Research Library

Governments of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) have called for a discussion on the decriminalization of marijuana after a pilot study found that legalized medical marijuana sales could boost the region’s ailing economies. As a result, the topic was an important agenda item at a CARICOM Inter-Sessional Heads of State Summit held in March 2014. Two aspects of decriminalization were discussed: decriminalization for medical use and decriminalization for recreational use.

Economic growth in recent years has not translated to improvements in the quality of life for most Peruvians. On the contrary, it has shed light on the inaccessibility of basic needs such as education, health care, employment, better remuneration, and implementation of projects that generate resources or jobs, as well as environmental concerns related to the extractive activities in the nation. In addition to these concerns, the high rate of corruption and urban insecurity generates a perception of uncertainty that if not properly addressed could exacerbate crisis situations in different regions of the country.

Achieving the decentralization of citizen responsibility is the biggest challenge not only in waste management but also in public services as a whole. This type of decentralization refers not to the transfer of government functions to citizens, but rather to the need for the citizen to see herself as an active participant in the urban system.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, rural to urban migration over the past few decades has led to an important demographic transition. In 2010, the urban population was estimated around 79.4 percent and is expected to reach close to 90 percent by 2050. As people concentrate in urban areas, cities will have to manage and deal with increased social, economic and environmental pressure. Already, food security presents itself as a priority, given that millions of people in the region face hunger and malnutrition.

After more than five decades, China's central government is modernizing, standardizing and regulating the Hukou system of registration that largely tied farmers to the lands on which they were born, and kept them out of the cities and away from competing with urban residents for jobs and benefits. China is now officially gradually phasing out its highly unequal two-tier system of citizenship.

President Obama’s commencement address at West Point on Wednesday was clearly aimed at deflecting rising criticism of his administration’s foreign policy. In particular, the speech was designed to address complaints that U.S. foreign policy under Obama has lacked strategic coherence and signaled a U.S. retreat from the international arena. The administration promoted the address as a platform for the president to describe his “vision” for U.S. foreign policy during the remainder of his term. To the extent that the speech did present a vision, it was not a particularly new one.

José Woldenberg, who served as the first president of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, traced the country's transition to democracy at an April 2014 lecture hosted by the Baker Institute Mexico Center. The center's Lisa Guaqueta and Kristin Foringer explain why Mexico's experience is distinct from similar processes elsewhere in the world.

Erika de la Garza, program director of the Latin America Initiative, discusses the political fragmentation and need for coalition building in Costa Rica, where the recent presidential election resulted in a runoff.