As Mexico’s drug war grows more deadly, the U.S. house approves a proposed regional security program involving the United States, Mexico, and Central America. But the Merida Initiative still faces political hurdles.

Sunday's vote in Puerto Rico served as the biggest of the last three Democratic primaries taking place, even though the territory can't participate in November elections. Hillary Clinton won by a substantial margin, but additional delegates secured by rival Barack Obama brought him closer to securing the Democratic nomination.

U.S. presidential candidates square off this week over the future of Washington's Cuba policy. Meanwhile, Raúl Castro's government has passed limited reforms since taking office. 

In an article for Viewpoints Americas, AS/COA President Susan Segal writes that, while free trade and NAFTA have taken the blame for manufacturing job losses in the U.S. Midwest, trade accounts for a substantial portion of U.S. growth that supports Midwestern manufacturing and agriculture.

“Trade agreements are not gifts of the United States [to another country] but gifts that we give ourselves,” said U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. In a period of economic uncertainty, trade is an important driver of re-energizing economic growth, she emphasized at the 2008 Washington Conference on the Americas.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez called for passage of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and improvements in Cuba’s human rights at COA's annual Washington Conference on the Americas. He announced a May 21, 2008 White House event to “shine a spotlight” on political prisoners in Cuba.

In the opening remarks at the 2008 Washington Conference, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon emphasized the “ultimately positive and hopeful” transformations that are occurring across the Americas and the importance of the U.S. to build policies around these changing dynamics.