some of the most substantial political changes the world has witnessed since the fall of the Soviet Union. From the self-proclaimed Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, to the first indigenous president of Bolivia, to the growing rejection of loans and structural adjustment programs from the International Monetary Fund in countries such as Argentina, Latin America is marking a turn away from neoliberalism and the “Washington consensus.”

What is the true nature of these shifts? Where do they come from and what do they represent? And where is Latin America going? Our panel of intellectuals actively involved in relations between the United States and Latin America will share their different perspectives on the significance of the New Latin America. The economic basis for the changes will be amply discussed in relatively easy-to-understand terms.

The panelists will be:

Henry F. Carey, associate professor of political science at Georgia State University and member of the Board of Directors of the Haiti Democracy Project;

Jennifer L. McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center and professor of political science at Georgia State University; and

Mark Weisbrot, economist, president of Just Foreign Policy and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research;

This session will directly address current problems facing the people of our world, placing them in the international perspective obtained from Latin America, where another world is being constructed. We currently do not have plans to offer interpretation. Handouts will be available in Spanish and English.

[Note: Mark Weisbrot, the proposer of this session, should be registered as one of the 3 persons under Just Foreign Policy’s organizational registration. We understand that Jo Ann Cooper is in the process of adding him, but have not yet received confirmation of that.]