All of my predecessors over the past five decades attempted to make peace with the FARC, the largest and oldest guerrilla army to have emerged in Latin America. They all failed. So why has this peace process proved successful?
In April of this year, U.N. member states will meet at for the first U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Drugs since 1998. At the last meeting the international community committed to achieving a “drug free world.” This time it can move into the post “war on drugs” era.
Yes, we women have made some great strides. We now have Banca Kristal just for us. It’s painted pink! And the number of women in world leadership roles you can now count on two hands instead of one. But women are still missing from the negotiating tables, the peace conferences, the economic forums and the United Nations Security Council.
Luis Almagro has been secretary general of an institution generally regarded as moribund: the Organization of American States. Thanks to him, it is rapidly becoming relevant again.
Many are speculating that the “pink tide” of populism, which has pushed the region to the left over the last 15 years, now is turning. But is it really populism that these countries are rejecting?
As important as a global accord is, the most influential actors on climate change have been cities and businesses, and leaders in both groups made it clear that they will not wait for an agreement that, if it comes together, won't even take full effect until 2020.
For some governments, improving their country's standing in the World Bank's Doing Business survey has become a national priority. Yet the results of such efforts sometimes are deceptive.
The IVF controversy is one of the saddest episodes of our contemporary democratic history. The country has gone from forbidding the IVF by order of a domestic court, to allowing it by order of an international court: Justices, not citizens, have made all the decisions.
When it comes to Costa Rica’s global competitiveness, we all want and need more people who are able to communicate effectively in English, as there is a direct correlation both here and abroad between the number of meaningful job opportunities and the English-language proficiency level of the workforce.
