"Latin America's 'democratic generation' remains satisfied with democracy," says AS/COA's Christopher Sabatini, discussing the attitudes of under-35 year-olds, a demographic that makes up 60 percent of the region.

"There is a significant opportunity in the wake of the earthquake to build Haiti into a modern, economically stable, environmentally-sound nation," says COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth.

"The strategic equation in the Americas is changing and a lot is riding on Secretary Clinton's visit," says COA's Eric Farnsworth. "Managing the U.S. relationship with Brazil, a rising global power with big ambitions, is one of the most important strategic issues in the hemisphere," he added.

"Having taken decisions that are insular and singularly unhelpful to the US, Latin Americans cannot then complain when the US administration prioritizes other areas for its attentions," argues COA's Eric Farnsworth in this letter to the editor, published in the Financial Times.

With its vast tropical forests, Latin America can greatly benefit from efforts to limit deforestation, writes COA's Nicole Spencer in Poder.

The Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts could have an impact on U.S. policy in Latin America, writes COA's Eric Farnsworth. He adds that "an administration that has shown little appetite for pending trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, for example, will not likely decide that now is a good time to take action."

"Be it an earthquake in Haiti or the violent drug war fought in Mexico today, the United States can ill afford to turn a blind eye to our neighbors in this hemisphere," writes former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza in The Dallas Morning News.