The Foreign Policy Association Speaks to Latin America

In a few past events associated with the Foreign Policy Association, many organizations associated with the region brought Latin American ideas to New York and have seen the point of view of many of Latin America's most innovative leaders addressing internal and external issues via the FPA and associated institutions:

Most recently Heraldo Munoz, the Chilean Ambassador to the UN gave a talk at Grupo Santander in New York regarding the release of his new book, A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and its lessons. Munoz worked in the UN Security Council during the beginning of the Iraq war and under Kofi Annan's term as UN Secretary General. His book details the difficulty in dealing with an increasingly independent US security policy and a UN that was facing many challenges in maintaining its role as a viable international institution among the inability to contain the world's remaining superpower. A speech by Munoz was given at Grupo Santander to compliment the launch of his latest book. It can be found on the FPA website here.

The FPA's Children Blog last week reported on the talk given by Alejandro Toledo, the former President of Peru in April of 2008. In his talk at the Americas Society, President Toledo spoke about Democracy and Populism in the political process in Latin America and how his role as one of the first indigenous leaders to be elected in a Latin American nation reflects the new populism now present in the political process of many nations in the region. With the constant problems of poverty and new democracies in Latin America, the votes of many of Latin America's poor has created drastic political change within many countries such as Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela. Alejandro Toledo, the eventual successor to Peru's indicted former President Fujimori was one of the first leaders to not only lead a quiet revolution against the controlling powers in his country, but also become one of the first indigenous leaders to come from a background of poverty and child labour, to lead his country as President. A video of the talk given by President Toledo can be seen on the FPA's website here.

In two complimentary blogs on Alejandro Toledo's talk, Cassandro Clifford of the FPA's Children Blog posted on Alejandro Toledo's personal history as a child labourer and how the issue affects many in poverty in Peru. In a second post, the issue surrounding child labour itself in Peru is detailed in a thoughtful and informative posting after the Toledo post. The posting about Toledo can be found here on the Children Blog, and the accompanying post can be found here. Thank you Cassandra for all your work.